The week my eldest son finished pre-school education, I decided to clear out the playroom filled with his toys. Toys had kept him company whenever his mother and I were busy with other duties, and over the years we had collected a really large number of them. Here are some of what I found: 13 puzzles, 4 games for practising maths, and a speaker box that could play Mozart to develop musical ability.
Our masses of playthings may have been extreme, but it was by no means unusual. American families spend, on average, around 600 dollars every year on toys; a 10-year-old child in the UK may have owned 238 toys, totaling about 6,500 pounds.
During the past two centuries, educators, toy companies and parents like us have acted as if the purpose of play is to prepare children for adulthood. The more book learning we could pack up as play, and then give to our children, the better. Then, in the second half of the 20th century, toys were increasingly bought for the purpose of building better brains in order to build more competitive and successful grownups. By 2020, the different kinds of educational toys had made nearly $65 billion worldwide. Toys that teach — from the Speak & Spell to the See & Say — are now a part of many young lives.
“This generation of parents is asking toys to provide an end product, and that end product is success,” Richard Gottlieb, an influential toy industry advisor, commented. “They want toys to get their children into Harvard.”
“The model has been, ‘If I get toys that do schoolish things, then that’s good,’” Alison Gopnik, a leading developmental psychologist, said. “But that really goes against what the developmental science is telling us. For a long time, we’ve been getting our children, and their toys, all wrong.”
8. Why does the author mention toys in his house?
A.To present the varieties of toys. |
B.To advise others to buy fewer toys. |
C.To show parents’ craziness for toys. |
D.To complain of too many toys in his house. |
9. How does the author show his point in paragraph 2?
A.By listing numbers. | B.By quoting opinions. |
C.By providing examples. | D.By drawing comparisons. |
10. What is parents’ misunderstanding about toys?
A.They can keep children happy. |
B.They can make children positive. |
C.They can reduce children’s stress. |
D.They can promote children’s success. |
11. Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?
A.Do We Need to Buy Toys? | B.Are Toys a Part of Our Life? |
C.Can Toys Bring Us Happiness? | D.Have We Got Toys All Wrong? |