文章阅读模拟题之accidental-death

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In 1896 a Georgia couple suing for damages in the accidental death of their two year old was told that since the child had made no real economic contribution 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. The transformation in social values implicit in juxta- posing these two incidents is the subject of Viviana Zelizers excellent book, Pricing the Priceless Child. During the nineteenth century, she argues, the concept of the useful child who contributed to the family economy gave way gradually to the present-day notion of the useless child who, though producing no income for, and indeed extremely costly to, its parents, is yet considered emotionally priceless. Well established among segments of the middle and upper classes by the mid-1800s, this new view of childhood spread through- out society in the iate-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries as reformers introduced child-labor regulations and compulsory education laws predicated in part on the assumption that a childs emotional value made child labor taboo. For Zelizer the origins of this transformation were many and complex. The gradual erosion of childrens productive value in a maturing industrial economy, the decline in birth and death rates, especially in child mortality, and the development of the companionate family explicit bonds of love rather than duty) were all factors critical in changing the assessment of childrens worth. Yet expulsion of children from the cash nexus,... although clearly shaped by profound changes in the economic, occupational, and family structures, Zelizer maintains. was also part of a cultural process of sacral- ization 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 relentless corruption of human values by the marketplace. In stressing the cultural determinants of a childs worth. Zelizer takes issue with practitioners of the new sociological economics, who have analyzed such tradi- tionally sociological topics as crime, marriage, educa- tion, and health solely in terms of their economic deter- minants. Allowing only a small role for cultural forces in the form of individual preferences, these sociologists tend to view all human behavior 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 sur- render 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 century tended to be based principally on the

　　 earnings 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 1800s 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-being 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 economists as they are described in the passage?

　　 The cash value of children rose during the nineteenth century because parents began to increase their emotional investment 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.

　　 The cash value of children rose during the nineteenth century because the spread of humanitarian ideals 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.

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

　　4. The primary purpose of the passage is to

　　 review the literature in a new academic subfield

　　 present the central thesis of a recent book

　　 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 century?

　　 The average size of families grew considerably

　　 The percentage of families involved in industrial work declined dramatically.

　　 Family members became more emotionally 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

　　 the mortality rate

　　 the nature of industry

　　 the nature of the family

　　 attitudes toward reform movements

　　 attitudes toward the marketplace

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

　　 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

　　 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

　　Correct Answers：ACBBCDB

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