大学英语unit07家庭的自学教程
07-A. Families
“Family”—the word has different meanings for different people, and even the dictionary gives us several definitions :“a group of people related by blood or marriage,” “two adults and their children,” “all those people descended from a common ancestor,” “a household,” and so on. Some people think of a family as a mother, a father, and their children; others include grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. For some of us, family means the group of relatives living far away from home. For others, having a family simply means having children. Some families have long histories, while others know very little about their ancestors. No matter if it is young or old, large or small, traditional or modern, every family has a sense of what a family is. It is that feeling of belonging, of love and security that comes from living together, helping and sharing.
There are basically two types of families: nuclear families and extended families. The nuclear family usually consists of two parents (mother and father) and their children. The mother and father form the nucleus, or center, of the nuclear family. The children stay in the nuclear family until they grow up and marry, then form new nuclear families.
The extended family is very large. There are often many nuclear families in one extended family. An extended family includes children, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins. The members of an extended family are related by blood (grandparent, parents, children, brothers, sisters, etc.) or by marriage (husbands, wives, mothers-in-law, etc). They are all related, so the members of an extended family are called relatives.
Traditionally, all the members of an extended family lived in the same area. However, with the change from an agricultural to an industrial society, many nuclear families moved away from the family home in order to find work. In industrial societies today, the members of most nuclear families live together, but most extended families do not live together. Therefore we can say that the nuclear family becomes more important than the extended family as the society industrializes.
In post-industrial societies like the United States, even the nuclear family is changing. The nuclear family is becoming smaller as parents want fewer children, and the number of childless families is increasing. Traditionally, the father of a nuclear family earned money for the family while the mother cared for the house and the children. Today more than 50% of the nuclear families in the United States are two-earner families – both the father and the mother earn money for the family – and in a few families the mother earns the money while the father takes care of the house and the children. Many nuclear families are also “splitting up” – more and more parents are getting divorced.
What will be the result of this “splitting” of the nuclear family? Social scientists now talk of two new family forms: the single parent family and the remarried family. Almost 20% of all American families are single parent families, and in 85% of these families the single parent is the mother. Most single parents find it very difficult to take care of a family alone, so they soon marry again and form remarried families. As social scientists study these two new family form, they will be able to tell us more about the future of the nuclear family in the post-industrial age.
【课文译文】
家庭
“家庭”这个词对不同的人有不同的意义。甚至词典也给出了好几个意义：“一群由血缘或婚姻联系起来的人”、“两个成年人和他们的孩子们”、“从一个共同祖先延续下来的所有的人”、“在一座房子里住在一起的所有的人”等等。有些人认为家就是母亲、父亲和他们的孩子们，家中的其他人还包括祖父母、婶婶、叔叔和堂兄妹。对一些人来说，家庭就是在离家很远的地方生活的一群亲戚，而对另一些人来说，拥有一个家只意味着有孩子。有些家庭有很长的历史，而另一些家庭对自己的祖先知之甚少。无论一个家庭的历史是长还是短，规模是大还是小，是传统的还是现代的，每个家庭都知道家是什么。它是一种归属感，一种爱和安全的感觉。这些感觉来自于共同生活，互相帮助和同甘共苦。
基本上有两种家庭类型：核心家庭和大家庭。核心家庭通常由双亲(父亲和母亲)和他们的孩子组成。父亲和母亲形成核心家庭的核心或中心。孩子们一直生活在核心家庭里，直到长大结婚。然后他们形成新的核心家庭。
大家庭非常大。在一个大家庭里经常有很多核心家庭。一个大家庭包括孩子、父母、祖父母、叔叔、婶婶和堂兄妹。大家庭的成员由血缘(祖父母、父母、孩子、兄弟、姐妹等)或婚姻(丈夫、妻子、婆婆等)联系起来。他们之间有联系，所以大家庭里的成员叫做亲属。
传统上，大家庭中的所有成员住在同一个地方。然而，随着农业社会向工业社会的转变，很多核心家庭离开家庭聚居地去寻找工作。在今天的工业社会里，大多数核心家庭的成员生活在一起，但是大多数大家庭的成员不住在一起。所以我们可以说，随着社会工业化的发展，核心家庭变得比大家庭更为重要。
在像美国这样的后工业化社会里，甚至核心家庭也在变化。因为父母不想要更多的孩子，所以核心家庭变得越来越小，而且无孩子家庭的数量也在增加。传统上，核心家庭中的父亲挣钱养家，而母亲则做家务，照看孩子。今天，在美国有超过50%的核心家庭是两个人挣钱的家庭——父亲和母亲都挣钱养家，还有一些家庭母亲挣钱养家而父亲做家务，照看孩子。很多核心家庭也正在“分裂”——因为越来越多的父母正在离婚。
核心家庭的这种“分裂”结果将是什么?社会学家们现在谈到两种新的家庭模式：单亲家庭和再婚家庭。几乎20%的美国家庭是单亲家庭，其中85%的单亲是母亲。大多数单亲发现独自照料一个家很困难，因此他们很快又结婚，形成再婚家庭。随着社会学家们对这两种新的家庭模式的研究，他们将能够告诉我们后工业化时期有关核心家庭未来的更多的情况。
把一个孩子养大需要多少钱？
Our children, of course, are priceless. But they do have a cost: about a quarter-million dollars.
我们的孩子当然是无价之宝。但养育他们确实是需要成本的：大约25万美元。
A new government report estimated that a middle-income family with a child born last year will spend about 221,000 raising that child from birth through age 17, according to the Associated Press. (The number rises to some 292,000 when adjusted for inflation.) The figures don't count the cost of college or childbirth.
据美联社报导，一份新的政府报告估计，一个中等收入家庭将去年出生的孩子抚养到17岁将花费大约22.1万美元。（经通胀调整后的数字约为29.2万美元。）这一数字不包括孩子上大学的费用或生孩子的费用。
Annual child-rearing expense estimates ranged between 11,610 and 13,480 per-child in married, middle-class family with two children.
有两个孩子的中产阶级家庭每年平均在每个孩子身上花的钱大约在11,610美元至13,480美元。
The report, by the USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, said that housing was a family's single largest expense, followed by food and the costs of child care and education.
美国农业部的营养政策与宣传中心发布的这份报告说，住房是家庭最大支出，其次是食品和孩子的抚养及教育费用。
Money spent on child-related costs increases as a family's income goes up. For instance, those with an income between 57,000 and 99,000 spend about 221,000 and those with higher incomes are expected to spend roughly 367,000 through age 17. Costs of raising a child are highest in the urban northeast and lowest in the urban south and rural areas.
用在孩子身上的开支随家庭收入增长而增加。举例来说，收入在5.7万美元至9.9万美元之间的家庭将孩子养到17岁大概要花22.1万美元，而收入更高的家庭大约花费36.7万美元左右。东北部城市养育孩子的花费最高，南部城市和农村地区则最低。
We've written before about the decision to add to the family in tough economic times. How much thought did you give to the cost of raising children in your decision to have a family or to have additional children? What are your biggest costs in raising your children?
此前我们讨论过经济困难时期家庭所需要做的决定。在决定要孩子或是多生孩子时，你有没有考虑过养育孩子的成本？你抚养孩子最大的开支是什么？
什么样的父母生气时会打孩子
Fathers who were spanked as children are less likely to spank their own children than mothers who were spanked while young, according to a US study.
美国一项最新研究表明，小时候挨过打的爸爸更舍不得打自己的孩子，而有此遭遇的妈妈打孩子可能性更大。
Researchers from Ohio State University set out to see if 1990s parents followed the practices of their own mothers but found parents today were showing a lot more affection to their children, reading to them more and spanking them less.
俄亥俄州立大学的研究人员对上世纪90年代的家长是否会效仿他们自己的妈妈展开了调查，但结果表明，如今父母们对孩子更加疼爱，更爱给他们读故事，也更少打他们。
"We were surprised that mothers seem to learn a lot about the parenting role from their own mothers, but fathers don't follow their mothers as much," said researcher Jonathan Vespa in a statement.
研究人员乔纳森·韦斯帕在声明中称：“看起来妈妈从自己的母亲那里学到了很多育儿经，而爸爸却不跟自己的母亲学那么多，我们对此很惊讶。”
The study of 1,133 young adult parents found significant generational changes in parenting practices.
这项研究共对1133位年轻的父母进行了调查，结果表明一代一代的育儿方式有很大差别。
Overall, there was a large generational shift in which the second generation of parents was much less likely to spank than their own parents.
总体上看，与自己的父母相比，第二代父母更不爱打孩子，两代人在此问题上的观念有很大转变。
Second generation mothers who were spanked at least once a week were found to be nearly half as more likely to spank their own children compared to mothers who weren't spanked.
调查结果还表明，与没挨过打的母亲相比，小时候至少每周被打一次的第二代母亲打孩子的几率要多一半。
Fathers spanked as children were less likely to spank their own children.
但小时候挨过打的父亲却更不会打孩子。
The study found only 28 percent of the second generation of fathers reported spanking their children compared to 43 percent of mothers.
研究发现，仅有28%的第二代父亲打过孩子，而在母亲中该比例为43%。
"A little spanking of boys seems to deter (fathers) from spanking their own children later in life," said Vespa.
韦斯帕说：“挨过几次打的男孩长大后更不会打自己的孩子。”
"The evidence suggests that mothers are more the disciplinarians in the family than fathers are today."
“数据表明，在当今家庭中，教训孩子更多的是母亲而不是父亲。”
In general, the amount of affection that parents show their children has increased significantly over the generations.
总体来看，如今的父母对孩子的疼爱比前几代人超出很多。
Sixty percent of fathers and 73 percent of mothers in the second generation reported showing their children physical affection and praising them within the last week compared to only 40 percent of their parents openly showing affection weekly.
在第二代父母中，有60%的父亲和73%的母亲在一周之内爱抚并称赞过孩子，而第一代父母中仅有40%每周公开向孩子表达爱意。
Reading to children had also increased markedly. Nearly three times more mothers in the second generation reported reading to their children daily compared to their own parents.
给孩子读故事的比例也有大幅提高。与第一代父母相比，第二代母亲每天给孩子读故事的比例要多近3倍。
生女比生男更幸福
Sisters spread happiness while brothers breed distress, experts believe.
专家相信，姐妹为家庭播洒快乐，而兄弟让家庭陷入忧愁。
Researchers quizzed 571 people aged 17 to 25 about their lives and found those who grew up with sisters were more likely to be happy and balanced.
研究人员在对571名年龄在17至25岁的青年人进行调查后发现，那些在成长过程中有姐妹相伴的人长大后更快乐、心理也更平衡。
The University of Ulster said having daughters made a family more open and willing to discuss feelings.
阿尔斯特大学的研究人员说，家中有女儿有助于家庭成员之间敞开心扉、增进交流。
They said the influence of girls was particularly important after distressing family events such as marital break-ups.
女孩对家庭有着巨大的影响力，这种影响力在家庭遭遇诸如夫妻离异这样的重大变故后，会尤为明显地体现出来。
The findings are due to be presented at the British Psychological Society in Brighton on Thursday.
该项研究成果将于周四在英国心理学会在布莱顿召开的会议上公布。
During the study, participants filled in psychological questionnaires which researchers used to assess a range of issues, including whether they had a positive outlook and any mental health problems.
在研究过程中，研究人员通过问卷调查的方式，对受访者是否心态乐观、是否患有精神抑郁疾病作了深入的.了解。
Lead researcher Professor Tony Cassidy said: "Sisters appear to encourage more open communication and cohesion in families. "
该项研究的负责人托尼?卡西迪教授说：“家里有姐妹更有助于家庭成员加强交流并增进凝聚力。”
"However, brothers seemed to have the alternative effect. "
“相反，兄弟们似乎只能增加家人间的隔膜。”
"Emotional expression is fundamental to good psychological health and having sisters promotes this in families."
“情感的表达对于个人心理健康有着重大作用，家有姐妹能够进一步强化这种家庭纽带。”
He said many of the participants had been brought up in families where parents had split and the impact of sisters was even more marked in these circumstances.
他说，很多参加调查的人都来自单亲家庭，姐妹关系对这些人起到了非常显著的积极影响。
"I think these findings could be used by people offering support to families and children during distressing times. "
“我想，这项研究成果对于帮助家庭和孩子渡过情感危机，将起到一定的指导作用。”
"We may have to think carefully about the way we deal with families with lots of boys."
“我们也应该重视那些只有男孩儿的家庭的情感沟通方式。”
Geri Burnikell, co-ordinator of the charity Support Line, which offers counselling to young people and families, said: "This is very interesting and certainly chimes with our experiences."
向年轻人和家庭提供咨询服务的慈善组织支持热线的负责人盖里? 波尼科尔表示，这项研究的成果非常有趣，它与我们在工作中的发现相吻合。
"Boys tend to internalise problems and in families where there are lots of sons, I can see that can cause problems.
“男孩子容易将事情个人化，我觉得家里要是男孩子多，自然容易出现沟通方面的问题。”
"I think the most important thing in these circumstances is to give people someone independent to talk to outside the immediate family unit."
“我想消除这种沟通障碍的最佳办法，就是找一个局外人就事论事地解决矛盾。”
“家庭妇男”怎么说？
“家庭妇男”怎么说？
(2008-10-06 14:30:41)
你知道丈夫的含义吗？——丈夫、丈夫，一丈之内乃夫也！你知道英文husband是怎么来的吗？——husband=house+band 房屋栓牢！（band的含义就是Something that constrains or binds morally or legally约束：在道义上或法律上受到限制或约束的事物。比如说the bands of marriage and family婚姻和家庭的约束）这当然有玩笑的成分，不过也表明了丈夫和家庭的密切联系。我们都知道housewife是“家庭妇女”的意思，那么，你知道“家庭妇男”用英语该怎么说吗？
“家庭妇男”的说法很简单，就是由house房子和husband丈夫组成的，即house-husband。说“家庭妇男”多多少少都带点贬低色彩，而 “全职爸爸”则是一个比较中性的说法，指没有负担家庭经济责任的父亲，在现实中，他们生活重心以料理家务、照顾子女或自我休闲为主。A house-husband is a man who stays at home and doesn't go to work, while his wife goes to work and earns money. Usually a man becomes a house-husband in order to look after children.
Sociologists have found the full-time househusband emerges in three main situations.
Firstly, if the wife is ambitious, well-paid and has good job prospects, while her husband is paid poorly and has no job prospects, it makes economic sense for the female to become the main income earner for the household. 第一：妻子有个好工作并且挣得比丈夫多。
Secondly, if the wife is tired of household chores and eager to work outside the home, her husband may forfeit his job for her sake.
第二：妻子乐意主外，而丈夫有成人之美。
Thirdly, if the husband can do his work at home, he may take this option as it allows him more time to take care of the family. 第三：丈夫可以在家办公，从而有条件多花心思在家里。
Housemaker是house-wife和house-husband的统称。当强调在家照看孩子职责的时候，我们也可以称house-wife为stay-at-home mom，称house-husband为stay-at-home dad。还有一种"domestic engineer"的委婉说法，不过这种说法多少对居家者有种讽刺挖苦的味道，所以一定要慎用。与之类似的"housekeeper"这个词也要小心使用，因为它同样用于挖苦居家者。
有关house-husband的新闻：
In a traditional Chinese family, women are expected to do the housekeeping and leave the "other business" to men. However, the emergence of the full-time "househusband" is changing traditional family dynamics.
A survey in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen shows that 22 percent, 73 percent, 34 percent and 32 percent of white-collar male workers, aged between 28 and 33, would be prepared to do the housekeeping if the conditions were right.
有关house-husband的对话：
A: Will you go back to work after you have the baby?
B: Oh yeah!
A: Who'll look after the baby when you're at work then?
B: My husband--he's going to quit his job and become a house husband. I earn more than him, so it makes sense really. And he loves kids, so he'll enjoy it.
Some families with full-time househusbands prefer others not to know about their arrangement, concerned people would laugh at a husband with "no prospects" or wife who is "too strong", but it's getting more common. 有些男人一开始可能还觉得当“全职爸爸”不好意思，不过现在这种情况越来越普遍了。Many of the young men believe a successful man will make a good father. 成功的男人也能做个成功的父亲，你是不是也坚信这点呢？
工作家庭双兼顾 老爸也叫苦
Juggling work and family tough for dads too
With Father's Day fast approaching, many dads admit they are struggling with how to juggle long days at the office and quality time with their family, according to a new survey.
A fifth of the 248 Canadian fathers questioned said time away from home because of work is their biggest concern because they may miss important family events.
"I think it's tough for all working parents ... Trying to juggle is a difficult task," said Patrick Sullivan, president of job site Workopolis.com, which conducted the poll.
Fifteen percent were concerned about finding time for chores, while 11 percent worried about being unable to turn off work at home.
Sixteen percent of fathers in families with an income of over $100,000 said they had difficulty letting go of work at the end of the day. Many fathers also said they felt it was difficult getting parental leave.
Despite the struggles, 40 percent of working dads still claim the family-work balance is manageable.
Fathers in Quebec claimed to be the most in control, with more than half of those surveyed citing no challenges. Only three percent said time away from family was an issue. Western dads seemed more in tune with mothers, with nearly a quarter agreeing that finding time for chores was the biggest issue.
About a third of dads took their own fathers' counsel about careers and family to heart and are happy with the outcome, while another 18 percent chose not to listen.
“父亲节”临近！一项最新调查显示，很多爸爸坦称自己一直在努力寻求工作与家庭生活之间的平衡。
在加拿大的248名受访爸爸中，有五分之一的人称，由于工作原因而无法待在家里是他们最担心的问题，因为他们可能会因此错过重要的家庭活动。
开展该调查的Workopolis.com求职网站的总裁帕特里克?萨利文说：“我觉得这对于所有职业父母来说都很难……兼顾工作和家庭的确不容易。”
15%的人最关心如何挤时间做家务的问题，11%的人担心下班后也无法摆脱工作的困扰。
在家庭年收入超过10万美元的受访爸爸中，16%的人称他们下班后也很难摆脱工作的烦扰。此外，很多爸爸称他们很难休到育儿假。
尽管如此，仍有40%的职业爸爸称自己可以处理得好工作和家庭的关系。
调查显示，魁北克省的爸爸们把这一关系处理得最好，超过一半的人称这对于他们来说没有任何挑战。仅3%的人认为因为工作关系无法待在家是个问题。加拿大西部的老爸与妈妈们似乎比较相似，近四分之一的人认为挤时间做家务是他们面临的最大问题。
约三分之一的爸爸听取自己父亲有关处理事业和家庭关系的建议，而且觉得收效显著；另有18%的人则不听取这些意见。
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