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Family Structure in Britain and the United States(英汉对照)
The British and the Americans live longer,marry later,have fewer children,and are morelikely to get divorced than ever before. Young people leave home earlier,though not necessarilyto get married. More women now go out to work,and more people,especially the old,live alone.The nuclear family (parents and perhaps two children) gas largely replaced the extended familywhere several generations together.
Although patterns are changing,most people in Britain and the United States still get marriedand have children and stay together until the end of their lives. People are marrying later: theaverage woman in Britain gets married at twenty-four to a man who is just over two yearsolder. In the U.S.,the average age at first marriage in 1994 was 22.5 years for women and 26.7years for men. Nine out of ten married women in Britain will have children at some point intheir lives. And despite the changes in working habits it is usually the woman who has overallresponsibility for domestic life: the traditional division of family responsibilities still persists.
Britain has one of the highest divorce rates in Western Europe: approximately one in threemarriages breaks up in divorce,half of them in the first ten years of marriage. As a result,morepeople are getting remarried and there are now over a million single parents looking after 1.6million children. In the United States,the divorce rate is also high. For the year 1995, for example,thenumber of marriages was about 2.3 million and that of divorce cases was over 1.1 million. Manyhouseholds are single-parent families,mostly maintained by women. In 1994, there were 11.4million single parents, among whom 9.9 million were single mothers. Children from single-parentfamilies have less access to adult attention, less help with homeworkand less time with both parents than those with two-parent families.They were likely to drop out of school and fail in their futurecareer.
英美两国人寿命长，结婚晚，孩子少，并且比以往更容易离婚。年轻人即便不是为了结婚也较早离家。现在有更多的女性出来上班，也有更多的人，尤其是老年人过着孤独的生活。核心家庭(父母，可能还有两个孩子)已经大大取代了几代人生活在一起的扩展性家庭。
尽管生活方式发生着变化，但大多数英国人和美国人仍然结婚，生孩子，然后生活在一起直到死亡。人们结婚越来越晚：在英国，一般女性在24岁嫁给一个比自己年长两岁的男性。在美国，1994年初婚的平均年龄是：女性24．5岁，男性26．7岁。在英国，有十分之九的女性会在他们生命中的某个时间生孩子。尽管工作习惯发生了变化，但通常是女性对整个家庭生活负有全部责任，家庭责任的传统分工仍然存在。
英国是欧洲离婚率最高的国家之一，大约每三个婚姻中就有一个破裂，其中一半是在婚后的头十年就已经离异。结果是，有更多的人再婚，现在已有100万单亲父母在照顾着160万儿童。美国的离婚率也很高，以1995年为例，结婚数是230万，而离婚数就超过了110万例。许多家庭是单亲家庭，而且大多是靠女性维持着。1994年，1140万单亲父母中有990万是单亲母亲。单亲家庭的孩子得不到成年人的足够照顾，得不到对家庭作业的足够帮助，更得不到太多与双亲共处的时间。他们很容易辍学，并可能在将来的事业中失败。
[作者单位 辽宁师范大学外国语学院]
The British and the Americans live longer,marry later,have fewer children,and are morelikely to get divorced than ever before. Young people leave home earlier,though not necessarilyto get married. More women now go out to work,and more people,especially the old,live alone.The nuclear family (parents and perhaps two children) gas largely replaced the extended familywhere several generations together.
Although patterns are changing,most people in Britain and the United States still get marriedand have children and stay together until the end of their lives. People are marrying later: theaverage woman in Britain gets married at twenty-four to a man who is just over two yearsolder. In the U.S.,the average age at first marriage in 1994 was 22.5 years for women and 26.7years for men. Nine out of ten married women in Britain will have children at some point intheir lives. And despite the changes in working habits it is usually the woman who has overallresponsibility for domestic life: the traditional division of family responsibilities still persists.
Britain has one of the highest divorce rates in Western Europe: approximately one in threemarriages breaks up in divorce,half of them in the first ten years of marriage. As a result,morepeople are getting remarried and there are now over a million single parents looking after 1.6million children. In the United States,the divorce rate is also high. For the year 1995, for example,thenumber of marriages was about 2.3 million and that of divorce cases was over 1.1 million. Manyhouseholds are single-parent families,mostly maintained by women. In 1994, there were 11.4million single parents, among whom 9.9 million were single mothers. Children from single-parentfamilies have less access to adult attention, less help with homeworkand less time with both parents than those with two-parent families.They were likely to drop out of school and fail in their futurecareer.
英美两国人寿命长，结婚晚，孩子少，并且比以往更容易离婚。年轻人即便不是为了结婚也较早离家。现在有更多的女性出来上班，也有更多的人，尤其是老年人过着孤独的生活。核心家庭(父母，可能还有两个孩子)已经大大取代了几代人生活在一起的扩展性家庭。
尽管生活方式发生着变化，但大多数英国人和美国人仍然结婚，生孩子，然后生活在一起直到死亡。人们结婚越来越晚：在英国，一般女性在24岁嫁给一个比自己年长两岁的男性。在美国，1994年初婚的平均年龄是：女性24．5岁，男性26．7岁。在英国，有十分之九的女性会在他们生命中的某个时间生孩子。尽管工作习惯发生了变化，但通常是女性对整个家庭生活负有全部责任，家庭责任的传统分工仍然存在。
英国是欧洲离婚率最高的国家之一，大约每三个婚姻中就有一个破裂，其中一半是在婚后的头十年就已经离异。结果是，有更多的人再婚，现在已有100万单亲父母在照顾着160万儿童。美国的离婚率也很高，以1995年为例，结婚数是230万，而离婚数就超过了110万例。许多家庭是单亲家庭，而且大多是靠女性维持着。1994年，1140万单亲父母中有990万是单亲母亲。单亲家庭的孩子得不到成年人的足够照顾，得不到对家庭作业的足够帮助，更得不到太多与双亲共处的时间。他们很容易辍学，并可能在将来的事业中失败。
[作者单位 辽宁师范大学外国语学院]