②　This episode crystallizes the irony that although American men tend to talk more than women in public situations, they often talk less at home. And this pattern is wreaking havoc with marriage.

③　The pattern was observed by political scientist Andrew Hacker in the late 1970s. Sociologist Catherine Kohler Riessman reports in her new book Divorce Talk that most of the women she interviewed – but only a few of the men – gave lack of communication as the reason for their divorces. Given the current divorce rate of nearly 50 percent, that amounts to millions of cases in the United States every year – a virtual epidemic of failed conversation.

④　In my own research, complaints from women about their husbands most often focused not on tangible inequities such as having given up the chance for a career to accompany a husband to his, or doing far more than their share of daily life-support work like cleaning, cooking and social arrangements. Instead, they focused on communication: “He doesn’t listen to me.” “He doesn’t talk to me.” I found, as Hacker observed years before, that most wives want their husbands to be, first and foremost, conversational partners, but few husbands share this expectation of their wives.

⑤　In short, the image that best represents the current crisis is the stereotypical cartoon scene of a man sitting at the breakfast table with a newspaper held up in front of his face, while a woman glares at the back of it, wanting to talk.

1.1.What is most wives’ main expectation of their husbands?

A Talking to them.

B Trusting them.

C Supporting their careers.

D Sharing housework.

解析：选A。A细节理解题。题干中的“expectation”是关键词，直接对应第四段末尾的“expectation”。该段明确指出，大多数妻子希望丈夫首先是“交谈伙伴（conversational partners）”，并且她们最大的抱怨是丈夫不和她们交流。因此A选项正确。

2.2.Judging from the context, the phrase “wreaking havoc” (Para. 2) most probably means ________.

A generating motivation

B exerting influence

C causing damage

D creating pressure

解析：选C。C词义猜测题。该短语出现在第二段，指出这种交流模式正在“wreaking havoc with marriage”。第三段紧接着用数据和研究表明，缺乏沟通是导致离婚的主要原因，每年有数百万案例。这些后果都是非常负面的，严重损害了婚姻关系。因此，“造成破坏”最符合上下文语境。

3.3.All of the following are true EXCEPT ________.

A men tend to talk more in public than women

B nearly 50 percent of recent divorces are caused by failed conversation

C women attach much importance to communication between couples

D a female tends to be more talkative at home than her spouse

解析：选B。B细节理解题。A、D选项符合第二段第一句内容“美国男性在公共场合常常比女性更加健谈，在家里却比女性话少”，C选项符合第三段第二句内容“绝大多数女性将其婚姻失败归因于‘缺乏交流’”。故三个选项均非答案。B选项表面上对应第三段第三句，但对比内容可知，二者信息并不一致：原文仅仅指出美国离婚率接近50%，且很多是因为沟通失败造成的，但文中并未说明究竟有多大比例是因为沟通失败造成的。故B为正确选项。

4.4.Which of the following can best summarize the main idea of this text?

A The moral decaying deserves more research by sociologists.

B Marriage break-up stems from sex inequalities.

C Husband and wife have different expectations from their marriage.

D Conversational patterns between man and wife are different.

解析：选D。D主旨大意题。文章通篇围绕一个核心现象展开：男女在公共场合和家庭中的谈话量存在差异（第二段），并详细阐述了这种差异化的沟通模式对婚姻造成的危害（第三段）、以及它是妻子们的主要抱怨（第四段）。D选项准确地抓住了这一核心。C选项虽然部分正确，但过于宽泛，本文讨论的“不同期望”特指对“沟通”的期望，其根源还是在于“沟通模式不同”。

5.5.In the following part immediately after this text, the author will most probably focus on ________.

A a vivid account of the new book Divorce Talk

B a detailed description of the stereotypical cartoon

C other possible reasons for a high divorce rate in the U.S.

D a brief introduction to the political scientist Andrew Hacker

解析：选B。B推理判断题。文章结尾处引入了一个“最能代表当前危机的”“老套的漫画场景”。按照英文写作常见的行文逻辑，作者很可能会在接下来的段落中，对这个已经点出的、具有高度概括性的场景进行更细致的描绘，或者以此为例展开更深层的讨论。因此，B选项是最符合逻辑的预测。