单选题
Marriage, and its many ups and downs, still exercises a powerful hold over newspapers, magazines and the airwaves. Nearly 23m Americans watched Prince William being joined in holy marriage to Kate Middleton. Millions more have indulged in the break-up of Arnold Schwarzenegger's marriage after revelations that he fathered a son with a maid. Less delightful are revelations about the sorry state of marriage across the United States. Data from the Census Bureau show that married couples, for the first time, now make up less than half of all households. The iconic American family, with mom, dad and kids under one roof, is fading. In every state the numbers of unmarried couples, childless households and single-person households are growing faster than those comprised of married people with children, finds the 2010 census. And the trend has a potent class dimension. Traditional marriage has evolved from a near-universal ritual to a luxury for the educated and affluent. There barely was a marriage gap in 1960: only four percentage points separated the wedded ways of college and high-school graduates(76％ versus 72％). The gap has since widened to 16 percentage points, according to the Pew Research Centre. "Marriage has become much more selective, and that's why the divorce rate has come down," said Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. The project found that divorce rates for couples with college degrees are only a third as high as for those with a high-school degree. Americans with a high-school degree or less tell researchers they would like to marry, but do not believe they can afford it. Instead, they raise children out of wedlock. Only 6％ of children born to college-educated mothers were born outside marriage, according to the National Marriage Project. That compares with 44％ of babies born to mothers whose education ended with high school. "Less marriage means less income and more poverty," reckons Isabel Sawhill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. She and other researchers have linked as much as half of the income inequality in America to changes in family composition: single-parent families (mostly those with a high-school degree or less) are getting poorer while married couples (with educations and dual incomes) are increasingly well-off. "This is a striking gap that is not well understood by the public," she says. Do not expect the Democratic Party, however, to make an issue of the marriage gap in next year's elections. Unmarried women voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama. "You don't want to suggest to someone who isn't married and has children that they should be married," says Ms Sawhill. "That is a scorn on their lifestyle./
单选题
The first two paragraphs suggest that______. [A] the public like to spy on celebrities' marriage [B] many celebrities' marriages are going wrong [C] Americans' marriage is going downhill [D] people feel sorry for Americans' marriage
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[试题类型] 推理引申题。 [解题思路] 根据本题关键词可将本题定位至第一、二段。开篇首先提出“婚姻”大受关注(exercises a powerful hold over newspapers...)，并用威廉王子大婚和施瓦辛格离婚为例说明美国人对婚姻的关注度。接着第二段指出，美国人的婚姻现状让人难过(less delightful, sorry state of marriage)，已婚夫妇的比例已经降到了历史最低(married couples, for the first time，make up less than half of all households)，选项[C]意为“美国人的婚姻正在走下坡路”符合文意，且downhill与文中的sorry、less delightful相呼应，故选项[C]正确。 [干扰排除] 细节服务主旨，首段中的两个例子是首句所陈述现象的例证，作者想表达的观点是：婚姻以及婚姻中的高潮和低谷仍然在报纸、期刊以及电视节目中占据极大的分量。选项[A]“公众喜欢窥探名人婚姻”是对细节的过分引申，并非例证想要说明的内容，故排除该项。首段给出了施瓦辛格婚姻触礁的事例，但并没有提及其他名人婚姻状况不乐观，从文中推断不出选项[B]的内容，故排除。第二段首句提到了less delightful和sorry state of marriage，这是作者的个人感受，并不是公众的普遍看法，选项[D]张冠李戴，应排除。
单选题
According to the text, traditional marriage ______. [A] is no longer considered holy and meaningful [B] is doomed to be replaced by new forms [C] tends to be kept by the wealthy and cultivated [D] enables couples to be loyal to each other
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[试题类型] 具体信息题。 [解题思路] 根据题干关键词traditional marriage定位至第二段末句。该句明确指出了传统婚姻的变化：已经从一个几乎普遍适用的模式(near universal ritual)演变为受教育人群和富裕人群的奢侈品(a luxury for the educated and affluent)。选项[C]“更易为富人以及有文化的人所维持”与此相符，其中wealthy对应原句的affluent，而cultivated对应educated，故选项[C]为答案。 [干扰排除] 选项[A]属于无中生有，文章多处提到现在美国结婚的夫妻更少了，但并没有提到“传统婚姻不再神圣，不再有意义了”，故选项[A]无从推知。选项[B]意为“(传统婚姻)注定要被新的婚姻形式取代”，第三段虽然提到了新的家庭模式：unmarried couples, childless households and single-person households，但作者在文中只说明了这些新的家庭形式增长迅速，并没有说明“新的家庭模式会取代传统婚姻”，故选项[B]也可排除。选项[D]“(传统婚姻)使得夫妇彼此忠诚”在文中无出处，作者没有提及婚姻中夫妇的忠诚度问题，故排除该项。
单选题
Which of the following would the author most probably agree on? [A] Brides are more likely to have a college degree than they were. [B] Educated men don't mind marrying women with a high-school degree. [C] Couples don't end in divorce because both are well-educated. [D] The soaring cost of divorce prevents Americans from divorce.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[试题类型] 推理引申题。 [解题思路] 文章第四段提到受教育程度高者和受教育程度低者的婚姻状况：在20世纪60年代，高中毕业生和大学毕业生之间的结婚率差异很小，只相差4%，现在的差距是16%。由此可知，在过去，无论受教育程度如何，大家都选择结婚。而现在，受过大学教育的人选择结婚的更多，且第六段也提到有高中或者高中以下学历的人表示结不起婚(do not believe they can afford it)。因此与过去相比，结婚者更可能拥有大学学历，故选项[A]正确。 [干扰排除] 文章只是提及拥有大学学历者结婚率高，并没有提到男人想找什么学历的结婚对象，选项[B]无依据，故排除。第五段首句指出"Marriage has become much more selective, and that's why the divorce rate has come down"，然后解释了受教育程度对离婚率的影响。但文中只是说离婚率降低，并没有说受过良好教育的人不会离婚，故选项[C]错误。第五段首句指出婚姻更有选择性，故离婚率下降了(marriage has become much more selective, that's why the divorce rate has come down)，并没有提到“离婚成本高，所以离婚率下降”，故排除选项[D]。
单选题
According to the text, Isabel Sawhill suggests that______. [A] Americans' marital status affects their social status [B] Americans should take others' advice on marriage [C] people have no inclination to change others' lifestyle [D] the impact of marriage on finance hasn't been realized
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[试题类型] 推理引申题。 [解题思路] 由题干中的Isabel Sawhill定位至第七段。该段首先说明了Isabel Sawhill的发现：结婚的人减少意味着更贫穷(less marriage means more poverty)，一半的收入不平等与家庭构成的变化相关(half of the income inequality to changes in family composition)。最后一句则指出，她认为人们并未清楚地认识到这种差距，选项[D]是对该句的同义改写，故正确。 [干扰排除] 该段提到的是income, poverty, income inequality这些与家庭财产相关的内容，并未提及社会地位，因此选项[A]属于无中生有，故排除。末段中，Isabel Sawhill指出：你不要建议一个有孩子的未婚人士去结婚，那是对其生活方式的嘲笑。既然她认为人们不应该干涉别人是否应该结婚，因此选项[B]“人们应该接受别人有关婚姻的建议”无从谈起，排除该项。选项[C]是针对末句中lifestyle一词设计的干扰项，属于望文生义，这里没有谈及人们是否有改变别人生活方式的倾向，故排除。
单选题
Which of the following is the text mainly about? [A] The decline of marriage can be seen from statistics. [B] The traditional family is now the preserve of a minority. [C] Marriage can make Americans richer and smarter. [D] Marriage is a lifestyle that should be maintained.