GMAT考试阅读资料(三)b

Passage 16
　　In 1896 a Georgia couple suing for damages in theaccidental death of their two year old was told that sincethe child had made no real economic contribution to thefamily， there was no liability for damages. In contrast，（5） less than a century later， in 1979， the parents of a threeyear old sued in New York for accidental-death damagesand won an award of $750，000.
　　The transformation¹ in social values implicit² in juxta-posing these two incidents is the subject of Viviana（10） Zelizer‘s excellent book， Pricing the Priceless Child.During the nineteenth century， she argues， the conceptof the “useful” child who contributed to the familyeconomy gave way gradually to the present-day notionof the “useless” child who， though producing no income（15） for， and indeed extremely costly³ to， its parents， is yetconsidered emotionally “priceless.” Well establishedamong segments of the middle and upper classes by themid-1800’s， this new view of childhood spread through-out society in the iate-nineteenth and early-twentieth（20） centuries as reformers introduced child-labor⁴ regulationsand compulsory⁵ education laws predicated in part on theassumption that a child‘s emotional value made childlabor taboo⁶.
　　For Zelizer the origins of this transformation were（25） many and complex. The gradual erosion of children‘sproductive value in a maturing industrial economy，the decline in birth and death rates， especially in childmortality， and the development of the companionatefamily （a family in which members were united by（30） explicit⁷ bonds of love rather than duty） were all factorscritical in changing the assessment⁸ of children’s worth.Yet “expulsion of children from the ‘cash nexus，’……although clearly shaped by profound changes in theeconomic， occupational， and family structures，” Zelizer（35） maintains. “was also part of a cultural process ‘of sacral-ization’ of children‘s lives. ” Protecting children from thecrass business world became enormously important forlate-nineteenth-century middle-class Americans， shesuggests； this sacralization was a way of resisting what（40） they perceived as the relentless⁹ corruption¹⁰ of humanvalues by the marketplace.
　　In stressing the cultural determinants of a child‘sworth. Zelizer takes issue with practitioners¹¹ of the new“sociological economics，” who have analyzed¹² such tradi-（45） tionally sociological topics as crime， marriage， educa-tion， and health solely¹³ in terms of their economic deter-minants. Allowing only a small role for cultural forcesin the form of individual “preferences，” these sociologiststend to view all human behavior as directed primarily by（50） the principle of maximizing economic gain. Zelizer ishighly critical of this approach， and emphasizes insteadthe opposite phenomenon： the power of social values totransform price. As children became more valuable inemotional terms， she argues， their “exchange” or “ sur-（55） render” value on the market， that is， the conversion¹⁴ oftheir intangible worth into cash terms， became muchgreater.

　　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
　　　（A） earnings¹⁵ of the person at time of death
　　　（B） wealth of the party causing the death
　　　（C） degree of culpability¹⁶ of the party causing the death
　　　（D） amount of money that had been spent on the person killed
　　　（E） amount of suffering endured by the family of the person killed

　　2. It can be inferred from the passage that in the early 1800‘s children were generally regarded by their　families as individuals who
　　　（A） needed enormous amounts of security and affection
　　　（B） required constant supervision¹⁷ while working
　　　（C） were important to the economic well-being¹⁸ of a family
　　　（D） were unsuited to spending long hours in school
　　　（E） 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 economists¹⁹ as they are described in the passage？
　　　（A） The cash value of children rose during the nineteenth century because parents began to increase their emotional investment in the upbringing of their children.
　　　（B） The cash value of children rose during the nineteenth century because their expected earnings over the course of a lifetime increased greatly.
　　　（C） The cash value of children rose during the nineteenth century because the spread of humanitarian²⁰ ideals resulted in a wholesale²¹ reappraisal of the worth of an individual
　　　（D） 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.
　　　（E） The cash value of children rose during the nineteenth century because of changes in the way negligence²² law assessed damages in accidental-death cases.

　　4. The primary purpose of the passage is to
　　　（A） review the literature in a new academic subfield
　　　（B） present the central thesis of a recent book
　　　（C） contrast two approaches to analyzing²³ historical change
　　　（D） refute a traditional explanation of a social phenomenon
　　　（E） 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？
　　　（A） The average size of families grew considerably²⁴
　　　（B） The percentage of families involved in industrial work declined dramatically.
　　　（C） Family members became more emotionally bonded²⁵ to one another.
　　　（D） Family members spent an increasing amount of time working with each other.
　　　（E） 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 children‘s　worth EXCEPT changes in
　　　（A） the mortality rate
　　　（B） the nature of industry
　　　（C） the nature of the family
　　　（D） attitudes toward reform movements
　　　（E） 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？
　　　（A） Arguing that most health-care professionals enter the field because they believe it to be the most socially useful of any occupation
　　　（B） Arguing that most college students choose majors that they believe will lead to the most highly paid jobs available to them
　　　（C） 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
　　　（D） Analyzing changes in the number of people enrolled in colleges and universities as a function of changes in the economic health of these institutions　
　　　（E） 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