The decline of marriage

　　婚姻的衰落

　　For richer, for smarter

　　結(jié)婚吧，為了更富有、更聰明

　　The traditional family is now the preserve of aminority

　　傳統(tǒng)家庭：少數(shù)人的堅(jiān)持

　　MARRIAGE, and its many ups and downs, still exercises a powerful hold over newspapers,magazines and the airwaves. Nearly 23m Americans watched Prince William being joined in holymatrimony to Kate Middleton. Millions more have wallowed in the break-up of ArnoldSchwarzeneggers marriage after revelations that he fathered a son with a maid. And thetumescent tweets of congressman Anthony Weiner have stirred up endless speculation aboutthe health of his own year-old marriage and the forbearance of his newly pregnant wife.

　　婚姻、婚姻里的悲歡離合仍然強(qiáng)有力地占據(jù)著報(bào)紙、雜志的版面和廣播電視的節(jié)目。近2300萬(wàn)美國(guó)人收看了威廉王子迎娶凱特?米德?tīng)栴D的神圣婚禮。更有數(shù)百萬(wàn)人因阿諾德?施瓦辛格與女管家育有一個(gè)私生子被曝光而離婚一事感慨不已。而國(guó)會(huì)議員安東尼 溫納在微博上上傳自己勃起內(nèi)褲照片后激起無(wú)數(shù)人猜測(cè)他剛剛才一年的婚姻是否良好、他最近懷孕的妻子是否容忍他的行為。

　　Less titillating are revelations about the sorry state of marriage across the United States. Datafrom the Census Bureau show that married couples, for the first time, now make up less thanhalf of all households.

　　美國(guó)人自己婚姻的糟糕狀況則不那么令人感到興奮。人口普查局的數(shù)據(jù)顯示已婚夫婦現(xiàn)在占全部家庭的比例不到一半，這是首次出現(xiàn)這種情況。

　　The iconic American family, with mom, dad and kids under one roof, is fading. In every statethe numbers of unmarried couples, childless households and single-person households aregrowing faster than those comprised of married people with children, finds the 2010 census.The latter accounted for 43% of households in 1950; they now account for just 20%. And thetrend has a potent class dimension. Traditional marriage has evolved from a near-universalrite to a luxury for the educated and affluent.

　　典型的美國(guó)式家庭是媽媽、爸爸和幾個(gè)孩子生活在同一屋檐下，現(xiàn)在這種模式正在逐漸消失。在每一個(gè)州，未婚伴侶、沒(méi)有子女的家庭和單人家庭的增長(zhǎng)速度都比由有孩子的已婚夫婦組成家庭的增長(zhǎng)速度快，2010年人口普查結(jié)果如是說(shuō)。1950年后者占全部家庭的43%;現(xiàn)在只占20%。這種趨勢(shì)階級(jí)強(qiáng)極具說(shuō)服力。傳統(tǒng)婚姻普遍被視為習(xí)俗，現(xiàn)在它已經(jīng)進(jìn)化為受教育人群和具有經(jīng)濟(jì)實(shí)力的人群所享有的奢侈品。

　　There barely was a marriage gap in 1960: only fourpercentage points separated the wedded ways ofcollege and high-school graduates . The gap has since widened to 16 percentagepoints, according to the Pew Research Centre. ACensus Bureau analysis released this spring foundthat brides are significantly more likely to have acollege degree than they were in the mid-1990s.

　　1960年結(jié)婚率幾乎沒(méi)有差別：大學(xué)畢業(yè)和高中畢業(yè)生的結(jié)婚率只相差4個(gè)百分點(diǎn)。佩尤研究中心稱(chēng)這個(gè)差別已經(jīng)到16%。今年春天，人口調(diào)查局發(fā)表的分析稱(chēng)新娘擁有一個(gè)大學(xué)學(xué)位的可能性比九十年代中期時(shí)大了很多。

　　Marriage has become much more selective, and thats why the divorce rate has come down,said Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia inCharlottesville. The project found that divorce rates for couples with college degrees are only athird as high as for those with a high-school degree.

　　位于夏洛茨維爾的弗吉尼亞大學(xué)的國(guó)家婚姻研究項(xiàng)目主任W. 布拉德福德?維爾科斯稱(chēng)：選擇結(jié)婚對(duì)象時(shí)更加地精挑細(xì)選，這就是為什么離婚率降低了。該研究項(xiàng)目發(fā)現(xiàn)雙方都擁有大學(xué)學(xué)位的夫婦的離婚率是那些只有一方有高中學(xué)位夫婦的三分之一。

　　Americans with a high-school degree or less tellresearchers they would like to marry, but do not believe they can afford it. Instead, they raisechildren out of wedlock. Only 6% of children born to college-educated mothers were bornoutside marriage, according to the National Marriage Project. That compares with 44% of babiesborn to mothers whose education ended with high school.

　　學(xué)歷為高中或更低水平的美國(guó)人告訴研究者他們想結(jié)婚，但是認(rèn)為自己不能承擔(dān)婚姻的責(zé)任。于是，他們撫養(yǎng)非婚生子女。國(guó)家婚姻研究項(xiàng)目稱(chēng)接受過(guò)大學(xué)教育的母親的子女中只有6%是非婚生。這個(gè)數(shù)字在母親是高中畢業(yè)的子女中為44%。

　　Less marriage means less income and more poverty, reckons Isabel Sawhill, a senior fellow atthe Brookings Institution. She and other researchers have linked as much as half of the incomeinequality in America to changes in family composition: single-parent families are getting poorer while married couples are increasingly well-off. This is a striking gap that is not well understood bythe public, she says.

　　婚姻減少意味著收入減少、貧困增加， 布魯金斯學(xué)會(huì)的資深研究員伊莎貝爾?索希爾這樣認(rèn)為。她和其他研究者把美國(guó)收入不均的一半因素與家庭構(gòu)成的變化聯(lián)系在一起：?jiǎn)斡H家庭越來(lái)越貧困而已婚夫婦越來(lái)越富有。她說(shuō)：這個(gè)差別非常明顯但是卻不為大眾很好地理解。

　　Do not expect the Democratic Party, however, to make an issue of the marriage gap in nextyears elections. Unmarried women voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama. You dont wantto suggest to someone who isnt married and has children that they should be married, saysMs Sawhill. That is a denigration of their lifestyle.

　　不過(guò)，別指望民主黨在明年的選舉中將婚姻差別做文章。未婚女性一邊倒地支持奧巴馬。你別想建議某個(gè)沒(méi)結(jié)婚又有小孩的人去結(jié)婚，索希爾女士說(shuō)，那樣子是對(duì)她們生活方式的詆毀。

　　The decline of marriage

　　婚姻的衰落

　　For richer, for smarter

　　結(jié)婚吧，為了更富有、更聰明

　　The traditional family is now the preserve of aminority

　　傳統(tǒng)家庭：少數(shù)人的堅(jiān)持

　　MARRIAGE, and its many ups and downs, still exercises a powerful hold over newspapers,magazines and the airwaves. Nearly 23m Americans watched Prince William being joined in holymatrimony to Kate Middleton. Millions more have wallowed in the break-up of ArnoldSchwarzeneggers marriage after revelations that he fathered a son with a maid. And thetumescent tweets of congressman Anthony Weiner have stirred up endless speculation aboutthe health of his own year-old marriage and the forbearance of his newly pregnant wife.

　　婚姻、婚姻里的悲歡離合仍然強(qiáng)有力地占據(jù)著報(bào)紙、雜志的版面和廣播電視的節(jié)目。近2300萬(wàn)美國(guó)人收看了威廉王子迎娶凱特?米德?tīng)栴D的神圣婚禮。更有數(shù)百萬(wàn)人因阿諾德?施瓦辛格與女管家育有一個(gè)私生子被曝光而離婚一事感慨不已。而國(guó)會(huì)議員安東尼 溫納在微博上上傳自己勃起內(nèi)褲照片后激起無(wú)數(shù)人猜測(cè)他剛剛才一年的婚姻是否良好、他最近懷孕的妻子是否容忍他的行為。

　　Less titillating are revelations about the sorry state of marriage across the United States. Datafrom the Census Bureau show that married couples, for the first time, now make up less thanhalf of all households.

　　美國(guó)人自己婚姻的糟糕狀況則不那么令人感到興奮。人口普查局的數(shù)據(jù)顯示已婚夫婦現(xiàn)在占全部家庭的比例不到一半，這是首次出現(xiàn)這種情況。

　　The iconic American family, with mom, dad and kids under one roof, is fading. In every statethe numbers of unmarried couples, childless households and single-person households aregrowing faster than those comprised of married people with children, finds the 2010 census.The latter accounted for 43% of households in 1950; they now account for just 20%. And thetrend has a potent class dimension. Traditional marriage has evolved from a near-universalrite to a luxury for the educated and affluent.

　　典型的美國(guó)式家庭是媽媽、爸爸和幾個(gè)孩子生活在同一屋檐下，現(xiàn)在這種模式正在逐漸消失。在每一個(gè)州，未婚伴侶、沒(méi)有子女的家庭和單人家庭的增長(zhǎng)速度都比由有孩子的已婚夫婦組成家庭的增長(zhǎng)速度快，2010年人口普查結(jié)果如是說(shuō)。1950年后者占全部家庭的43%;現(xiàn)在只占20%。這種趨勢(shì)階級(jí)強(qiáng)極具說(shuō)服力。傳統(tǒng)婚姻普遍被視為習(xí)俗，現(xiàn)在它已經(jīng)進(jìn)化為受教育人群和具有經(jīng)濟(jì)實(shí)力的人群所享有的奢侈品。

　　There barely was a marriage gap in 1960: only fourpercentage points separated the wedded ways ofcollege and high-school graduates . The gap has since widened to 16 percentagepoints, according to the Pew Research Centre. ACensus Bureau analysis released this spring foundthat brides are significantly more likely to have acollege degree than they were in the mid-1990s.

　　1960年結(jié)婚率幾乎沒(méi)有差別：大學(xué)畢業(yè)和高中畢業(yè)生的結(jié)婚率只相差4個(gè)百分點(diǎn)。佩尤研究中心稱(chēng)這個(gè)差別已經(jīng)到16%。今年春天，人口調(diào)查局發(fā)表的分析稱(chēng)新娘擁有一個(gè)大學(xué)學(xué)位的可能性比九十年代中期時(shí)大了很多。

　　Marriage has become much more selective, and thats why the divorce rate has come down,said Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia inCharlottesville. The project found that divorce rates for couples with college degrees are only athird as high as for those with a high-school degree.

　　位于夏洛茨維爾的弗吉尼亞大學(xué)的國(guó)家婚姻研究項(xiàng)目主任W. 布拉德福德?維爾科斯稱(chēng)：選擇結(jié)婚對(duì)象時(shí)更加地精挑細(xì)選，這就是為什么離婚率降低了。該研究項(xiàng)目發(fā)現(xiàn)雙方都擁有大學(xué)學(xué)位的夫婦的離婚率是那些只有一方有高中學(xué)位夫婦的三分之一。

　　Americans with a high-school degree or less tellresearchers they would like to marry, but do not believe they can afford it. Instead, they raisechildren out of wedlock. Only 6% of children born to college-educated mothers were bornoutside marriage, according to the National Marriage Project. That compares with 44% of babiesborn to mothers whose education ended with high school.

　　學(xué)歷為高中或更低水平的美國(guó)人告訴研究者他們想結(jié)婚，但是認(rèn)為自己不能承擔(dān)婚姻的責(zé)任。于是，他們撫養(yǎng)非婚生子女。國(guó)家婚姻研究項(xiàng)目稱(chēng)接受過(guò)大學(xué)教育的母親的子女中只有6%是非婚生。這個(gè)數(shù)字在母親是高中畢業(yè)的子女中為44%。

　　Less marriage means less income and more poverty, reckons Isabel Sawhill, a senior fellow atthe Brookings Institution. She and other researchers have linked as much as half of the incomeinequality in America to changes in family composition: single-parent families are getting poorer while married couples are increasingly well-off. This is a striking gap that is not well understood bythe public, she says.

　　婚姻減少意味著收入減少、貧困增加， 布魯金斯學(xué)會(huì)的資深研究員伊莎貝爾?索希爾這樣認(rèn)為。她和其他研究者把美國(guó)收入不均的一半因素與家庭構(gòu)成的變化聯(lián)系在一起：?jiǎn)斡H家庭越來(lái)越貧困而已婚夫婦越來(lái)越富有。她說(shuō)：這個(gè)差別非常明顯但是卻不為大眾很好地理解。

　　Do not expect the Democratic Party, however, to make an issue of the marriage gap in nextyears elections. Unmarried women voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama. You dont wantto suggest to someone who isnt married and has children that they should be married, saysMs Sawhill. That is a denigration of their lifestyle.

　　不過(guò)，別指望民主黨在明年的選舉中將婚姻差別做文章。未婚女性一邊倒地支持奧巴馬。你別想建議某個(gè)沒(méi)結(jié)婚又有小孩的人去結(jié)婚，索希爾女士說(shuō)，那樣子是對(duì)她們生活方式的詆毀。