Passage Three
We are told the mass media are the greatest organs for enlightenment that the world has yet seen; that in Britain, for instance, several million people see each issue of the current affairs programme, Panoroma. This kind of exposure may well be a point of departure for acquiring certain important intellectual and imaginative qualities, width of judgment, a sense of the variety of possible attitudes. Yet in itself such exposure does not bring intellectual or imaginative development. The mass media cannot build the cathedral, and their way of showing the stones does not always prompt others to build. For the stones are presented within a self-contained and self　sufficient world in which, it is implied, simply to look at them, to observe fleetingly individually interesting points of difference between them is sufficient in itself. 　

 
Life is indeed full of problems on which we have to——or feel we should try to——make decisions, as citizens or as private individuals. But neither the real difficulty of these decisions, nor their true and disturbing challenge to each individual, can often be communicated through the mass media. The disinclination to suggest real choice, individual decision, which is to be found in the mass media is not simply the product of a commercial desire to keep the customer happy. It is within the grain of mass communications. The organs of the Establishment, however well　intentioned they may be and whatever their form (the State, the Church, voluntary societies, political parties), have a vested interest in ensuring that the public boat is not violently rocked, and will so affect those who work within the mass media that they will be led insensibly towards forms of production. They will tend to move, when exposing problems, well within the accepted cliché assumptions of democratic society and will tend neither radically to question these clichés nor to make a disturbing application of them to features of contemporary life. They will stress the “stimulation”the programs give, but this soon becomes an agitation of problems for the sake of the interest of that agitation itself; they will therefore, again, assist a form of acceptance of the status quo (现状). There were exceptions to this tendency, but they are uncharacteristic. 　

The result can be seen in a hundred radio and television programs as plainly as in the normal treatment of public issues in the popular press. Different levels of background in the readers or viewers may be assumed, but what usually takes place is a substitute for the process of arriving at judgment. Programs such as this are noteworthy less for the “stimulation”they offer than for the fact that stimulation may become a substitute for and so a hindrance to, judgments carefully arrived at and tested in the mind and on the pulses . Mass communications, then, do not ignore intellectual matters; they tend to castrate (使⋯丧失活力)them, to allow them to sit on the side of the fireplace, sleek and useless, a family plaything. 　

41. According to the passage, the mass media present us with ______. 
A. insufficient diversity of information 　
B. too restricted a view of life 　
C. a wide range of facts and opinions　
D. a critical assessment of our society 　

42. What effect is it claimed the mass media can have on our intellectual and imaginative development? 　
A. They are likely to frustrate this development. 　
B. They can form a basis for it. 　 
C. They can distort our judgment. 　
D. They can stimulate too much mental activity. 　

43. How are the mass media said to influence our ability to make decisions?
A. They disturb us by their prejudices. 　
B. They make us doubt our own judgments. 　
C. They make no contribution in this area. 　
D. They make decisions appear too complicated. 　

 
44. The author says that a natural concern of the Establishment is to ______. 
A. perform a good service to society 　
B. arouse strong emotions in the public 　
C. maintain its position in society 　
D. change the form of public institutions 　

 
45. What is the author's final judgment on how mass communications deal with intellectual matters?
A. They regard them as unimportant. 　
B. They see them as a domestic pastime. 　
C. They consider them to be of only domestic interest. 　
D. They rob them of their dramatic impact. 　

into the world of paid work continues to cause suspicion. One recent survey found that 48 percent of Americans believe that preschoolers suffer if their mothers work, while another found that 42 percent of employed parents think that working mothers care more about succeeding at work than meeting their children's needs.

All mothers deserve our support -- those who care for children at home and those who have joined the work force. But many working mothers continue to believe that they are shortchanging

（少找钱）their children. They shouldn't. Research tells us that kids do just fine when mothers work. 
Suzanne Bianchi a scientist of the University of Maryland, has found that mothers today spend as much if not more time with their children than they did in 1965, even though the percentage of mothers who work rose from 35 percent to 71 percent. Then there are the obvious financial benefits. For many children, these earnings are the difference between living in poverty -- or out of it.

The kids are all right. Studies conducted by the University of Michigan have consistently demonstrated that a child's social or academic competence does not depend on whether a mother is employed. In my research four out of five children ( nine out of ten in single parent families) told me that having a working mother was their preferred arrangement. My study found that children with working mothers are no more likely to drop out, take drugs, break the law, or experiment with sex prematurely than children with non-employed mothers. Children have taken their mothers' example to heart. Ninety percent of the young women I interviewed said they hoped to combine work with motherhood, while two-thirds of the men said they wanted to share parenting and work. 

Sadly, children support working mothers more than we do as a society. Parental leave and child-care benefits in the United States remain inadequate, particularly when compared to what's offered in other countries. Children thrive when their mothers have satisfying, well-paid jobs when they can count on other caretakers to share the load. The challenge facing us is thus not whether good workers can also be good mothers, but whether we can create the conditions that enable working mothers and fathers to be good parents.
 
46. From the first paragraph, we can see that ______.
   A. now more American mothers are working than any time in American history and anywhere else in the world
   B. more than half Americans think that before going to school, children need their mothers whole-hearted care
   C. a majority of Americans believe that once working outside home mothers think of their own work more than their children
   D. more American mothers work than ever before, but this problem of working mothers has not been solved satisfactorily 

47. In paragraph two, the author thinks that ______.
   A. society should support all mothers no matter where they work -- at home or outside it 
   B. working mothers are doing less for their children                        
   C. we should do more research on this problem                      
   D. working mothers should be proud be self-abused

48. From the passage, we can not find the proof of the fact that ______.
   A. now mothers do their household work just as well as they did before.
   B. with their mothers working, children are better off.
   C. lack of motherscare, children like to go astray.
   D. in single-parent families, most children like their mothers go out working.

49. What do the Americans need in solving the problem of working mothers? 
   A. They need the support of males.
   B. They need the understanding of other members of their families.
   C. They need young people to be well-prepared to work both in and outside their homes.
  D. They need especially the powerful support of the society for working mothers.

50. What is the main idea of the passage?
   A. We should let mothers work without worry.
   B. It is better for mothers to stay at home.
   C. Me should work hard, especially mothers.
   D. Like mother, like children