2020年军队职称英语考试《理工类》补全短文日常练习第四套

　　More and more Americans are living atone. Some live atone because of divorce or the death of a partner. (1) According to a recent U.S. census (人口普查), 25 percent of all households in the U.S. are made up of just one person. This is a dramatic change from the extended families of just a couple of generations ago.

　　The typical person living alone is neither old nor lonely. (2) The majority of these people have chosen to live alone. They are responding to decreasing social pressure to get married and have a family.

　　It's now socially acceptable, even fashionable, to live alone. As people get better jobs and become financially independent, it becomes possible for them to maintain a one-person household. (3) However, people who do get married are marrying at a later age and divorcing more often.

　　The number one reason given by most people for living alone is that they simply enjoy doing what they want when they want to do it. "Living alone is a luxury," says Nina Hagiwara, 38. "Once you do it, you can't ever go back to living with others." David C'Debaca, 46, agrees. (4)

　　Children think that being grown up means being able to do exactly as they please.

　　(5) The chance to discover whether that freedom is as wonderful as it sounds is a chance more and more Americans are taking.

　　A There's more pressure to get married nowadays.

　　B The growing number of women with good jobs has done much to increase the number of people living alone.

　　C However, even more people are living alone because they have chosen to.

　　D It seems that many grown-ups today are realizing that childhood dream.

　　E In fact, a quarter of the 23 million single people in the U.S. are under the age of35.

　　F He says, "1 like being by myself."

　　答案

　　1.C 2.E 3.B4.F 5.D 1.8 2.C 3.A 4.C 5.B

　　Little Lady Starts Big War

　　Harriet Beecher Stowe had poured her heart into her anti-slavery book "Uncle Tom's Cabin." (46) The publisher was so doubtful that he wanted her to split the publishing costs with him, and all she hoped was that it would make enough money for her to buy a new silk dress.

　　But when the first 5,000 copies were printed in 1852. They sold out in two days. In a year the book had sold 300,000 copies in the United States and150,000 in England. (47) Within six months of its release, a play was made from the book which ran 350 performances in New York and remained America's most popular play for 80 years. It might appear that "Uncle Tom's Cabins was universally popular, but this was certainly not true. Many people during those pre-Civil War days--particularly defenders of the slavery system--condemned it as false propaganda and poorly written melodrama (传奇剧作品).

　　Harriet did have strong religious views against slavery (When asked how she came to write the book, she replied: "God wrote it."), and she tried to convince people slavery was wrong, so perhaps the book could be considered propaganda. (48)

　　Though she was born in Connecticut in 1832, as a young woman she moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, when her father accepted the presidency of newly founded Lane Theological Seminary (神学院). Ohio was a free state, but just across the Ohio River in Kentucky, Harriet saw slavery in action. (49) In 1851, Harriet Beecher Stowe began her book.

　　Its vast influence strengthened the anti-slavery movement and angered defenders of the slave system. (50)

　　In fact, when Abraham Lincoln met Harriet at the White House during the Civil War, he said, "So, this is the little lady who started this big war."

　　A She had read a lot about the slavery system.

　　B Today some historians think that it helped bring on the American Civil War.

　　C But if so, it was true propaganda, because it accurately described the evils of slavery.

　　D For a while it outsold every book in the world, except the Bible.

　　E But neither she nor her first publisher thought it would be a big success.

　　F She lived 18 years in Cincinnati, marrying Calvin Stowe, professor of a college.

　　答案：E D C F B