More surprising, perhaps, than the current difficulties of traditional marriage is the fact that marriage itself is alive and thriving. As Skolnick notes, Americans are a marrying people: relative to Europeans, more of us marry and we marry at a younger age. Moreover, after a decline in the early 1970s, the rate of marriage in the United States is now increasing. Even the divorce rate needs to be taken in this pro- marriage context: some 80 percent of divorced individuals remarry. Thus, marriage remains by far the preferred way of life for the vast majority of the people in our society.

　　What has changed more than marriage is the nuclear family. Twenty- five years ago, the typical American family consisted of the husband, the wife, and two or three children. Now, there are many marriages in whichcouples have decided not to have any children, and there are many marriages where at least some of the children are from the wife’s previous marriage, or the husband’s, or both. Sometimes these children spend all of their time with one parent from the former marriage; sometimes they are shared between the two former spouses .

　　Thus, one can find every type of tamely arrangement. There are marriages without children; marriages with children from only the present marriages; marriages with“full - time”children from both the present and former marriages; marriages with“full- time”children from the present marriage and“part- time”childrenfrom former marriages. There are stepfathers, stepmothers, half- brothers and half-sisters. It is not all that unusual for a child to have four parents and eight grandparents! These are enormous changes from the traditional nuclear family. But even so, even in the midst of all this, there remains one constant: most Americans spend most of their adult lives married.

　　練習(xí)題：

　　Choose correct answers to the question:

　　1.By calling Americans a marrying people the writer means that ________.

　　A.Americans are more traditional than Europeans

　　B More Americans prefer marriage and at a younger age than European

　　C.most divorced individuals remarry

　　D.marriage is the most important part of American life

　　2.From the first paragraph we can know that ____

　　A.traditional marriage now runs into difficulty

　　B.marriage rate has been rising since the 1970

　　C.marriage rate in Europe is rather low

　　D.European marry when they are quite old

　　3.Which of the following can be presented as the picture of today’s American families?

　　A. There are no nuclear families any more.

　　B. A family usually consists of only a husband ,a wife and two or three children

　　C. a child usually has four grandparents

　　D. Many types of family rearrangements have become socially acceptable.

　　4. “Part-time ”children ____

　　A.do part-time job to earn their living

　　B.spend all of their time with one parent from the previous marriage

　　C.are shared between the two former spouses

　　D.are quite unusual even in the U.S.A

　　5.Even though great changes have taken place in the structure of American families, ________ .

　　A. the functions of marriage remain unchanged

　　B. most Americans prefer a second marriage

　　C. the vast majority of Americans still have faith in marriage

　　D. nuclear family is alive and thriving

　　答案

　　1.[B] 事實(shí)細(xì)節(jié)題。本題考查特殊符號處。作者在第1段第2句很清楚地在Americans are a marrying people后面用冒號引出對這一說法的解釋。對比選項(xiàng)A與選項(xiàng)B，就可發(fā)現(xiàn)選項(xiàng)A不夠完整。

　　2.[A] 推理判斷題。第1段第1句的主語揭示了答案應(yīng)為選項(xiàng)A。選項(xiàng)B與原文第1段第3句的陳述不符，選項(xiàng)C和D均無原文依據(jù)。

　　3.[D] 推理判斷題。本題涉及第2段的理解，該段第1句是一個(gè)主語從句，也可視為該段的主題句，點(diǎn)出了本段的主題是nuclear family，該段其他句子描述了什么是nuclear family。本題其實(shí)考査哪個(gè)選項(xiàng)是對nuclear family的正確描述，明白了第2段的結(jié)構(gòu)后，找出正確答案就不難了。

　　4.[C] 推理判斷題。在最后一段第1句中，通過對比full-time和part-time的本義，以及聯(lián)系上下文講到的家庭現(xiàn)象，可以推斷出part-time children應(yīng)是指時(shí)不時(shí)和父親或母親生活的小孩，由此可見，選項(xiàng)C是正確答案。 選項(xiàng)A毫無原文依據(jù)，B明顯錯(cuò)誤，題干中問的是part-time children，故顯然不可能spend all of their time,否則修飾語就應(yīng)該是full-time,選項(xiàng)D與“It is not all that unusual…”相悖。

　　5.[C] 推理判斷題。文章結(jié)尾處暗示了答案。原文并未討論婚姻的功能，故選項(xiàng)A不對，選項(xiàng)B并無依據(jù)，選項(xiàng)D有悖第2段第1句的意思。

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