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 need 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 marriages, of 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 "full-time" children from both the present and former marriages; marriages with "full-time" children from the present marriage and "part-time" children from former marriages. There are stepfathers, stepmothers, half-brothers, and half-sisters. It is not all that unusual for a child to have four parents and 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 life married.
单选题
By calling Americans 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 the U. S than in Europe D. more of Americans, as compared with Europeans, prefer marriage and they accept it at a younger age.
单选题
Divorced Americans ______. A. will most likely remarry B. prefer the way they live C. have lost faith in marriage D. are the vast majority of people in the society
单选题
Which of the following can be presented as the picture of today's American families? ______ A. A typical American family consists of only a husband and a wife. B. Many types of family arrangements have become socially acceptable. C. Americans prefer to have more kids than before. D. There are no nuclear families any more.
单选题
"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 previous marriage C. are shared between the two former spouses D. cannot stay with "full-time" children
单选题
Even though great changes have taken place in the structure of American families, ______ A. the functions of marriage remain unchanged B. the vast majority of Americans still have faith in marriage C. most Americans prefer a second marriage D. all of the above