Although we live in an era where everything seems to be available immediately，our study suggests that today's kids can delay gratification（滿(mǎn)足感） longer than children in the 1960s and 1980s，" said University of Minnesota psychologist Stephanie M．Carlson．" This finding stands in great contrast with the assumption by adults that today's children have less self-control than previous generations．
   The original marshmallow（棉花糖） test conducted by researchers at Stanford University involved a series of experiments in which children aged between 3 and 5 years were offered one treat that they could eat immediately or a larger treat if they waited．Researchers then left the room to see how long the children would wait and watched from behind a one-way mirror．
   Interestingly，today's adults thought that children nowadays would be more impulsive and less able to wait，Carlson found． "Our findings serve as an example of how our beliefs can be wrong and how it's important to do research，" said co-author Yuichi Shoda，PhD at the University of Washington．
   The researchers offered several possible explanations for why children in the 2000s waited longer than those in prior decades．They noted a statistically significant increase in IQ scores in the last several decades．Another explanation may be society's increased focus on the importance of early education，according to Carlson．The primary objective of preschool changed from largely custodial care （監(jiān)護(hù)） to school readiness in the 1980s．Parenting also has changed in ways that help promote the development of executive function，such as being more supportive of children's self-control，the researchers noted．
   Walter Mischel of Columbia University，who co-authored this paper，noted that "while the results indicate that the children's ability to delay is not weakened on the marshmallow test，the findings do not speak to their willingness to delay gratification when faced with the many temptations now available in everyday life．"

（1）According to the passage，what is the adults' assumption about today's children？
A．They are not easy to please．
B．They are less able to control themselves．
C．They don't like things that are easy to get．
D．They have different personalities from previous generations．
（2）What does the underlined word "impulsive" in Paragraph 3 mean？
A．productive
B．considerate
C．clear-minded
D．hot-headed
（3）What did the researchers find about children in the 2000s？
A．They are more prepared to go to school．
B．They are not as clever as previous generations．
C．They are taught self-control only by their teachers．
D．They don't need any custodial care in their early childhood．
（4）What does the author want to tell readers in the last paragraph？
A．Most children nowadays can't resist the temptations of everyday life．
B．Children chose to delay gratification willingly in the marshmallow test．
C．The test can't accurately measure children's willingness to delay gratification．
D．Children's ability to delay gratification is weakened because there are many temptations．

【考點(diǎn)】生命的意義與價(jià)值；議論文．

【答案】B；D；A；C