单选题
Listen to part of a lecture in a sociology class.
Now get ready to answer the questions. You may use your notes to help you answer.
Now get ready to answer the questions. You may use your notes to help you answer.
单选题
What is the lecture mainly about?
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[听力原文]
Professor: Good morning, class. I"m here to dispel some rumors about the changes in marriage that you have likely heard.
Student: I don"t think they"re all rumors. More marriages axe ending in divorce, people are getting married later or deciding not to marry at all and in Canada and parts of Europe homosexual couples are allowed to marry.
Professor: I"m not trying to get a rise out of you. I"m simply saying that these changes to the traditional role of marriage like you mentioned are not new. They existed, except for gay marriage before the industrial revolution. In fact, if we measure the duration of marriages that took place in the 20th century, they were more stable than at almost any other time in history. For example, the 1950s saw marriages last roughly 31 years in America. In contrast, in the mid 1550s in some places in Britain marriages lasted roughly 17 years.
Student: I can"t believe it. You"re really taking me by surprise. I thought marriages have been decreasing steadily throughout time. I guess I"m in the dark about marriage. I was under the impression that marriages lasted forever a long time ago.
Professor: Don"t worry, you"re not alone. Many people are under that same impression. It"s true that marriages in pre-industrial times did not end for the same reasons as they do today. More often than not, the cause was the early death of either the husband or wife.
Student: What did they die from?
Professor: Well, keep in mind that living standards, household and public sanitation and health were a far cry from what we have now. They improved in the later 18th century when people began to live longer and the average duration of marriages began to climb. Who can tell me what happened to the widows or widowers in the early 1800s?
Student: I expect they died single.
Professor: I"ll let that comment slide. Many widows and widowers went on to remarry. In fact, about one third of all marriages in Manchester, England in the 1650s, were second and sometimes third marriages for at least one partner. This meant that like many households today, they were often filled with all combinations of half and step-siblings, just for different reasons, mainly death.
Student: What about the fact that people are waiting to get married these days? Did that also happen back then?
Professor: You are quite right, although it was basically restricted to Western Europe, where the young might wait many years before marrying. If we look at urban dwellers between 1600 and 1850, the average bridegroom at his first marriage was aged 28, the bride at hers was 26, though girls who were well-off tended to marry quite a lot younger. The reasons for late marriage are not clear. For the affluent, perhaps it was the inheritance laws in England and southern France, which favored the eldest sons, along with the increase in universities. As for the not-so-fortunate, there is evidence from France, Italy and England that from the 16th century the poor riving in rural areas also married late, but for reasons such as lack of finance to set up house on their own or be able to support children.
Student: What about the role of women? How was that different back then?
Professor: It may come as a shock, but women usually worked. It was not until industrial times that the expectation spread that a wife should stay at home with the children. Factory life, drawing men in even greater numbers away from the home, began to establish the idea that women should stay at home and look after the children and the home. Thankfully, the notion of the stay-at-home mother was short-lived. Women found their rightful places in the workforce with the help of the contraceptive pill and the onset of non-muscular work in an information technology age.
Student: These days many people prefer not to get married and instead lead a single life. Did this kind of single life exist back then?
Professor: Yes. Although people died at an earlier age, about a quarter of the people in France, England and Sweden never married. Films, TV shows and books that deal with unhappy 30-something single men and women don"t seem so new anymore, do they?
[解析] 教授说的第一句话概括了这堂课的主题，他说：I"m here to dispel some rumors baout the changes in marriage that you have likely heard. 可见讲座的主要内容是婚姻没有发生变化，即主要探讨了过去的婚姻形式。
Marriage
Professor: Good morning, class. I"m here to dispel some rumors about the changes in marriage that you have likely heard.
Student: I don"t think they"re all rumors. More marriages axe ending in divorce, people are getting married later or deciding not to marry at all and in Canada and parts of Europe homosexual couples are allowed to marry.
Professor: I"m not trying to get a rise out of you. I"m simply saying that these changes to the traditional role of marriage like you mentioned are not new. They existed, except for gay marriage before the industrial revolution. In fact, if we measure the duration of marriages that took place in the 20th century, they were more stable than at almost any other time in history. For example, the 1950s saw marriages last roughly 31 years in America. In contrast, in the mid 1550s in some places in Britain marriages lasted roughly 17 years.
Student: I can"t believe it. You"re really taking me by surprise. I thought marriages have been decreasing steadily throughout time. I guess I"m in the dark about marriage. I was under the impression that marriages lasted forever a long time ago.
Professor: Don"t worry, you"re not alone. Many people are under that same impression. It"s true that marriages in pre-industrial times did not end for the same reasons as they do today. More often than not, the cause was the early death of either the husband or wife.
Student: What did they die from?
Professor: Well, keep in mind that living standards, household and public sanitation and health were a far cry from what we have now. They improved in the later 18th century when people began to live longer and the average duration of marriages began to climb. Who can tell me what happened to the widows or widowers in the early 1800s?
Student: I expect they died single.
Professor: I"ll let that comment slide. Many widows and widowers went on to remarry. In fact, about one third of all marriages in Manchester, England in the 1650s, were second and sometimes third marriages for at least one partner. This meant that like many households today, they were often filled with all combinations of half and step-siblings, just for different reasons, mainly death.
Student: What about the fact that people are waiting to get married these days? Did that also happen back then?
Professor: You are quite right, although it was basically restricted to Western Europe, where the young might wait many years before marrying. If we look at urban dwellers between 1600 and 1850, the average bridegroom at his first marriage was aged 28, the bride at hers was 26, though girls who were well-off tended to marry quite a lot younger. The reasons for late marriage are not clear. For the affluent, perhaps it was the inheritance laws in England and southern France, which favored the eldest sons, along with the increase in universities. As for the not-so-fortunate, there is evidence from France, Italy and England that from the 16th century the poor riving in rural areas also married late, but for reasons such as lack of finance to set up house on their own or be able to support children.
Student: What about the role of women? How was that different back then?
Professor: It may come as a shock, but women usually worked. It was not until industrial times that the expectation spread that a wife should stay at home with the children. Factory life, drawing men in even greater numbers away from the home, began to establish the idea that women should stay at home and look after the children and the home. Thankfully, the notion of the stay-at-home mother was short-lived. Women found their rightful places in the workforce with the help of the contraceptive pill and the onset of non-muscular work in an information technology age.
Student: These days many people prefer not to get married and instead lead a single life. Did this kind of single life exist back then?
Professor: Yes. Although people died at an earlier age, about a quarter of the people in France, England and Sweden never married. Films, TV shows and books that deal with unhappy 30-something single men and women don"t seem so new anymore, do they?
[解析] 教授说的第一句话概括了这堂课的主题，他说：I"m here to dispel some rumors baout the changes in marriage that you have likely heard. 可见讲座的主要内容是婚姻没有发生变化，即主要探讨了过去的婚姻形式。
单选题
Listen again to part of the lecture. Then answer the question.
What can be inferred about the student when he says this?
What can be inferred about the student when he says this?
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[听力原文]
Student: I guess I"m in the dark about marriage.
What can be inferred about the student when he says this?
[解析] “in the dark”是“一无所知”的意思。这部分内容是说学生本来以为自己对婚姻比较了解，但是听了教授的话才意识到自己原来什么都不知道。
Student: I guess I"m in the dark about marriage.
What can be inferred about the student when he says this?
[解析] “in the dark”是“一无所知”的意思。这部分内容是说学生本来以为自己对婚姻比较了解，但是听了教授的话才意识到自己原来什么都不知道。
单选题
What can be the basic assumption of the professor before starting the class?
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 从“I"m here to dispel some rumors about the changes in marriage that you have likely heard.”这句话中可以找到答案。其深层次含义为：教授认为现代的婚姻形态实际上在过去也存在，并没有发生多大变化。对于过去的婚姻，人们的看法是错误的。通过dispel some rumors即可推出答案为B。
单选题
What was one major factor for the increasing length of marriages after the 1800"s?
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] 解答本题须定位到教授说的这句话：They improved in the later 18th century when people began to live longer and the average duration of marriages began to climb. They指代的是此句之前的living standards, household and public sanitation and health。C选项是对上述内容所表达含义的同义转述。
单选题
Listen again to part of the lecture. Then answer the question.
Why does the professor say this?
Why does the professor say this?
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[听力原文]
Professor: Who can tell me what happened to the widows or widowers in the early 1800s?
Student: I expect they died single.
Professor: I"ll let that comment slide.
Why does the professor say this?
I"ll let that comment slide.
[解析] 一般来说当听到让自己心情不好的话时，就会用这句话。let...slide这个习语的本意为“放任、忽视某事”，在此可直译为教授“不予置评”。因此这里就可解释为“学生的答案是错误的”，教授否定了他的回答。
Professor: Who can tell me what happened to the widows or widowers in the early 1800s?
Student: I expect they died single.
Professor: I"ll let that comment slide.
Why does the professor say this?
I"ll let that comment slide.
[解析] 一般来说当听到让自己心情不好的话时，就会用这句话。let...slide这个习语的本意为“放任、忽视某事”，在此可直译为教授“不予置评”。因此这里就可解释为“学生的答案是错误的”，教授否定了他的回答。
单选题
Listen again to part of the lecture. Then answer the question.
What does the professor mean by this?
What does the professor mean by this?
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[听力原文]
Student: These days many people prefer not to get married and instead lead a single life. Did this kind of single life exist back then?
Professor: Yes. Although people died at an earlier age, about a quarter of the people in France, England and Sweden never married. Films, TV shows and books that deal with unhappy 30-something single men and women don"t seem so new anymore, do they?
What does the professor mean by this?
Films, TV shows and books that deal with unhappy 30-sornething single men and women don"t seem so new anymore, do they?
[解析] 在过去也有很多单身男女，所以这样的主题已经不再让我们感到新鲜了，即这样的主题过去也很普遍。
Student: These days many people prefer not to get married and instead lead a single life. Did this kind of single life exist back then?
Professor: Yes. Although people died at an earlier age, about a quarter of the people in France, England and Sweden never married. Films, TV shows and books that deal with unhappy 30-something single men and women don"t seem so new anymore, do they?
What does the professor mean by this?
Films, TV shows and books that deal with unhappy 30-sornething single men and women don"t seem so new anymore, do they?
[解析] 在过去也有很多单身男女，所以这样的主题已经不再让我们感到新鲜了，即这样的主题过去也很普遍。