loadingreads this book will have no excuse for not thinking about it.”以及最后一段的最后一句“And if she helps readers understand a little better the loss and suffering lies behind the exploitation of the rare earths, then it becomes in every sense a good book.”可知作者认为这本书引人深思，是一本好书。所以作者是很欣赏这本书的。appreciative“欣赏的”。
B
(2020·南京三模)British children used to play conkers (板栗游戏) in the autumn when the horse-chestnut trees started to drop their shiny brown nuts.They would select a suitable chestnut, drill a hole in it and thread it onto a string, then swing their conker at that of an opponent until one of them broke.But the game has fallen out of favour.Children spend less time outdoors and rarely have access to chestnut trees.Besides, many schools have banned conkers games, worried that they might cause injuries or nut allergies.
That sort of risk-averseness (规避风险) now spreads through every aspect of childhood.Playgrounds have all the excitement designed out of them to make them safe.Many governments, particularly in societies such as America, have tightened up their rules, requiring parents to supervise
(监管)
young children far more closely than in the past.Frank Furedi of the University of Kent, a critic on modern parenting, argues that allowing children to play unsupervised or leaving them at home alone is increasingly described as a symptom of irresponsible parenting.
In part, such increased caution is a response to the huge wave of changes.Largescale urbanization, smaller and more mobile families, the move of women into the labor market and the digitization of many aspects of life have unavoidably changed the way that people bring up their children.There is little chance that any of these trends will be changed, so today's more intensive (精细化的) parenting style is likely to go on.
Such parenting practices now embraced by wealthy parents in many parts of the rich world, particularly in America, go far beyond an adjustment to changes in external conditions.They mean a strong bid to ensure that the advantages enjoyed by the parents' generation are passed on to their children.Since success in life now turns mainly on education, such parents will do their best to provide their children with the schooling, the character training and the social skills that will secure access to the best universities and later the most attractive jobs.
To some extent that has always been the case.But there are more such parents
now,
and
they_are_competing_with_each_other_for_what_economists_call_positional_goods.This competition starts even before the children are born.The wealthy classes will take their time to select a suitable spouse and get married, and will start a family only when they feel ready for it.
Children from less advantaged backgrounds, by contrast, often appear before their parents are ready for them.In America 60% of births to single women under 30 are unplanned, and over 40% of children are born outside marriage.The result, certainly in America, has been to widen already massive social inequalities yet further.
All the evidence suggests that children from poorer backgrounds are at a disadvantage almost as soon as they are born.By the age of five or six they are far less “school-ready” than their better off peers, so any attempts to help them catch up have to start long before they get to school.America has had some success with various schemes involving regular home visits by nurses or social workers to low-income families with new babies.It also has long experience with programmes for young children from poor families that combine support for parents with good quality child care.Such programmes do seem to make a difference.Without extra effort, children from low-income
families in most countries are much less likely than their better-off peers to attend preschool education, even though they are more likely to benefit from it.And data from the OECD's PISA programme suggest that children need at least two years of preschool education to perform at their best when they are 15.
So the most promising way to ensure greater equality may be to make early-years education and care far more widely available and more affordable, as it is in the Nordics.Some governments are already rethinking their educational priorities, shifting some of their spending to the early years.
Most rich countries decided more than a century ago that free, compulsory education for all children was a worthwhile investment for society.There is now an argument for starting preschool education earlier, as some countries have already done.In the face of crushing new inequalities, a modern version of that approach is worth trying.
语篇解读：富裕的家庭想尽办法让孩子受到较好的早期教育和关怀，让孩子赢在起跑线上。但是那些贫苦家庭的孩子却无法享受到这些。这种教育不平等应该得到社会各界的重视。 7．What can we learn from the first two paragraphs? A．More attention is placed on children's safety. B．More and more parents are becoming irresponsible. C．Children are no longer interested in outdoor activities. D．Parents are advised to spend more time with their children. 解析：选A 细节理解题。第一段主要讲述了现在许多学校都禁止孩子们玩一些以前孩子经常玩的游戏，因为怕孩子意外受伤，然后第二段说这种对风险的厌恶现在蔓延到了孩子的各个方面。由此可见现在越来越重视孩子的安全。
8．Which of the following about intensive parenting style is TRUE? A．Chances are that this style could be changed.
B．Financial pressure forces parents to be stricter. C．Rich families adopt such style to keep their advantages. D．Such style is largely influenced by the size of the family. 解析：选C 推理判断题。根据文章第四段第一句话“Such parenting practices now embraced by wealthy parents ... ”以及第二句“ ... to ensure that the advantages enjoyed by the parents' generation are passed on to their children.”可知富裕家庭采取这种更加精细的育儿方式来保持自己的优势。
9．What does the underlined sentence imply?
A．Economists offer practical advice to guide parenting. B．A happy marriage secures children's social positions. C．Unfair division of social resources drives parents mad. D．Parents are struggling for their children's edge over peers. 解析：选D 句意理解题。根据其上一句“But there are more such parents now”可知现在这样的父母越来越多了，所以父母之间必须为经济学家所称的“位置商品”而相互竞争，努力争取让自己的孩子们比同龄人更具优势。
10．Which is the proper measure to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor?
A．Parents are persuaded to give birth to babies in their later years. B．Funds are provided for poor children after they are admitted to school. C．New babies in low-income families are sent to nurses or social workers. D．Children from low-income families are ensured to receive early education.
解析：选D 推理判断题。根据倒数第二段第一句“So the most promising way to ensure greater equality may be to make early-years education and care far more widely available and more affordable.”可知确保更大的平等的，最有希望的方法可能是让更多的父母能够有机会，有财力让他们的孩子接受早期教育。
11．What's the author's attitude towards investment in preschool