时间:2019-01-27 作者:英语课 分类:新西兰英语


英语课

  This news item is about co-habitation, couples who live together without being married.

Our newspapers reported this week on the National Marriage Project report from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey 1, in the United States. Why are we interested in an American report? Because New Zealand was top out of 13 countries with the fastest increase in the percentage of couples cohabitating in the last 10 years. The countries surveyed were the US, Canada, the UK, Scandinavian countries, Western European countries and Australia and New Zealand. In New Zealand, 24% of couples live together without being married. In Spain and Italy the figure is only 3% and 4% respectively 2, while USA is 8%. We think we are similar to Australia in most things but their percentage of couples living together is 15%.

The report mentioned that living together was an ancient custom in Europe until the Catholic 3 Church brought in marriage ceremonies around the 13th and 14th centuries.

Immediately after the Second World War, marriage was very popular in European countries including New Zealand. This was a time of a high birth rate too. However, by the 1970s and 80s, more and more couples started to live together before getting married. Today, probably around 75% of young people live together, sometimes in several relationships, before they decide to get married.

There are a number of reasons for this: birth control, more women having a career, and the increase in divorces 4 means that couples want to avoid a bad marriage. In countries like New Zealand, the welfare system which supports single parents, may also be a reason. Co-habitation has meant that women are having babies later in life too; in fact 45% of women giving birth in New Zealand today are not married.

The report suggests that there are benefits of being married: married people are happier, healthier, wealthier and live longer. There are also benefits for children who live with their natural parents.

One problem with parents who are not married is that they are more likely to separate, leaving children with a single parent. These children are more likely to suffer from poverty or abuse 5 and more likely to grow up with drug or alcohol 6 problems. In New Zealand, 32% of families with children have a single parent. The figure for Australia is 21%.



n.运动衫
  • He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
  • They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致,都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。
adv.各自地,独自地,个别地,分别地
  • They finished first and second respectively.他们分获一二名。
  • In this machine which items make up the software and the hardware respectively?在机器中,哪几项分别构成软件和硬件?
adj.天主教的;n.天主教徒
  • The Pope is the supreme leader of the Roman Catholic Church.教皇是罗马天主教的最高领袖。
  • She was a devoutly Catholic.她是一个虔诚地天主教徒。
n.离婚( divorce的名词复数 );分离v.与…离婚( divorce的第三人称单数 );分离;与(某人)离婚,判(某人)离婚
  • "As for Bettie's marriages and divorces,'said Shen-ming, "I've talked with him about them. 慎明道:“关于Bertie结婚离婚的事,我也和他谈过。 来自汉英文学 - 围城
  • He's getting married again, after two divorces, so he obviously hasn't profited by his experiences. 他两次离婚之后又结婚,显然没有吸取以往的教训。 来自辞典例句
vt.滥用;辱骂;诋毁;n.滥用;恶习;弊端
  • You can't make personal abuse on her.你不可对她进行人身攻击。
  • She screamed abuse at me.她尖声责备我。
n.酒精,乙醇;含酒精的饮料
  • The law forbids shops to sell alcohol to minors.法律禁止商店向未成年者出售含酒精的饮料。
  • The alcohol is industrial.这些酒精是供工业用的。
学英语单词
air cooled collector
air corridor
aluminium extrusion
Anopheles minimus
attitude control thruster
benevolents
billy goat
blowtorched
Botallo's ligament
candle berry tree
case packer
clear mint
conic Verpa
corrugated side
dichromia
discharge of ballast from cargo tank
donnedieu
double-stage super-charger
downwarped
earth conductivity
Ekenässjön
electrolytic degreasing bath
Emilia sagitta
false notes
familiarization training
filament lasing
flexible-mounted engine
formation fluid sampler
ghostland
goatweed
godde
gumba
hyen
ill-planneds
inconnected
infra red spectrometer
inlet spilled flow
instrument landing system
inteir
inula serrata var.hupehensis ling
ironsmith
jcp
josie
kernel stack pointer
labor bureau
lognormals
Lowe's ring
Martellago
Messendorf
metachromatic stain
Minskyan
musculi pharyngotubalis
musculi serratus posterior superior
Namshir
nimesulide
Northern Cook Is.
occupied quantum state
odiers
one-board
open-frame
ore concentration
osdh
over power relay
Paustovo
penaflor
peridiums
Piparda
potamogetons
receiving terminal amplifier
roller lifter
samoosa
school-yards
self-supporting pack
setting-in watering
shipbuilding engineer
shrinking back
snake dances
special-care
split heating
suppositio
taittingers
tall oatgrass
tensor muscle of tymoanum
tera-meter
theories-of-finance
Therac
tokol
transducers
translucent china
triplicate ratio circle
two-position differential gap action
type iv allergic reactions
untraceably
Vanbrughian
Vasaras
voltage stabilized source
watt's formula
watt-hour
working-gauge
xitongs
zombocom
ZSR