Question

    Just what is a tiger mother？Amy Chua is a law professor at America's Yale University and her recent book on the subject is making waves. She's been called “dangerous”，“outrageous”，even a “monster” for her descriptions of how she brought up her two daughters.

Her book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother describes fighting with a daughter for hours at the piano to ensure the child gets a piece of music right. She rejected birthday cards made for her by her girls because she didn't think they had made enough effort. She compared one child negatively with the other，threatening to burn their toys. Her rules include：schoolwork always comes first; an A ­ minus is a bad grade; children must be two years ahead of their classmates in math，and playing the violin or the piano is a must.

Ms. Chua considers the Chinese hard work ethic(道德) as a way of creating happy，successful children—at least in her case. Although she's had a large amount of flak for her theories，one thing can't be ignored—the success of Chinese children in the education system.

In Britain，shocking research shows that Chinese girls，for example，are outperforming all other foreign groups at GCSE—79 percent getting 5 A ­ C Grades，compared with 58 percent of white British girls. So what is it about Chinese parenting that's leading to high achievers？And how do Amy Chua's theories play into that success?

She told me that if her daughter came back from school with 96/100 in a test，Chua would ask her what happened to the other 4 points. It's about always knowing “you can do better”，she told me.

Interestingly，in China，the birthplace of the tiger mother，people are moving away from traditional Chinese parenting. They are following more western parenting styles.

1.After reading Amy Chua's recent book，the public ______.

A.feel very sorry for their own children

B.consider her a very successful mother

C.realize their methods of bringing up children are wrong

D.don't think highly of her methods of bringing up her children

2.The underlined word in the third paragraph probably means_____.

A.Attention B.Criticism

C.Curiosity D.Contribution

3.It can be inferred from the text that ______.

A.Amy Chua will change her methods

B.Amy Chua considers her methods useful

C.Amy Chua's children don't love their mother

D.Amy Chua's children prefer western parenting styles

Answer

1.D

2.B

3.B

【解析】

本文是说明文。文章主要讲述了中国“虎妈”对孩子严格教育使其成才，和她出书后由此引起的公众讨论。

1.推理判断题。根据第一段中的She's been called “dangerous”，“outrageous”，even a “monster” for her descriptions of how she brought up her two daughters.（因为她描述了她如何抚养她的两个女儿，她被称为“危险的”，“令人发指的”，甚至是一个“怪物”）可推断出，公众对她的教育方法评价并不高，认为她的这种教育方法是错误的。故选D。

2.词义猜测题。根据第一段中的She's been called “dangerous”，“outrageous”，even a “monster” for her descriptions of how she brought up her two daughters.可知，人们对她的教育方法评价并不高，结合Although引导的让步状语从句判断，划线词所在句Although she's had a large amount of flak for her theories，one thing can't be ignored—the success of Chinese children in the education system.句意“尽管她因为她的教育理论受到了很多批评，但是有一点不容忽视——中国孩子在教育上的成功”。由此可知，划线词flak意为“批评”。A. Attention注意；B. Criticism批评；C. Curiosity好奇；D. Contribution贡献。故选B。

3.推理判断题。根据第三段中的Ms. Chua considers the Chinese hard work ethic(道德) as a way of creating happy，successful children—at least in her case.（蔡美儿认为中国人的勤奋工作精神是培养快乐、成功孩子的一种方式——至少在她的案例中是这样）可推知，Amy觉得只要孩子努力就能获得成功，所以她认为她的教育方式是有用的。故选B。