Question

More surprising, perhaps, than the present 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 drop in the early 1915s, the rate of marriage in the United States is now increasing. Even the divorce rate needs to be taken in this remarriage context: some 30 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 was made up 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 former 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 (配偶).

Thus, one can find every type of family arrangement. There are marriages without children; marriages with children from only the present marriage; marriages with “fulltime” children from both the present and former marriages; marriages with “fulltime” children from the present marriage and “part-time” children from former marriages. There are stepfathers, stepmothers, half brother’s, and half sisters. It is not all that unusual for a child to have four parents and eight grandparents! These are great 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.

72. By calling American marrying people the author means that       

A. Americans are more traditional than Europeans  

B. Americans expect more out of marriage than Europeans

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

D. more of Americans, as compared with Europeans, prefer marriage and they accept it at a younger age

73. Divorced Americans        .

A. prefer the way they live              B. will most likely remarry 

C. have lost faith in marriage            D. are the vast majority of people in the society

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

A. Many types of family arrangements have become socially acceptable.

B. A typical American family is made up of only a husband and a wife.

C. Americans prefer to have more kids than before. 

D. There are no nuclear families any more.

75. “Part time” children        .

A. spend some of their time with their half brothers and some of their time with their half sisters

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

C. are shared between the two former spouses    

D. cannot stay with “full time” children

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

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

B. the functions of marriage remain unchanged      

C. most Americans prefer a second marriage   

D. most divorced Americans would rather not remarry

Answer 1

73---76   BACA  

解析:

73.B  第一段最后一句明確指出，“大約30%的離婚者再婚。我們社會(huì)絕對(duì)大多數(shù)人更喜歡過(guò)婚姻生活。”A、C、D的表述與事實(shí)不符。

74.A  美國(guó)社會(huì)接受多種類型的家庭組合方式。文章第二、三段指出，目前美國(guó)家庭的組合方式與傳統(tǒng)的核心家庭相比發(fā)生了很大的變化。這種變化反映在孩子與家庭成員的關(guān)系上。分析四個(gè)選項(xiàng)，B、D與事實(shí)不符；家庭結(jié)構(gòu)的變化不能說(shuō)明傳統(tǒng)的核心家庭不存在了，因此D的觀點(diǎn)太片面。

75.C  “Part\|time children”是指父母離婚后由父母交替撫養(yǎng)的孩子。第二段最后一句指出了離婚家庭的兩種孩子，即“part\|time children”和“full\|time children”。根據(jù)第三段的描述，“full\|time children” 是指夫妻雙方目前的孩子，或目前與現(xiàn)父母住在一起的前婚的孩子；“part\|time children” 則是由離婚父母交替撫養(yǎng)的孩子。由此判斷，C是正確的；A、D不對(duì)；B所說(shuō)的是“full\|time children”. w.w.w.k.s.5.u.c.m

76.A  第一段最后一句和第三段最后一句為本文的主題句，即大多數(shù)美國(guó)人喜歡過(guò)婚姻生活，而且過(guò)著婚姻生活。這是不變的事實(shí)（constant）。由此看出，美國(guó)人對(duì)婚姻是有信心的。本文沒(méi)有涉及B和C的觀點(diǎn)