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 needs 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 marriage, or 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 the very type of family arrangement. There are marriages without children: marriages with children from only the present marriage; 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 eight 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 lives married.

    附：passage2譯文與重點(diǎn)詞匯

    也許，傳統(tǒng)的(traditional：conventional)婚姻(marriage)方式目前出了危機(jī)(difficulty：trouble)，但比這更令人驚訝的(surprising：shocking)是婚姻本身是充滿活力(alive：energetic)與興旺(thriving)的這一事實(shí)。正如史戈?duì)柲峥怂?note：say，speak)美國(guó)人是喜歡婚配生活的民族：與歐洲人相比(relative)，我們中的大多數(shù)人會(huì)選擇結(jié)婚，且結(jié)婚的年齡偏小。而且，經(jīng)過(guò)20世紀(jì)70年代初的一次下降(decline：drop)后，美國(guó)的結(jié)婚率正在逐步上升。在傾向婚配的情況(context：condition，situation)下，即使將離婚(divorce)率也考慮(take in：consider)進(jìn)去，我們也會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)大約80%離過(guò)婚的人選擇再婚。因此，到目前為止，對(duì)社會(huì)上大多數(shù)的人來(lái)說(shuō)，結(jié)婚仍然是人們首選的(preferred：enjoyable)生活方式。

    比婚姻變化更大的是核心( nuclear)家庭。25年前，典型的(typical: representative)美國(guó)家庭由丈夫、妻子和兩個(gè)或三個(gè)孩子組成( consist of: compose of).現(xiàn)存.結(jié)婚后有許多大婦決定不要小孩。

　　在許多婚姻中，至少有些孩子要么是妻子以前結(jié)婚乍的，要么是丈夫以前結(jié)婚生的，要么是雙方以前各自結(jié)婚生的。有時(shí)，這些孩子是和以前的父親或母親一起生活，有時(shí)候是和以前的( former: previous)父母親輪流生活。

　　因此，人們可以找到一種合適的家庭組合( arrangement: rank)方式。有的婚姻不要小孩;有的婚姻只要現(xiàn)在結(jié)婚生[FS:PAGE]的小孩：還有的人結(jié)婚后傘部時(shí)間和現(xiàn)在結(jié)婚的小孩在一起，部分時(shí)間和以前結(jié)婚生的小孩在一起。這些家庭中有縫父( stepfather)、繼母和同父異母、同母異父的兄弟姐妹。

　　所以，一個(gè)孩子擁有4個(gè)父母、8個(gè)祖父母完全不足為奇( unusual: abnormal. rare)，這些是傳統(tǒng)的核心家庭所發(fā)生的巨大(enormous: tremendous)變化。但即便如此，在所有這些變化之中(midst: middle)，仍然有一個(gè)因素始終不變( constant: lasting)：大多數(shù)美國(guó)成年人的時(shí)光是在婚姻中度過(guò)的。