GRE阅读综合辅导:63题网络课堂总结(八)

　　现象：判例中的转变In 189612 a Georgia couple 控告 damages in the accidental death of their two year old was told that since the child had made no real economic contribution1A2C to the family, there was no liability for damages. In contrast, less than a century later, in 1979, the parents of a three-year-old sued in New York for accidental-death damages and won an award of $750,000.

　　解释：原因是孩子价值的转变The transformation in social values implicit in 把两个东西并排 these two incidents is the subject of Viviana Zelizers excellent book, Pricing the Priceless Child. During the nineteenth century5, she argues, the concept of the useful child who contributed to the family economygradually 让步于 the present-day notion of the useless child who, though producing no income for, and indeed extremely costly to, its parents, is yet considered emotionally5C priceless. Well established among segments of the middle and upper classes by the mid-1800s, this new view of childhood spread throughout society in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries as reformers introduced child-labor regulations and compulsory education lawsin part 以为基础 the assumption that a childs emotional value made child labor 竞技.

　　解释第二段：孩子价值转变的原因For Zelizer the origins of this transformation were many and complex. The gradual erosion of childrens productive value in a maturing industrial economy6B, the decline in birth and death rates, especially in child mortality6A, and the development of the 伙伴的，友爱的 family were all factors critical in changing the assessment of childrens worth. Yet 排除，驱除 of children from the cash 联系 关系), although clearly shaped by profound changes in the economic, occupational, and family structures6C, Zelizer maintains, was also part of a cultural process of 神圣化 of childrens lives. Protecting children from the crass business world became enormously important for late-nineteenth-century middle-class Americans, she suggests; this sacralization was a way of resisting what they perceived as the 无情的败坏 of human values by the marketplace6E.

　　延伸性内容：所有的社会问题中Z与某些人的观点不同In stressing the cultural determinants of a childs worth, Zelizer 争论 practitioners of the new sociological economics37, who have analyzed such traditionally sociological topics as crime, marriage, education, and health solely in terms of their economic determinants. Allowing only a small role for cultural forces in the form of individual preferences, these sociologists tend to view all human behaviors as directed primarily by the principle of maximizing economic gain. Zelizer is highly critical of this approach, and emphasizes instead the opposite phenomenon: the power of social values to transform price. As children became more valuable in emotional terms, she argues, their exchange or 转让 value on the market, that is, the conversion of their intangible worth into cash terms, became much greater.

　　1. It can be inferred from the passage that accidental-death damage awards in America during the nineteenth century1 tended to be based principally on the

　　 earnings1A of the person at time of death

　　 wealth of the party causing the death

　　 degree of culpability of the party causing the death

　　 amount of money that had been spent on the person killed

　　 amount of suffering endured by the family of the person killed

　　2. It can be inferred from the passage that in the early 1800s2 children were generally regarded by their families as individuals who

　　 needed enormous amounts of security and affection

　　 required constant supervision while working

　　 were important to the economic well-being2C of a family

　　 were unsuited to spending long hours in school

　　 were financial burdens assumed for the good of society

　　3. Which of the following alternative explanations of the change in the cash value of children would be most likely to be put forward by sociological economists3 as they are described in the passage?类比题A反CDE无

　　 The cash value of children rose during the nineteenth century because parents began to increase their emotional investment这是的观点 in the upbringing of their children.

　　 The cash value of children rose during the nineteenth century because their expected earnings over the course of a lifetime increased greatly.一切向钱看

　　 The cash value of children rose during the nineteenth century because the spread of humanitarian ideals没提过 resulted in a wholesale reappraisal of the worth of an individual.

　　 The cash value of children rose during the nineteenth century because compulsory education laws reduced the supply, and thus raised the costs, of available child labor没提过.

　　 The cash value of children rose during the nineteenth century because of changes in the way negligence law没提过 assessed damages in accidental death cases.

　　4. The primary purpose of the passage is to主题题

　　 review the literature in a new academic sub-field

　　 present the central thesis of a recent book评述某人理论，评述某人著作

　　 contrast two approaches to analyzing historical change

　　 refute a traditional explanation of a social phenomenon

　　 encourage further work on a neglected historical topic

　　5. It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following statements was true of American families over the course of the nineteenth century5?

　　 The average size of families grew considerably.

　　 The percentage of families involved in industrial work declined dramatically.

　　 Family members became more emotionally5C bonded to one another.

　　 Family members spent an increasing amount of time working with each other.

　　 Family members became more economically dependent on each other.

　　6. Zelizer refers to all of the following as important influences in changing the assessment of childrens worth EXCEPT changes in排除题

　　 the mortality rate6A

　　 the nature of industry6B

　　 the nature of the family6C

　　 attitudes toward reform movements没提到过对改革的态度

　　 attitudes toward the marketplace6E

　　7. Which of the following would be most consistent with the practices of sociological economics7 as these practices are described in the passage?类比题

　　 Arguing that most health-care professionals enter the field because they believe it to be the most socially useful of any occupation

　　 Arguing that most college students choose majors that they believe will lead to the most highly paid jobs available to them一切向钱看

　　 Arguing that most decisions about marriage and divorce are based on rational assessments of the likelihood that each partner will remain committed to the relationship

　　 Analyzing changes in the number of people enrolled in colleges and universities as a function of changes in the economic health of these institutions

　　 Analyzing changes in the ages at which people get married as a function of a change in the average number of years that young people have lived away from their parents