In a family where the roles of men and women are not sharply separated and where many household tasks are shared to a greater or lesser extent, notions of male superiority are hard to maintain. The pattern of sharing in tasks and in decisions makes for equality, and this in turn leads to further sharing. In such a home, the growing boy and girl learn to accept that equality more easily than did their parents and to prepare more fully for participation in a world characterized by cooperation rather than by the battle of the sexes.

If the process goes too far and man’s role is regarded as less important - and that has happened in some cases-we are as badly of as before, only in reverse.

It is time to reassess the role of the man in the American family. We are getting a little tired ofmonism(母亲崇拜), - but we don’t want to exchange it for aneo-popism(新父亲崇拜).What we need, rather, is the recognition that bringing up children involves a partnership of equals.

There are signs that psychatrists, psychologists, social workers, and specialists on the family are becoming more aware of the part men play and that they have decided that women should not receive all the credit(信任)-not all the blame. We have almost given up saying that a woman’s place is the home. We are beginning, however, o analyze men’s place in the home and to insist that he does have a place in it. Nor is that place irrelevant to the healthy development of the child.

The family is a cooperative enterprise for which it is difficult to lay down rules, because each family needs to work out its own ways for solving its own problems.

Excessive authoritarianism has unhappy consequences, whether it wears skirts or trousers, and the ideal of equal rights and equal responsibilities is connected not only with a healthy democracy, but also with a healthy family.

1. From the passage we know that the author is very concerned with the role that　.

A)parents play in bringing up their childrenB)men play in a family

C)women play in a family

D)equality plays in a family

2 The author means to tell us that　.

A)a man’s place is in the home

B)a woman’s place is in the home

C)a woman should be equal to a man

D)a man should have an equal share in family matters

3. According to the author, a healthy family should be based on　.

A) cooperation

B) momism

C)authoritarianism

D) neo-popism

4. Who will benefit most from a family pattern of sharing in tasks and decisions?

A)The children.

B) The man.

C)The woman

D) The psychologist.

5. We may safely conclude from the passage that　.

A)male superiority maintains a healthy family

B)authority and democracy are very essential to a healthy family

C)authoritarianism does no good to a healthy family

D)women should be equal to men

参考答案：

1.B　2.D　3.A　4.A　5.B