Our personal celebrations, 22 weddings, promotions, graduations, and anniversaries, are 23 linked with drinking. 24 children can attend any family affair without seeing the adults enjoying their liquor.
答案：(A) Few
語意是「很少有小孩能在不看到大人喝酒的情況下參加家庭聚會」，Few 修飾可數複數名詞 children，表示「很少的」；Little 修飾不可數名詞不能修飾 children，Small 不用於這種「數量很少」的句型，Many 語意相反（相反於原意）。
本題大考中心未公布逐題答對率，以下不談數據，只談觀念。
四個選項都與數量有關，而這一句還藏了一個雙重否定，讀快了會把意思讀反。
先看空格後面那個名詞：children，是可數名詞的複數，所以表示「很少」要用 Few（Little 只修飾不可數名詞）。再把整句的意思讀對，這一步比選字更重要：Few children can attend any family affair without seeing the adults enjoying their liquor.字面是「很少有小孩能參加任何家庭聚會而沒看到大人在喝酒」，Few（幾乎沒有）加上 without（沒有）是兩個否定，兩個一疊就翻回肯定——實際的意思是「幾乎每個小孩參加家庭聚會時都會看到大人在喝酒」。這正好接得住整段的論點：喝酒已經滲入每一個家庭場合。順便把這一組的兩層一起記：原級是 little ＋ 不可數、few ＋ 可數複數（85 年第 21 題考的是 very little English）；比較級是 less ＋ 不可數、fewer ＋ 可數複數（88 年第 24 題考的是 fewer enemies）。三題擺在一起看，這一組就不會再混。
Little：只修飾不可數名詞，children 是可數複數。Many（許多）：語意相反，而且會變成「很多小孩參加聚會時看不到大人喝酒」，與整段的論點正好對著幹。Small（小的）：講體積或規模，不用來講「數量很少」。
few ＋ 可數複數（幾乎沒有……）、little ＋ 不可數（幾乎沒有……）、a family affair（家庭聚會）、attend（出席）、without V-ing（沒有做……）、enjoy one’s liquor（喝酒作樂）。
America encourages its young people to drink. 21 , our society makes drinking a part of every celebration. Our personal celebrations, 22 weddings, promotions, graduations, and anniversaries, are 23 linked with drinking. 24 children can attend any family affair without seeing the adults enjoying their liquor. Drinking is part of our national celebrations as well. The Fourth of July means beer and New Year's Eve is an entire night dedicated to the proposition that everyone must get 25 .
Secondly, the shows young people watch on television encourage them to drink. On 26 every soap opera, the characters drink casually and often. The rock videos young people watch over and over again feature alcohol, too. 27 on the videos sit in bars, nightclubs, and roadhouses. Drinking, the message goes, is cool.
The strongest encouragement to drink that young people receive, 28 , comes from advertisers. Beer companies often sponsor the sports events young people watch. In addition, advertisements for liquor, on TV and in print, show situations that are 29 to the young. People hoist their glasses 30 they are sitting around ski lodges, sailing, dancing, or enjoying a football game. We may say we don't want our children to drink, but our messages say just the opposite.