Our lives were supposed to be more flexible and family-friendly thanks to the technology at our fingertips. But in this age of BlackBerrys, recession pressures, working at home after hours and on weekends, family time may not be working out the way we thought.
Busy parents who expected more time with the kids are Finding that more work hours at home don't necessarily translate into quality time with them.
A new generation of parents needs to discover the meaning of quality time, researchers say. “Personally, just given the life I lead, I think there is something to this idea of quality time- spending productive time with children vs. just being around,” says Peter Brandon, a professor at Carleton College. He says engaging or interacting with a child in activities such as reading or playing counts as quality time rather than passive monitoring, such as washing the dishes while the child is watching TV.
“This time with children pays off,” Brandon says. He notes that good parent-child relationships result in children being happier and more successful, including at school.
As parents struggle to be more available to their kids, new research on work and family schedules to be presented Friday at the meeting in Dallas includes a study that shows parents' availability is on the decline because more parents are in the workforce. Although parents today may be spending more time on child care, they are less available overall.
Working parents who spend less time with their children should try to make sure the time they do spend is municating with them, vs. doing the dishes or spending more time on themselves, Brandon says “The trade-off is not necessarily taking away time from your kid,” he says You're taking away time from other things”
【小题1】The first paragraph mainly intends to tell us that .A．technology lets parents work at homeB．parents are satisfied with their workC．technology makes our lives much easierD．the family time is not always satisfying【小题2】We can learn from the third paragraph that .A．some families are not experiencing quality timeB．it's enough for parents to stay with their childrenC．parents enjoy engaging in work-at-home activitiesD．working hours at home can transform into quality time【小题3】 According to Brandon, the quality time meansA．just, being around with childrenB．work time is separate from family timeC．spending instructive time with childrenD．letting the children do whatever they want to do【小题4】The underlined sentence “This time with children pays” off means .A．the time with children is of little valueB．the time with children costs quite a lotC．the time with children leads to good resultD．the time with children has a bad effect on them【小题5】What will the author most probably talk about in next part of the passage?A．How to spend more time at homeB．How to do the dishes in a proper way.C．How to spend more time on working at home.D．How to take away time in a much proper way.D
网友回答
(答案→)D
解析：文章讲述的什么才是真正的有质量的家庭时间，以及有质量的家庭时间有什么好处。
【小题1】推理判断题，根据第一段最后一句可知，家庭生活有时候不如预想的那样（好）。
【小题2】推理判断题，根据第三段可知有的人没有理解quality time的意义，意为跟孩子在一起活着看管孩子就可以了。
【小题3】推理判断题，根据第三段可知，要采取积极的互动方式。
【小题4】pay off 意为会有回报的，指的是会带来好的结果。根据后面的He notes that good parent-child relationships result in children being happier and more successful, including at school可知。
【小题5】推理题，根据文章最后一句You're taking away time from other things可知，后文讲述的就是关于take away time from other things的话题。