III. Cloze: Choose the best answer for each blank in the passage.
21-25
“16 and Pregnant,” a reality TV show, portrayed teenage parenthood realistically, with young
mothers suffering sleepless nights, howling brats, money worries and the blank incomprehension of
their still-partying childless contemporaries. According to the authors of a study by the National
Bureau of Economic Research, seeing all this drudgery helped deter young viewers 21 becoming
mothers—although the study only affirms that it reduced birth rates among blacks, 22 are more
likely than whites or Hispanics to become pregnant 23 teenagers—and 30 % more likely to watch
“16 and Pregnant.”
Despite what you see on TV, teen birth rates are at an all-time low: in 2010 there were 34.4 births
per 1,000 women 24 15-19, which is down 44 % from a peak in 1991. More information about
disease and contraception probably helped, and the recession may have played a part. 25 that a
TV show made a difference is hard, not least because it is tricky to measure how many people watched
it in the first place. More youngsters are seeing programs days after they air, or are streaming their
favorite shows online; data cannot always capture this.