Question

Want to be a happy married couple? Consider having kids．

A new study found that having children boosts happiness．And the more, literally, the merrier．

But unmarried couples shouldn’t expect to find greater happiness through child-raising．The study, published in the Oct．14 online edition of the Journal of Happiness Studies, suggests that having children has little or no effect on boosting happiness among couples who aren’t hitched(和谐)．

The findings contradict previous research that suggested that having more offspring doesn't lead to greater happiness and might even make people less satisfied with their lives．One theory behind the conclusion is that parents don’t receive many rewards in return for the hard work of raising children．

The new study, however, notes that parents say children are one of the most important things in their lives, if not the most important．

The study found that life satisfaction for married people -- women especially -- goes up the more kids they have．Single, separated and co-habiting people, by contrast, report negative experiences．

“One is tempted to advance that children make people rich under the ‘right conditions’ -- a time in life when people feel that they are ready, or at least willing, to enter parenthood,” Dr．Luis Angeles, of the University of Glasgow in Scotland, said in a news release from the journal’s publisher．“This time can come at very different moments for different individuals, but a likely signal of its approach may well be the act of marriage．”

1．The underlined word “offspring” in the fourth paragraph can be replaced by _____．

     A．generation              B．children        

       C．mothers          D．marriage

2．The best title of this passage should be _______．

     A．Children Are the Source of Happiness

     B．Are You Happy Married Couple?

     C．Married with Children Paves Way to Happiness

     D．The Right Conditions of Having Children

3．Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

     A．The more children women have, the happier they are．

     B．The more children the married women have, the more unsatisfied they become．

     C．Raising kids can give any person happiness．

     D．Without marriage, one woman had better not raise kids．

4．In the passage, the underlined part ‘right conditions’ refers to _______．

     A．a time when the couple are ready and willing to become parents

     B．the situation where the family is rich enough to raise a child

     C．the situation where the couple are very happy

     D．a time when the couple thinks raising children can boost happiness

Answer 1

1--4    BCDA  

解析:

1．B 词义猜测题。根据上下文的语境来判断。由第三段的having children has little or no effect on boosting happiness…可知，养孩子为促进幸福方面没有什么影响……以及第四段的for the hard work of raising children可推知，B项为最佳答案。

2．C 主旨大意题。由文章第一段可知，想要成为快乐的夫妻吗？考虑要孩子。以下的文章又介绍了结婚的夫妻有孩子会增加幸福指数。

3．D 推理判断题。由倒数第二段的Single, separated and co-habiting people, by contrast, report negative experiences．知，单身，离异和同居的人，相对比而方，报导出的是消极的经历。故没结婚，最好不要养孩子。

4．A 细节理解题。由最后一段的a time in life when people feel that they are ready, or at least willing, to enter parenthood可知。