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I was addressing a small gathering in a suburban Virginia living room -- a women's group that had invited men to join them. Throughout the evening one man had been particularly talkative frequently offering ideas and anecdotes while his wife sat silently beside him on the couch. Toward the end of the evening I commented that women frequently complain that their husbands don't talk to them. This man quickly concurred. He gestured toward his wife and said "She's the talker in our family." The room burst into laughter; the man looked puzzled and hurt. "It's true" he explained. "When I come home from work I have nothing to say. If she didn't keep the conversation going we'd spend the whole evening in silence."

This episode crystallizes the irony that although American men tend to talk more than women in public situations they often talk less at home. And this pattern is wreaking havoc with marriage.

The pattern was observed by political scientist Andrew Hacker in the late '70s. Sociologist Catherine Kohler Riessman reports in her new book "Divorce Talk" that most of the women she interviewed -- but only a few of the men -- gave lack of communication as the reason for their divorces. Given the current divorce rate of nearly 50 percent that amounts to millions of cases in the United States every year -- a virtual epidemic of failed conversation.

In my own research complaints from women about their husbands most often focused not on tangible inequities such as having given up the chance for a career to accompany a husband to his or doing far more than their share of daily life-support work like cleaning cooking social arrangements and errands. Instead they focused on communication: "He doesn't listen to me" "He doesn't talk to me." I found as Hacker observed years before that most wives want their husbands to be first and foremost conversational partners but few husbands share this expectation of their wives.

In short the image that best represents the current crisis is the stereotypical cartoon scene of a man sitting at the breakfast table with a newspaper held up in front of his face while a woman glares at the back of it wanting to talk.

26.What is most wives' main expectation of their husbands?

A.Talking to them.

B.Trusting them.

C.Supporting their careers.

D. Shsring housework.

27.Judging from the context ,the phrase “wreaking havoc”(Line 3,Para.2)most probably means ___ .

A generating motivation.

ng influence

g damage

Dcreating pressure

28.All of the following are true EXCEPT_______

tend to talk more in public tan women

50percent of recent divorces are caused by failed conversation

attach much importance to communication between couples

Da female tends to be more talkative at home than her spouse

29.Which of the following can best summarize the mian idea of this text ?

A.The moral decaying deserves more research by sociologists .

B.Marriage break_up stems from sex inequalities.

C.Husband and wofe have different expectations from their marriage.

D.Conversational patterns between man and wife are different.

30.In the following part immediately after this text,the author will most probably focus
on ______

A.a vivid account of the new book Divorce Talk

B.a detailed description of the stereotypical cartoon

possible reasons for a high divorce rate in the U.S.

D a brief introduction to the political scientist Andrew Hacker

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over the past decade, many companies had perfected the art of creating automatic behaviors — habits — among consumers. These habits have helped companies earn billions of dollars when customers eat snacks, apply lotions and wipe counters almost without thinking, often in response to a carefully designed set of daily cues.

“There are fundamental public health problems, like hand washing with soap, that remain killers only because we can’t figure out how to change people’s habits,” Dr. Curtis said. “We wanted to learn from private industry how to create new behaviors that happen automatically.”

The companies that Dr. Curtis turned to — Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive and Unilever — had invested hundreds of millions of dollars finding the subtle cues in consumers’ lives that corporations could use to introduce new routines.

If you look hard enough, you’ll find that many of the products we use every day — chewing gums, skin moisturizers, disinfecting wipes, air fresheners, water purifiers, health snacks, antiperspirants, colognes, teeth whiteners, fabric softeners, vitamins — are results of manufactured habits. A century ago, few people regularly brushed their teeth multiple times a day. Today, because of canny advertising and public health campaigns, many Americans habitually give their pearly whites a cavity-preventing scrub twice a day, often with Colgate, Crest or one of the other brands.

A few decades ago, many people didn’t drink water outside of a meal. Then beverage companies started bottling the production of far-off springs,and now office workers unthinkingly sip bottled water all day long. Chewing gum, once bought primarily by adolescent boys, is now featured in commercials as a breath freshener and teeth cleanser for use after a meal. Skin moisturizers are advertised as part of morning beauty rituals,slipped in between hair brushing and putting on makeup.

“Our products succeed when they become part of daily or weekly patterns,” said Carol Berning, a consumer psychologist who recently retired from Procter & Gamble, the company that sold $76 billion of Tide, Crest and other products last year. “Creating positive habits is a huge part of improving our consumers’ lives, and it’s essential to making new products commercially viable.”

Through experiments and observation, social scientists like Dr. Berning have learned that there is power in tying certain behaviors to habitual cues through relentless advertising. As this new science of habit has emerged, controversies have erupted when the tactics have been used to sell questionable beauty creams or unhealthy foods.

31.According to Dr.Curtis,habits like hand washing with soap________.

[A] should be further cultivated

[B] should be changed gradually

[C] are deepiy rooted in history

[D] are basically private concerns

32.Bottled water,chewing gun and skin moisturizers are mentioned in Paragraph 5 so as to____

[A] reveal their impact on people’habits

[B] show the urgent need of daily necessities

[C]indicate their effect on people’buying power

[D]manifest the significant role of good habits

of the following does NOT belong to products that help create people’s habits?

[A]Tide

[B]Crest

[C]Colgate

[D]Unilver

34.From the text wekonw that some of consumer’s habits are developed due to _____

[A]perfected art of products

[B]automatic behavior creation

[C]commercial promotions

[D]scientific experiments

author’sattitude toward the influence of advertisement on people’s habits is____

[A]indifferent

[B]negative

[C]positive

[D]biased