When Stephen Dennis, a retired homebuilder in Bellevue, was raising his two sons in the 1980s, he never heard the phrase “screen time”, nor did he worry much about the hours his kids spent on technology. When he bought an Apple Ⅱ Plus computer, he considered it an investment in their future and encouraged them to use it as much as possible.
But things have changed with his grandkids and their social media tools.
“It almost seems like an addiction,” said Mr. Dennis. “In the old days you had a computer and you had a TV and you had a phone but none of them were linked to the outside world but the phone. You didn’t have this omnipresence(无所不在)of technology.”
True, the anxieties these days seem particularly severe—as, of course, they always have. Smartphones have a highly customized, 24/7 presence in our lives that feeds parental fears of antisocial behavior and stranger danger.
What hasn’t changed, though, is a general parental fear of what kids are doing out of sight. In previous generations, this often meant kids wandering around on their own or slipping out at night to drink. These days, it might mean hiding in their bedroom and chatting with strangers online.
Less than a century ago, the radio set off similar fears. “The radio seems to find parents more helpless than did the funnies, the automobile, the movies and other earlier invaders of the home, because it could not be locked out or the children be locked in,” Sidonie Matsner Gruenberg, director of the Child Study Association of America, told The Washington Post in 1931. She added that the biggest worry radio gave parents was how it interfered with other interests—conversation, music practice, group games, and reading. In the early 1930s a group of mothers from Scarsdale, N. Y., pushed radio broadcasters to change programs they thought were too “over stimulating,
frightening, and emotionally overpowering” for kids, said Margaret Cassidy, a media historian at Adelphi
University in New York.
Then television burst into the public consciousness with incomparable speed. By 1955, more than half of all US homes had a black-and-white set, according to Mitchell Stephens, a media historian at New York University.
The hand­wringing started almost as quickly. A 1961 Stanford University study on 6, 000 children, 2, 000 parents, and 100 teachers found that more than half of the kids studied watched “adult” programs such as crime shows, and shows that featured “emotional problems”. Researchers were shocked at the TV violence present even in children’s programming.
By the end of that decade, Congress had authorized $1 million(about $7 million today)to study the effects of TV violence, moving “literally thousands of projects” in the following years, Professor Cassidy said. That
eventually led the American Academy of Pediatrics(AAP)to adopt, in 1984, its first recommendation that parents limit their kids’ exposure to technology. The medical association argued that television sent unrealistic messages around drugs and alcohol, could lead to overweight, and might fuel violence.
Video games presented a different challenge. Decades of study have failed to confirm the most widespread fear that violent games encourage violent behavior. But from the moment the games appeared as a cultural force in the early 1980s, parents were anxious about the way kids could lose themselves in games as simple and repetitive as “Space Invaders”. Some cities sought to restrict the spread of arcades(游戏厅); Mesquite, Texas, for instance, insisted that the under­17 group need parental monitoring.
Initially, the Internet—known as an “information superhighway” that could connect kids to the world’s knowledge—got a similar pass for helping with homework and research. Yet as the Internet began linking people together, often in ways that connected previously lonely people, familiar concerns soon reappeared.
【语篇解读】本文是一篇议论文。在20世纪80年代，人们很少担心孩子过度使用电子产品的问题，那时人们甚至鼓励孩子们多使用电脑。而今，电脑、电视、智能手机已经联网，里面的内容未必都适合孩子，家长的担心从未停止。
65. What’s the author’s purpose in using the example in the first 3 paragraphs?
A. To explain the confusion of Dennis. B. To show stable ways of teaching children.
C. To reveal the change of parents’ anxieties. D. To introduce the development of technology.
【答案】C
【解析】推理判断题。通读前三段可知，第一段讲了Stephen之前不怎么担心科技会带来坏处，并提倡多使用它们；第二段说明事情发生了改变；第三段介绍了科技带来的负面影响使Stephen开始担心。据此可知，前三段揭示了父辈们对科技从毫不担心到忧心忡忡这一变化。故选C。
66. Why do the anxieties seem so serious nowadays?
A. Children go out to drink in pubs at night. B. Children always slip out to meet strangers.
C. Children often stay out with friends too late. D. Children are deeply influenced by technology.
【答案】D
【解析】细节理解题。根据第三段中的“It almost seems like an addiction”可知，孩子们已经深深地被这些科技产品所影响，沉迷于其中不能自拔。故选D。
67. What might be the worry about the radio for parents in the past?
A. Listening to the radio everywhere. B. Disturbing people’s daily routine.
C. Broadcasting too many sad programs. D. Making children become more selfish.
【答案】A
【解析】推理判断题。根据第六段中的“The radio seems to find parents more helpless than did the funnies, the automobile, the movies and other earlier invaders of the home, because it could not be locked out or the children be locked in”和“the biggest worry radio gave parents...and reading”可知，过去家长对无线电广播的担心是无线电广播“无孔不入”，孩子们可以随时随地收听。故选A。
68. The underlined part in Paragraph 8 means _______.
A. kids watched too many TV programs B. many anxieties followed very fast
C. researchers conducted studies widely D. violent programs appeared constantly
【答案】B
【解析】句意猜测题。根据第七段中的“Then television burst into the public consciousness with incomparable speed.”可知，电视快速进入大众视野；根据第八段中的“A 1961 Stanford University study on 6, 000 children, 2, 000 parents, and 100 teachers found that more than half of the kids studied watched ‘adult’ programs such as crime shows, and shows that featured ‘emotional problems’. ”可知，1961年斯坦福大学对6 000名儿童、2 000名家长和100名教师进行的一项研究发现，被研究的儿童中有一半以上观看了“成人”节目，如犯罪类节目和以“情感问题”为特色的节目。结合上文无线电广播风靡引起家长的担忧可推知，电视进入大众视野后也引起了家长的担忧。据此可以判断，画线句表示人们开始对电视节目越来越担心。故选B。
69. What challenge did video games present?
A. Worries about video games could last long. B. Violence could result from violent games.
C. The spread of arcades was out of control. D. Kids could be addicted to video games.
【答案】D
【解析】细节理解题。根据倒数第二段中的“But from the moment the games appeared as a cultural force in the early 1980s, parents were anxious about the way kids could lose themselves in games as simple and repetitive as ‘Space Invaders’. ”可知，从20世纪80年代早期游戏作为一种文化力量出现的那一刻起，家长们就开始担心孩子们会在像“Space Invaders”这样简单重复的游戏中迷失自我；据此可知，家长们担心孩子们沉迷于电子游戏。故选D。
70. What does the passage mainly talk about?
A. Technology is harmful to the growth of kids. B. Good old days are gone with the technology.
C. Concern about technology is a long­time affair. D. Technology is actually like a two-edged sword.
【答案】C
【解析】主旨大意题。通读全文可知，本文主要介绍了不同时期人们对不同科技或电子产品的担忧，据此可知，对于科技产品的担忧是长期的事情，故C项最能概括主旨大意。