六级模拟试卷 ---- 阅读42

Questions 36-40 are based on the following passage.

The greatest recent social changes have been in the lives of women. During the twentieth century there has been a remarkable¹ shortening² of the proportion³ of a woman's life spent in caring for children. A  the end of the nineteenth century would probably have been in her middle twenties, and would be likely to have seven or eight children, of whom four or five lived till they were five years old. By the time the youngest was fifteen, the mother would have been in her early fifties and would expect to live a further twenty years, during which custom, opportunity and health made it unusual for her to get paid work. Today women marry younger and have fewer children. Usually a woman's youngest child will be fifteen when she is forty-five years and is likely to take paid work until retirement⁴ at sixty. Even while she has the care of children, her work is lightened⁵ by household appliances⁶ and convenience foods.
This important change in women's life-pattern has only recently begun to have its full effect on women's economic position. Even a few years ago most girls left school at the first opportunity, and most of them took a full-time⁷ job. However when they married, they usually left work at once and never returned to it. Today the school-le aving age is sixteen, many girls stay at school after that age, and though women tend to marry younger, more married women stay at work at least until shortly⁸ before their first child is born. Very many more afterwards return to full- or part-time work. Such changes have led to a new relationship in marriage, with the husband accepting a greater share of the duties and satisfactions of family life and with both husband and wife sharing more equally⁹ in providing the money, and running the home, according¹⁰ to the abilities and interests of each of them.

36. It's probably now that women __________.
A. marry men younger than themselves
B. do not do housework
C. do not want to give birth to children
D. provide the money to the family like her husband
37. For women at the twentieth, the amount  caring for children ______.
A. was shorter than in previous centuries
B. was longer than in previous centuries
C. was considered to be surprisingly long
D. accounted¹¹ for a great part of their lives
38. We are told that, in an average family about 1900 _______.
A. many children died before they were five
B. seven or eight children lived to be more than five
C. the youngest child would be fifteen
D. four of five children died when they were five
39． When she was over fifty, the late nineteenth century mother ______.
A. was unlikely¹² to find a job even if she wanted one
B. would not expect to work
C. was very healthy and beautiful
D. was considered to have a rest at home
40. One reason why the woman of today may take a job is that she _______.
A. is younger when her children are still young
B. does not like caring for children
C. need not worry about food for her children
D. is younger when her children are old enough to look after themselves