¡¡¡¡According to Postman, medieval Europeans perceived no clear distinction between children and adults. Since the idea that secrets could or should be kept from children was unheard of, children inhabited the same social and intellectual environment as adults. Community life was an ¡°open book¡±, so to speak, accessible not just to adults but to the youth of society as well. The invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century, Postman argues, made possible a new symbolic world accessible only to adults. Effectively excluded from adult matters by their inability to read, children formed a new sphere all their own as a new and strenuous educational process separated the preª²literate world of the child from the literate world of the adult. According to this new stratification (division), distinct childhood customs on one hand and realms of experience and knowledge accessible only to adults on the other came into being.

¡¡¡¡Postman asserts that this separation existed until roughly the middle of the twentieth century, when television began its assault on literary culture and, through ubiquitous (omnipresent) entertainment and news programs, started to bring the entire population back into the same symbolic domain. Postman contends that much like in the Middle Ages, children today are becoming ¡°mini adults¡± in terms of dress, speech, food, activities, and general knowledge of the world. Moreover, this is not a one-0way process, but rather a convergence (junction) whereby the child becomes more adult-like and the adult becomes more child-like. Postman does not shy away from a major implication of his theory: that the disappearance of the child signifies the disappearance of the adult.

¡¡¡¡21. The author mentions ¡°an odd notion¡± (Par. 1) primarily in order to

¡¡¡¡£ÛA£Ý emphasize the unusual theme of Postman¡¯s theory.

¡¡¡¡£ÛB£Ý discount in advance opposition to Postman¡¯s theory.

¡¡¡¡£ÛC£Ý indicate the controversial subject of Postman¡¯s theory.

¡¡¡¡£ÛD£Ý illustrate Postman¡¯s theory in a socio-historic context.

¡¡¡¡22. It can be inferred from the text that medieval children

¡¡¡¡£ÛA£Ý kept secrets from their parents.

¡¡¡¡£ÛB£Ý had the same social status as adults.

¡¡¡¡£ÛC£Ý were unsegregated from adult matters.

¡¡¡¡£ÛD£Ý were informed of all forms of mystery.

¡¡¡¡23. According to Postman, a true division of childhood and adult spheres features

¡¡¡¡£ÛA£Ý the dawn of the information time.

¡¡¡¡£ÛB£Ý the period prior to the Middle Ages.

¡¡¡¡£ÛC£Ý the mid-twentieth century to the present.

¡¡¡¡£ÛD£Ý the fifteenth century to the mid-twentieth.

¡¡¡¡24. Postman primarily implies in his theory that

¡¡¡¡£ÛA£Ý children mature much earlier than before.

¡¡¡¡£ÛB£Ý adults are increasingly becoming childish.

¡¡¡¡£ÛC£Ý modern media spur children into fast growth.

¡¡¡¡£ÛD£Ý adulthood and childhood vanish simultaneously.

¡¡¡¡25. The phrasal verb ¡°shy away from¡± at the end of the text probably means

¡¡¡¡£ÛA£Ý discard. £ÛB£Ý evade.

¡¡¡¡£ÛC£Ý be nervous about. £ÛD£Ý be hesitant about.

¡¡¡¡Text2

¡¡¡¡Gross national product (GNP) was created to assess the national capacity of wartime production during World War ¢ò. Since then its heir, gross domestic product (GDP), has become virtually synonymous with economic progress. However, some economists have recent argued that GDP was never intended to function as an indicator of societal well-being, and that an overª²reliance on this figure as a comprehensive measure of the country¡¯s ¡°prosperity¡± is both simplistic and misleading.

¡¡¡¡GDP critics assert that as a simple gross record of money spent, GDP does not distinguish between transactions that increase society¡¯s health and those that diminish it. For example, a nationwide increase in heart disease causes money to flow into the medical industry, sending GDP higher in response to a decrease in social welfare. Even a downward spiral of societal detriments (harm) can boost GDP, often to the general applause of the economic establishment. Take, for example, the consequences of traffic. By itself traffic is a societal menace, yet it both results from and contributes to economic growth. The more traffic, the more gas is consumed, which causes GDP to increase. As traffic increases, so too does pollution, triggering environmental protection responses which also contribute to GDP. Increased pollution results in more people admitted to hospitals with respiratory problems such as asthma and bronchitis. Meanwhile, the increased traffic takes its toll on the roads, which causes additional damage to cars, resulting in even more money spent on road and car repairs.

¡¡¡¡While one major flaw of GDP is that it equates societal detriments with growth as long as money changes hands, there is another problem with this indicator: the numerous nonª²monetary factors not included in GDP that should be represented by an indicator to reflect the nation¡¯s economic status. For example, while by all accounts childrearing efforts are considered of vital importance to the current and future health of society, they are not factored into GDP unless performed in a paid service capacity. Conversely, the widening income gap, increasing debt, and the degradation of natural resources all negatively affect our economic reality, but are not recognized by GDP as costs.