Question

Traditional fairy tales are being abandoned by parents because they are too scary for their young children, a study has found.

A research has discovered one in five parents has given up old classics such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Rapunzel in favour of more modern books. One third of parents say their children have been left in tears after hearing the horrible details of Little Red Riding Hood. And nearly half of mothers and fathers refuse to read Rumplestiltskin to their kids as the themes of the story are kidnapping and killing. Similarly, Goldilocks and the Three Bears is also a tale likely to be left on the book shelf as parents feel it forgives stealing.

The survey of 2,000 adults was completed to mark the launch of the hit US drama GRIMM, which starts tonight at 9 p.m. on Watch, and sees six drama series based on traditional fairy tales. The survey has found a quarter of parents polled will not consider reading a fairy tale to their children until they have reached the age of five, as they have to face too many awkward questions from their children.

Steve Hornsey, General Manager, Watch, said, “Bedtime stories are supposed to soothe children and send them off to sleep soundly. But as we see in GRIMM, some fairy tales can be dark and dramatic tales so it’ s understandable that parents worry about reading them to young children. As adults, we can see the innocence in fairy tales, but a five-year-old child would take them too seriously. Despite the dark nature of some classic fairy tales, as we see in GRIMM, good will defeat evil and there is always a moral to the story.”

The study also shows two thirds of mums and dads try to avoid stories which might give their children nightmares. However, half of parents think traditional tales are more likely to have a strong moral message than a lot of modern kids’ books, such as The Gruffalo, The Hungary Caterpillar and the Mr. Men books.

60. We can learn from Para. 3 that GRIMM is _________.

   A. a fairy tale book                    B. a movie for children

   C. a play loved by children             D. a drama based on traditional fairy tales

61. The underlined word “soothe” in Para. 4 can be replaced by “_________”.

   A. put down        B. calm down        C. take down      D. come down

62. Which of the following may Steve Hornsey agree to?

   A. A moral always exists in a classic fairy tale.

   B. All fairy tales are dark.

   C. Adults take fairy tales too seriously.

   D. All fairy tales are good for children’s sleep.

63. What’s the author’s attitude towards traditional fairy tales?

   A. Optimistic.    B. Not mentioned.         C. Casual.      D. Disapproving.

Answer 1

 DBAB