Traditional fairytales are being abandoned by parents because they are too scary for their young children, a study found.
Research revealed one in five parents has ditched old classics such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Rapunzel in favour of more modern books. One third of parents said their children have been left in tears after hearing the horrible details of Little Red Riding Hood. And nearly half of mothers and fathers refuse to read Rumplestiltskin to their kids as the themes of the story are kidnapping and execution. Similarly, Goldilocks and the Three Bears was also a tale likely to be left on the book shelf as parents felt it forgives stealing.
The survey of 2,000 adults was conducted to mark the launch of the hit US drama GRIMM, which starts tonight at 9 p.m. on Watch, and sees six episodes(片段) based on traditional fairytales. The poll found a quarter of parents polled wouldn’t consider reading a fairytale to their child until they had reached the age of five, as they prompt too many awkward questions from their offspring(后代子孙).
Steve Hornsey, General Manager of Watch, said: “Bedtime stories are supposed to soothe children and send them off to sleep soundly. But as we see in GRIMM, fairytales can be dark and dramatic tales so it’s understandable that parents worry about reading them to young children.”
“As adults we can see the innocence in fairytales, but a five year old with an over active imagination could take things too seriously. Despite the dark nature of classic fairytales, as we see in GRIMM, good will triumph over evil and there is always a moral to the story.”
The study also found two thirds of mums and dads try to avoid stories which might give their children nightmares.
However, half of parents said traditional tales are more likely to have a strong moral message than a lot of modern kids’ books, such as The Gruffalo, The Hungary Caterpillar and the Mr. Men books.
【小题1】Why don’t some parents want to read Rumplestiltskin to their kids?A．Rumplestiltskin is too long.B．Rumplestiltskin is too difficult.C．Rumplestiltskin forgives stealing.D．Rumplestiltskin may influence Children badly.【小题2】We can learn from paragraph 3 that Grimm is .A．a fairytales bookB．a movie for childrenC．a play loved by childrenD．a drama based on traditional fairytales【小题3】The underlined word “soothe “in paragraph4 can be replaced by .A．put downB．calm downC．take downD．e down【小题4】What’s the author’s attitude towards traditional fairytales?A．OptimisticB．Not mentionedC．CasualD．DisapprovingD
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(答案→)D
解析：本文讲述了一项研究发现，父母们开始摒弃传统的童话故事，因为它们对年幼的孩子来说太吓人。这一调查涵盖了2000名成人。开展该调查是为了纪念美国热门电视剧《格林》今晚9点在Watch首播，人们将看到6集根据传统童话故事改编的情节大胆的电视剧。文中阐述了传统童话的利于弊。
【小题1】细节理解题。根据“And nearly half of mothers and fathers refuse to read Rumplestiltskin to their kids as the themes of the story are kidnapping and execution.”父母们不愿给孩子念童话故事《纺线姑娘》，因为故事的主题是绑架和处决。这些都会极坏地影响孩子。故选D。
【小题2】细节理解题。根据“The survey of 2,000 adults was conducted to mark the launch of the hit US drama GRIMM, which starts tonight at 9 p.m. on Watch, and sees six episodes(片段) based on traditional fairytales.”可知Grimm是以传统童话故事为基础的戏剧，故选D。
【小题3】词义猜测题。因为是睡前故事，所以应该让孩子平静下来。A. put down镇压，记下； B. calm down平静下来；C. take down记下，拿下，拆卸；D. e down下来，落下。故选B。
【小题4】推理判断题。本文只是客观阐述了这项调查的结果，介绍了父母对于童话的看法，并没有提及自己对传统童话的态度。故选B。