1 . Good afternoon. I am Sullivan. Now think about a question: What determines the way we are when we grow up? Let’s start with the TV program Seven Up. Do you still remember it? It started following the lives of a group of children in 1973. We first meet them as wide-eyed seven-year-olds and catch up with them at seven-year intervals: nervous 14-year-olds, serious 21-year-olds and then grown-ups.
There are ups and downs in their lives, but interestingly, in almost all the cases the children’s early hopes and dreams are shown in their future lives. For example, at seven, Tony is a lively child who says he wants to become a sportsman or taxi driver. When he grows up, he goes on to do both. How about Nicki? She says, “I would like to find out about the moon.” And she goes on to become a space scientist. As a child, soft-spoken Bruce says he wants to help “poor children” and ends up teaching in India.
But the program would have been far less interesting if the lives of all the children had followed this pattern. It was the children whose childhood did not prepare them for what was to come that made the program so fascinating. Where did their ideas come from about what they wanted to do when they grew up? Are children influenced by what their parents do, by what they see on television or by what their teachers say? Many film directors, including Steven Spielberg, say that an early visit to the cinema was the turning point in their lives. One of my colleagues, Dr. Margaret, who has devoted herself to researches in this area and published her findings in Science, thinks that the major factors are parents, friends and the wider society.
1. From Paragraph 2, we know that ________.
| A．people will make great achievements if they have dreams in their childhood |
| B．the children’s childhood dreams are more or less the same |
| C．the lives of the children in the TV program are not smooth |
| D．a large number of poor people in India are in need of help |
2. From Spielberg’s story we can conclude that ________.
| A．going to a movie at an early age helps a child learn about the space |
| B．parents and friends can help a child grow up properly |
| C．a single childhood event may decide what one does as a grown-up |
| D．films have more influence on a child than teachers do |
3. Which one is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．The TV program is not so appealing. |
| B．One of the children, Bruce, ended up teaching in India because he is not strong. |
| C．The children in the TV program made good preparations for their future in their childhood. |
| D．In the TV program, the research on the children is done every seventh year. |
4. We can tell that Sullivan may be ________.
| A．a radio announcer | B．a professor | C．a librarian | D．a geologist |
