Die Familie kommt nicht zu kurz.

Fun is, in fact, a word heard far more frequently in families today than in the past, when "duty’’ and "responsibility" were often the words used.
Parents today are more youthful in appearance and attitudes. Their clothes and hair-styles are more casual, helping to bridge the divide. Those who are athletically inclined also enjoy Rollerblading, snowboarding, and rock-climbing with their children.
For the past three years, Kathy and Phil Dalby have spent at least one evening a week at a climbing gym with their three children. "It’s great to be able to work together," Mrs Dalby says. "We discuss various climbs and where the hard parts are. Sometimes that leads to other Conversations. We’re definitely closer."
A popular movement of parent effectiveness training in the 1970s has helped to reshape generational roles. The philosophy encourages children to describe their feelings about various situations. As a result, says Robert Billingham, a family-studies professor at Indiana University, "Parents and children began talking to each other in ways they had not before."
On the plus side, he adds, these conversations made parents realize that children may have important thoughts or feelings that adults need to be aware of.
But Professor Billingham also sees a downside: Many parents started making decisions based on what their child wanted. "The power shifted to children. Parents said, ’I have to focus on making my child happy’, as opposed to ’I have to act as a parent most appropriately’."
Other changes are occurring as the ranks of working mothers grow. Time-short parents encourage children’s independence, making them more responsible for themselves. "They’ll say, ’We trust you to make the right decisions’ (whether they’re ready to assume the responsibility or not) ,"says Billingham.
The self-esteem movement of the past quarter-century has also affected the family dynamics (原动力). Some parents worry that if they tell their child no, it will hurt the child’s self-esteem.
小题1:What’s the trend in parent-child relationship mentioned in the passage?

A．Parents are chasing after fashion and ignoring the feelings of their children.

B．More parents and children are sharing the same enthusiasm for a certain sport.

C．Parents are taking more responsibility and setting more limits for their children.

D．The generation gap is narrowing and parents are respecting their children’s thoughts more.

小题2:Which of the following has NOT contributed to the change in the parent-child relationship?

A．Younger parents.	B．Parent effectiveness training.
C．More working mothers.	D．The self-esteem movement.

小题3: What’s Billingham’s attitude towards parents who make children more responsible for themselves?

A．He supports them.	B．He admires them.
C．He disagrees with them.	D．He thinks they’re unreasonable.

小题4:What will probably be discussed following the last paragraph?

A．The effect of more working mothers on children’ s education.

B．The benefits of the new relationship between parents and children.

C．The importance of self-esteem and ways to develop children’s self-esteem.

D．The risks of setting no rules and some suggestions on how to have a balanced attitude.

小题5:What’s the best title for the text?

A．Parents and Children as Friends.	B．Parents and Professors as Debaters.
C．Growing Mutual Understanding.	D．Disappearing Responsibility.

the evidence for harmony（***）may not be clear in some families. but it seems that four in five young people now get on with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly- held image(印象)of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.
an important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious than it has ever been in the past. ”we were surprised by just how positive today’s young people seem to be about their families, ”said one member of the research team. ”they’re expected to be rebellious(叛逆的) and selfish but actually they have other things on their minds; they want a car and material goods, and they worry about whether school is serving them well. there’s more negotiation(商议) and discussion between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. they don’t want to rock the boat. ”
so it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat the children as friends. ”my parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me, ”says 17-years-old daniel lazall. ”i always tell them when i’m going out clubbing. as long as they know what i’m doing, they’re fine with it. ”susan crome, who is now 21, agrees. ”looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call negotiation. for example, as long as i’d done all my homework, i could go out on a saturday night. but i think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that. ”
maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. it is possible that the idea of teenagers’ rebellion is not rooted in real facts. a researcher comments, ”our surprise that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in out social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. but that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. the normal situation throughout history has been a smooth change from helping out with the family business to taking it over. ”
小题1:what is the popular images of teenagers today?

a．they worry about school	b．they dislike living with their parents
c．they are locked in to avoid trouble	d．they quarrel a lot with other family members

小题2:the study shows that teenagers don’t want to ___

a． share family responsibility	b． cause trouble in their families
c． go boating with their family	d． make family decisions

小题3:compared with parents of 30 years age, today’s parents___.

a． go to clubs more often with their children

b． are much stricter with their children

c． care less about their children’s life

d． give their children more ***

小题4:what is the passage mainly about?

a． negotiation in family	b． education in family
c． harmony in family	d． teenage trouble in family

小题5:which of the following not true?
a.parents are stricter than their own parents.b parents get along well with their kids c.parents will discuss something with their kids d. harmony in family is important.