新视野大学英语读写教程听力 第三册 te-unit09-b

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[00:00.00]喜欢hxen.net，就把hxen.net复制到QQ个人资料中！Is the Traditional Family Structure at Risk?
[00:04.32]1  Around the world, in rich and poor countries alike,
[00:08.35]the structure of family life is undergoing extreme changes,
[00:13.00]a new analysis of research from numerous countries has concluded.
[00:18.65]2  "The idea that the family is a stable and orderly
[00:22.14]unit in which father serves as economic provider
[00:26.50]and mother serves as emotional care giver is a myth," said Judith Bruce,
[00:32.47]a leading author of the study.
[00:34.45]"The reality is that trends like unmarried mothers,
[00:38.92]rising divorce rates and smaller households are not unique to America,
[00:37.92]but are occurring worldwide."
[00:40.76]3  The report was released Tuesday by the Population Council,
[00:45.40]an international organization based in New York
[00:48.68]that studies issues related to child bearing.
[00:52.14]Its graphs combine information obtained from a variety of population
[00:57.93]and household studies from dozens of countries.
[01:01.93]4  A summary of the major findings:
[01:06.07]5 — Whether because of abandonment,separation, divorce or death of a spouse,
[01:11.61]marriages are dissolving with increasing frequency.
[01:15.79]In many developed countries,
[01:17.91]divorce rates doubled between 1970 and 1990,
[01:17.98]and in less-developed countries,
[01:19.93]about a quarter of first marriages end by the time women are in their 40s.
[01:25.72]6  — Parents in their prime working years
[01:29.22]face growing burdens caring for children,
[01:32.06]who need to be supported through more years of education,
[01:35.73]and for their own parents, who are living longer.
[01:39.30]7  — Unmarried mothers are increasingly common virtually everywhere,
[01:45.09]reaching as many as a third of all births in the north of Europe,for example.
[01:50.53]8  — Children in single-parent households —
[01:54.70]usually families with only a mother present —
[01:58.56]are much more likely to be overtaken by poverty
[02:01.47]than those who live with two parents,
[02:04.53]largely because of the loss of support from the fathers.
[02:08.20]9  — Even in households where fathers are present,
[02:13.14]mothers are carrying increasing economic responsibility for children.
[02:18.21]10  The theme that families are changing in similar ways,
[02:24.01]even in very different cultures,
[02:26.06]should bring about new thinking on social policy, experts say,
[02:30.60]and in particular an increase in the importance of families
[02:34.56]in the agenda of governments.
[02:36.61]11  The Population Council report says women around the world
[02:41.25]tend to work longer hours than men,
[02:44.02]both at home and on the job.
[02:46.58]In studies of seventeen less-developed countries,
[02:50.25]women's work hours exceeded men's by 30 percent.
[02:54.32]Data from twelve industrialized countries
[02:58.06]found that women employed in regular jobs
[03:01.45]worked about 20 percent longer hours than regularly employed men.
[03:06.24]12  Women's economic contributions also are becoming increasingly important.
[03:12.50]13  In Ghana, the report said,
[03:15.06]a third of households with children are maintained primarily by women.
[03:20.64]14  In the Philippines,
[03:22.44]women were found to contribute about a third of households' cash income,
[03:27.51]but 55 percent of household support
[03:30.68]if the economic value of their activities at home,
[03:33.96]such as growing food or gathering hay to feed the family donkey,is included.
[03:39.50]15  In the United States, a survey released earlier this month
[03:44.54]found that nearly half of employed married women
[03:48.10]contribute half or more of their family's income.
[03:52.10]While the reasons for entering the work force may vary from country to country,
[03:58.44]women everywhere are finding that to give their children an adequate life,
[04:03.30]getting a job is no longer optional.