托福阅读机经背景：美国剩男剩女婚姻观

In the U.S., fewer and fewer young people are getting married, the U.S. Census Bureau reports.
　　“剩男剩女”现象已日渐成为普遍现象，越来越多中国城市里工作生活的年轻人因为各种原因晚婚，而根据美国人口普查局的数据显示，更多的美国年轻人晚婚或是选择不婚。

　　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.)
　　现在25岁至34岁之间的年轻人结婚率为45%。(跟2000年相比，处于同一年龄阶段的美国年轻人结婚率为55%，而在20世纪60年代，结婚率则高达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."
　　《婚情调查：当今美国婚姻与家庭状况》一书的作者安德鲁•J•切尔林在接受NPR电台记者梅林萨•布洛克的采访中说道：对念过大学的年轻人来说，晚婚现象是很常见。

　　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.
　　在那些年轻人毕业之后，他们可能还会合法同居多年，然后才会选择结婚。所以，这些年轻人在他们今后的生活还未稳定前是会一直坚持推迟结婚的打算。

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　　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.
　　一些没在大学读书的人仍然会选择推迟结婚。但其中可能还有一些人会一直坚持晚婚的决定。我们也将会看到在这群人当中出现结婚率下降的趋势。

　　According to Cherlin, increasingly, many Americans get married when it makes sense financially.
　　据切尔林说，许多美国人会选在他们具备一定经济能力后才结婚。

　　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.
　　由于美国年轻人考虑到当前他们还不具备结婚的经济条件，但又不想推迟要小孩的计划。因而他们选择在结婚前就生小孩。

　　That has become even truer recently, during the economic recession, he said.
　　切尔林还说，在当前经济危机的环境下，这种晚婚现象在美国已经尤为突出了。

　　There is something hidden in the statistics, Cherlin noted. More and more unmarried couples are living together, so they count as single people.
　　另外切尔林指出，这些数据还并没有完全显示出实际的真实情况。因为有越来越多的年轻人未婚同居，所以这类人也被算作是单身人群。

　　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.
　　以上现象也许可以用来解释这样一组有趣的数据：在2008年，美国有41%新出生的婴儿都是属于非婚所生的。据切尔林说，这其中有许多婴儿都是由那些同居的人而非那些尚未结婚的夫妇所生。

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