Part B

Directions:

In the following text, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41-45, choose the most suitable one from the list A-G to fit into each of the numbered blank. There are two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the gaps. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)

The family dinner has long been an example of family togetherness. But recently, scientists have been coming up with compelling reasons - including a lowered risk of smoking, drinking and doing illicit drugs among teenagers - for families to pull up a chair around the table.

41.

The two most common obstacles, parents say, are late working hours and activities that overlap with mealtime, like soccer games and Girl Scout meetings.

Many families that do dine together make a concerted effort to carve out the time. Some spend Sundays cooking meals for the week, some do prep work the evening before, and some use takeout a couple of nights a week.

Parents generally agree that family dinners are vital. According to one survey, 87 percent of parents say that it is "very important" or "extremely important" to eat together as a family.

42.

Isabel Wurgaft, a member of a group for working mothers in Millburn, N.J. said: "Growing up, my father got home late, at 8 p.m., but my mother always made us wait to eat as a family no matter how much we complained. Now that my father has passed away over 10 years ago, dinner conversations are the strongest and best memories for me and my sisters."

For others, though, the struggle is apparent. "I feel guilty because it's supposed to be very important for families to eat together, but it just doesn't work with our schedule," said Janette Pazer, another member of the working mothers' group. "I'd have to leave work an hour early, and try to cook while they're hanging on me for attention and asking for homework help, rather than getting my full attention when I get home."

In past eras, the family meal was more of a practicality - people had to eat, and they turned up at the table, where food was being served.

43.

Recent studies have begun to shore up the idea that family dinners can have an effect.

44.

Another study last year, a survey of 12- to 17-year-olds by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, found that teenagers who reported eating two or fewer dinners a week with family members were more than one and a half times as likely to smoke, drink or use illegal substances than were teenagers who had five to seven family dinners.

45.

A.      "We also noticed that the more often teens had dinner with their parents, the less likely they were to have sexually active friends, less likely girls were to have boyfriends two years older, and the less time teens spent with boyfriends or girlfriends," said Joseph A. Califano Jr., the center's chairman and president.

B.      With toddlers and preschoolers, it may be more stressful having them sit at the table for a long meal, she said. "Sitting down at the family table at the end of a long day with a 1-year-old and 3-year-old may not be a particularly pleasant experience. In and of itself, having a family meal without positive interaction, may not be that important," she said.

C.      The interest in the ritual may have been spurred by concerns that the number of families who do not dine together is increasing. According to several surveys, 30 to 40 percent of families do not eat dinner together five to seven nights a week, though most families eat dinner together some days a week.

D.     But Dr. Leann Birch, who has studied eating habits of children for more than two decades, said that while the research indicates that parents act as models for eating, the "data on the family dinner is pretty weak."

E.      For example, a 2004 study of 4,746 children 11 to 18 years old, published in The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, found that frequent family meals were associated with a lower risk of smoking, drinking and using marijuana; with a lower incidence of depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts; and with better grades.

F.      "In the contemporary world, we've made an icon of the dinner hour as a way to hold on to something, otherwise people would go off in different directions and never get together," said Barbara Haber, the author of "From Hardtack to Home Fries: An Uncommon History of American Cooks and Meals."

G.     Childhood memories often influence people's opinion about the importance of family dinners.

Keys： CGFEA