Mother stayed at home cooking and cleaning while Father left for work. Two or more children took the bus to school. In the evening, all the family members got together at home again. This is what a traditional family was like twenty years ago. But now great changes have happened in British families.
As many as 2 out of 3 marriages now end in divorce(离婚), and many children have to live with one parent and only see the other at weekends or during holidays.
There has been a great increase in the number of working women with children. Many women have to work to support themselves and their children. Even in the family where there is no divorce, both parents have to work in order to survive.
Also women are no longer happy to stay at home taking care of children. Many of them have jobs and some of them can even make more money than men, the traditional breadwinners.
What’s more, the increasing number of single-parent families have caused an increase in the crime rate (犯罪率) among children in a way. It is thought that if a child doesn’t have a father, he or she will be harmed.
However the changes may be good for some people. For women it’s now much easier to have well-paid jobs. Although it is difficult to be a working mother, it is no longer seen as a bad thing for children.
As for some children, they learn how to solve problems by themselves at an early age.
小题1:Which of the following statements is TRUE about a traditional family in Britain twenty years ago?
A．Both the mother and the father had to work to support the family.
B．The father stayed at home taking care of the children.
C．The mother didn’t need to work.
D．A family had only one child.小题2:Which of the following things is NOT mentioned in the passage ?
A．The increasing number of divorces.
B．The increasing number of fathers who stay at home.
C．The increasing number of working mothers.
D．The increasing crime rate among children.小题3:According to the passage, a “breadwinner” refers to a person who ________.
A．has got some bread
B．is good at making bread
C．stays at home raising children
D．works to support the family小题4:From the passage we can learn that ________.
A．In a family where the parents are not divorced in Britain，the mother doesn’t have to work.
B．Children whose parents are divorced have to start working early.
C．The father is very important to a child’s growth.
D．The changes in British families do no good to people.
