Question

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 people in our society.

What has changed more than marriage is the nuclear family? Twenty-five years ago, the typical American family consisted of a husband, a wife, and two or three children. Now, there are many marriages in which couples 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 the very type of family arrangement. There are marriages without children; marriages with children from only the present marriage, marriages with “full-time” children from the present marriage and “part-time” children from former marriages. There are step-fathers, step-mothers, 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.

1. By calling Americans marrying people the author means that__________.

A. there are more married couples in the U. S. A. than in Europe

B. more Americans prefer marriage and at a younger age than Europeans

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. Europeans 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 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 jobs to earn their living

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

C. are shared between the 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

Answer 1

BADCC