单选题 Marriage in Men's Lives is a courageous and innovative book: courageous because it tackles a politically and socially charged issue—marriage as a social institution—in a time when texts on the family portray marriage as just one of any number of equally valuable lifestyle choices; innovative because it looks closely at the ways in which a key social institution affects individuals, in this case, the way that marriage affects men.
Even as sex differences within marriage have diminished, the role of husband still plays a unique function in the lives of men. Steven Nock argues that adolescent boys face challenges in becoming men that adolescent girls do not face in becoming women. According to Nock, "Masculinity is precarious and must be sustained in adulthood. Normative marriage does this. A man develops, sustains, and displays his masculine identity in his marriage. The adult roles that men occupy as husbands are core aspect of their masculinity." The behaviors expected of married men as husbands, according to Nock, are the same behaviors expected of husbands as men. So getting married and successfully doing the things that husbands do allows men to achieve and sustain their masculinity.
Nock argues that if marriage provides a mechanism through Which men establish and maintain their masculinity, marriage should have consistent and predictable consequences. He reasons that normative marriage will have different consequences than other forms of marriage. Nock argues that marriage causes men to become more successful, participate in social life, and to become more philanthropic. This is, in today's climate of extreme caution about causal relationships, a bold claim. He tests it using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and fixed effect models, to separate changes that accompany aging from those that happen uniquely at marriage. To measure achievement, Nock uses annual income, annual weeks worked, and occupational prestige. He measures social participation with time spent on housework, social contacts, and organizational involvement; and he measures generosity with gifts to non-relatives and loans to relatives and non-relatives.
To summarize his results too briefly, when men marry, their achievements rise on all measures; they reduce their time in housework; increase their contact with relatives, church services and church events, and coworkers; and decrease contact with friends and time in bars. When men marry, they give fewer and smaller gifts and loans to non-relatives and more and larger loans to relatives. Nock also looks at changes in each of the measures of adult achievement, social participation, and generosity with changes in each of the dimensions of normative marriage. He finds, generally, that moves toward normative marriage increase achievements, social participation with family and religious organizations, and generosity to relatives. Changes toward more normative marriage also reduce men's time in housework, their social contacts with friends, and social events in bars.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】第一段就称《男人生活中的婚姻》这本书“有胆识、观点新颖”，说它有胆识是因为，当讨论家庭的其他文献将结婚仅描述为是可供选择的、有价值的生活方式中的一种时，它却指向一个政治和社会上热门的话题——作为社会制度的婚姻；说它观点新颖是因为，它详细地剖析了一种重要的社会制度对社会个体的影响——婚姻如何影响男人。其他三段介绍了这本书的主要观点．并特别指出了这些观点是在调查的基础上取得的。