2010新托福閱讀:晚婚的美國(guó)年輕人

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“剩男剩女”現(xiàn)象已日漸成為普遍現(xiàn)象,越來(lái)越多中國(guó)城市里工作生活的年輕人因?yàn)楦鞣N原因晚婚,而根據(jù)美國(guó)人口普查局的數(shù)據(jù)顯示,更多的美國(guó)年輕人晚婚或是選擇不婚。
    In the U.S., fewer and fewer young people are getting married, the U.S. Census Bureau reports.
    Among 25-to-34 year olds, 45 percent are married. (By comparison, in 2000, 55 percent of Americans in that age group were married; in the 1960s, more than 80 percent were.)
    現(xiàn)在25歲至34歲之間的年輕人結(jié)婚率為45%。(跟2000年相比,處于同一年齡階段的美國(guó)年輕人結(jié)婚率為55%,而在20世紀(jì)60年代,結(jié)婚率則高達(dá)80%以上)
    In an interview with NPR's Melissa Block, Andrew J. Cherlin, author of The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family Today, said that, "for college-educated young adults, this is a story of postponing marriage."
    《婚情調(diào)查:當(dāng)今美國(guó)婚姻與家庭狀況》一書(shū)的作者安德魯•J•切爾林在接受NPR電臺(tái)記者梅林薩•布洛克的采訪(fǎng)中說(shuō)道:對(duì)念過(guò)大學(xué)的年輕人來(lái)說(shuō),晚婚現(xiàn)象是很常見(jiàn)。
    They want to finish graduate school, maybe have a couple of years as a law firm associate, and then get married. So, they're waiting longer and longer until they have the rest of their lives in order before they get married.
    在那些年輕人畢業(yè)之后,他們可能還會(huì)合法同居多年,然后才會(huì)選擇結(jié)婚。所以,這些年輕人在他們今后的生活還未穩(wěn)定前是會(huì)一直堅(jiān)持推遲結(jié)婚的打算。
    For people without a college degree, some of them are postponing too, but some of them will never make it to the alter. We really will see probably a decline in the lifetime percentages of ever marrying for them.
    一些沒(méi)在大學(xué)讀書(shū)的人仍然會(huì)選擇推遲結(jié)婚。但其中可能還有一些人會(huì)一直堅(jiān)持晚婚的決定。我們也將會(huì)看到在這群人當(dāng)中出現(xiàn)結(jié)婚率下降的趨勢(shì)。
    According to Cherlin, increasingly, many Americans get married when it makes sense financially.
    據(jù)切爾林說(shuō),許多美國(guó)人會(huì)選在他們具備一定經(jīng)濟(jì)能力后才結(jié)婚。
    They don't think they have what it takes economically to get married, but they're not willing to wait to have a kid, and so they have one.
    由于美國(guó)年輕人考慮到當(dāng)前他們還不具備結(jié)婚的經(jīng)濟(jì)條件,但又不想推遲要小孩的計(jì)劃。因而他們選擇在結(jié)婚前就生小孩。
    That has become even truer recently, during the economic recession, he said.
    切爾林還說(shuō),在當(dāng)前經(jīng)濟(jì)危機(jī)的環(huán)境下,這種晚婚現(xiàn)象在美國(guó)已經(jīng)尤為突出了。
    There is something hidden in the statistics, Cherlin noted. More and more unmarried couples are living together, so they count as single people.
    另外切爾林指出,這些數(shù)據(jù)還并沒(méi)有完全顯示出實(shí)際的真實(shí)情況。因?yàn)橛性絹?lái)越多的年輕人未婚同居,所以這類(lèi)人也被算作是單身人群。
    That may illuminate another interesting piece of data: 41 percent of births in the U.S. in 2008 were out of wedlock. According to Cherlin, many of those children probably were born to cohabitating, but unwed couples.
    以上現(xiàn)象也許可以用來(lái)解釋這樣一組有趣的數(shù)據(jù):在2008年,美國(guó)有41%新出生的嬰兒都是屬于非婚所生的。據(jù)切爾林說(shuō),這其中有許多嬰兒都是由那些同居的人而非那些尚未結(jié)婚的夫婦所生。