The booming economy means people are working harder than ever. And that doesn’t leave much room for relationships. Pimpi Arroyo, a 35-year-old composer who lives alone in a house in Paris, says he hasn’t got time to get lonely because he has too much work. “I have deadlines which would make life with someone else fairly difficult.” Only an Ideal Woman would make him change his lifestyle, he says. Kaufmann, author of a recent book called “The Single Woman and Prince Charming,” thinks this fierce new individualism means that people expect more and more of mates, so relationships don’t last long-if they start at all. Eppendorf, a blond Berliner with a deep tan, teaches grade school in the mornings. In the afternoon she sunbathes or sleeps, resting up for going dancing. Just shy of 50, she says she’d never have wanted to do what her mother did-give up a career to raise a family. Instead, “I’ve always done what I wanted to do: live a self-determined life.”

　　52. More and more young Europeans remain single because ________.

　　A) they are driven by an overwhelming sense of individualism

　　B) they have entered the workforce at a much earlier age

　　C) they have embraced a business culture of stability

　　D) they are pessimistic about their economic future

　　53. What is said about European society in the passage?

　　A) It has fostered the trend towards small families.

　　B) It is getting closer to American-style capitalism.

　　C) It has limited consumer choice despite a free market.

　　D) It is being threatened by irresistible privatization.

　　54. According to Paragraph 3, the newest group of singles are ________.

　　A) warm and lighthearted

　　B) on either side of marriage

　　C) negative and gloomy

　　D) healthy and wealthy

　　55. The author quotes Eppendorf to show that ________.

　　A) some modern women prefer a life of individual freedom

　　B) the family is no longer the basic unit of society in present-day Europe

　　C) some professional people have too much work to do to feel lonely

　　D) most Europeans conceive living a single life as unacceptable