About six years ago I was eating lunch in a restaurant in New York City when a woman and a young boy sat down at the next table, I couldn't help overhearing parts of their conversation. At one point the woman asked, “So, how have you been?” And the boy—who could not have been more than seven or eight years old—replied. “Frankly, I've been feeling a little depressed lately.”
This incident stuck in my mind because it confirmed my growing belief that children are changing. As far as I can remember, my friends and I didn't find out we were “depressed”, that is, in low spirits, until we were in high school.
Undoubtedly a change in children has increased steadily in recent years. Children don't seem childlike anymore. Children speak more like adults, dress more like adults and behave more like adults than they used to.
Whether this is good or bad is difficult to say, but it certainly is different. Childhood as it once was no longer exists. Why?
Human development depends not only on born biological states, but also on patterns of gaining social knowledge. Movement from one social role to another usually involves learning the secret
s of the new social positions. Children have always been taught adult secrets, but slowly and in stages; traditionally, we tell sixth graders things we keep hidden from fifth graders.
In the last 30 years, however, a secret-revelation（揭示） machine has been equipped in 98 percent of American homes. It is called television. Television passes information to all viewers alike, whether they are children or adults. Unable to resist the temptation （诱惑）, many children turn their attention from printed texts to the less challenging, more attractive moving pictures.
Communication through print, as a matter of fact, allows for a great deal of control over the social information which children will gain. Children must read simple books before they can read complex materials.
小题1: According to the author, feeling depressed is ____________.
A．a sure sign of a m
ental problem in a child
B．a mental state present in all humans, including children
C．something that cannot be avoided in children's mental development
D．something hardly to be expected in a young child小题2:According to the author, that today's children seem adult-like results from ____________.
A．the widespread influence of television
B．the poor arrangement of teaching content
C．the fast pace of human scientific development
D．the rising standard of living小题3: What does the author think of communication through print for children?
A．It enables children to gain more social information.
B．It develops children's interest in reading and writing.
C．It helps children to read and write well.
D．It can control what children 
are to learn.小题4:What does the author think of the change in today's children?
A．He feels their adult-like behavior is so funny.
B．He thinks the change worthy of note.
C．He considers it a rapid development.
D．He seems to be upset about it.
