About six years ago I was eating lunch in a restaurant in New York City when a woman and a young boy sat down at the next table. I couldn’t help overhearing parts of their conversation. At one point the woman asked: “So, how have you been?” And the boy, who could not have been more than seven or eight years old, replied, “Frankly, I’ve been a little depressed lately.”
This incident stuck in my mind because it confirmed my growing belief that children are changing. As far as I can remember, my friends and I didn’t find out we were “depressed” until we were in high school.
The evidence of a change in children has increased steadily in recent years. Children don’t seem childlike anymore. Children speak more like adults, dress more like adults and behave more like adults than they used to.
Whether this is good or bad is difficult to say, but it certainly is different. Childhood as it once was no longer exists, why?
Human development is based not only on innate(天生) biological states, but also on patterns of access to social knowledge. Movement from one social rote(生搬硬套) to another usually involves learning the secrets of the new status. Children have always been taught adult secrets, but slowly and in stages: we tell sixth graders things we keep hidden from fifth graders.
In the last 30 years, however, a secret-revelation(揭示) machine has been brought in 98 percent of American homes. It is called television. Television passes information to all viewers alike, indiscriminately (不加区分地). Unable to resist the temptation, many children turn their attention from printed texts to the less challenging, more vivid moving pictures.
Communication through print, as a matter of fact, allows for a great deal of control over the social information to which children have access. Reading and writing involve a complex code of symbol that must be memorized and practices. Children must read simple books before they can read complex materials.
53. Traditionally, a child is supposed to learn about the adult world______________.
A. through contact with society
B. naturally and by biological instinct (本能)
C. gradually and under guidance
D. through exposure to social information
54. The phenomenon that today’s children seem adult like is due to ____________.
A. the widespread influence of television
B. the poor arrangement of teaching content
C. the fast pace of human intellectual development
D. the constantly rising standard of living
55. Why is the author in favor of communication through print for children?
A. It enables children to gain more social information.
B. It develops children’s interest in reading and writing.
C. It helps children to memorize and practice more.
D. It can control what children are to learn.
56. What does the author think of the change in today’s children?
A. He feels amused by their premature (早熟) behavior.
B. He thinks it is a phenomenon worthy of note.
C. He considers it a positive development.
D. He seems to be upset about it.

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