In this century the traditional American family is constantly faced with the threat of breakdown. Some sociologists suggest that one little-noticed cause may be the introduction of the TV dinner.
Before the appearance of television sets, the American dinner was a big event for the family. In many homes, dinner time may be the only time when everyone got together. A typical dinner was usually in three stages. In the preparation stage, the children and Father frequently helped with setting while Mother put the last touches on the roast. In the eating stage, family members shared the day's experiences and more than food was eaten. In this stage families got to know one another and made joint decisions around the dinner table, and thus the family unit was strengthened. In the cleaning-up stage, children or Father again gave their hands, so that their importance to the home community was clear. Unfortunately, all of these have been removed by a product---the television set.
By the beginning of the 1980s, the typical American family dinner was just twenty minutes long. The speed-up of the once-leisurely experiences is clearly connected to the pace of modern life and maybe a model of the modern life is the TV dinners --- meals designed to be eaten from the beginning to the end of a half-hour program. The once family affair has now become nothing more than the use of a fork and knife.
64. The underlined word in the second paragraph can be replaced by ____.
A. big B. important C. combined D. separate
65. In the past, Americans tended to ____.
A. spend more time eating their food at dinner table
B. eat more food than they have today
C. spend more time talking about their day's experiences at dinner table
D. talk so much that they forgot to eat
66. The shortening of the dinner time in America is related to ____.
A. the TV programs B. the pace of modern life
C. the wide use of electrical equipment D. the popularity of fast food
67. The best title for this passage might be ____.
A. Talk at Dinner Table B. TV Dinner
C. Pace of Modern Life D. Problems Caused by TV
