英语单词大师：A Prenup: The Legal Language

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: What does "prenup" mean? That's a question from listener Muhammad Ali in Karachi, Pakistan.

RS: A prenup is a prenuptial agreement, a contract between two people before they marry about how they will handle their finances and other matters should the partnership¹ end. Attorney Marlene Eskind Moses is president-elect of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. MARLENE MOSES: "Generally speaking, prenuptial agreements are recognized as valid² agreements amongst people if the terms of the agreement are valid and, moreover, if everything involving the agreement takes place. And those kinds of things generally that are required is that you have to have a full and complete understanding and disclosure of the assets, there needs to be independent counsel, and there needs not to be any duress³ or any undue⁴ influence.

"And we interpret that to mean a lot of times that you don't want an agreement that the parties are signing right when they're getting ready to walk down the aisle⁵ and the guests have been invited."RS: "What would you find in a prenuptial agreement? What are common things -- "AA: "Terms. And what would be valid versus⁶ invalid⁷ terms in a prenup?"MARLENE MOSES: "Well, something that would be detrimental⁸ to the society. I mean, it could be that there'll be no child support being paid, and if somebody's going to be on public welfare or assistance, certainly that would create difficulties for the state. But generally the kinds of terms that are included are terms having to do with assets and/or liabilities that people bring into the marriage. And yes, lots of times, I think early on probably the wealthy were those that used them the most -- "AA: "Movie stars and the like."MARLENE MOSES: "Yes, yes, absolutely. But it's becoming really more and more commonplace."AA: "Even in a recession? I mean, is that playing any role in what you're seeing, these having to be enforced or pulled out of a desk drawer or something? Are you seeing any effect from the recession?"MARLENE MOSES: "Well, what's happened as a result of the recession are the assets that people are protecting are worth less. But they're still being protected. And people are thinking about their assets going into a marriage, thinking about, you know, 'Well, I do want to hold on to what little I do have now in comparison to what I had before the recession.'"AA: "I'm assuming it's the lawyer who writes the final document ... or is it up to the couple to write it?"RS: "Or can you do your own?"MARLENE MOSES: "It's a contract, and so depending on contract law, people are free to contract, typically. But the question is, one of the elements oftentimes is that people have independent counsel or have the ability to have retained independent counsel, so that the [agreement] that has been reached can be scrutinized⁹.

"An example of a prenuptial agreement that wouldn't be upheld would be one that would leave somebody out penniless and a public charge. And the court then would say 'We cannot enforce this prenuptial agreement because it's not equitable¹⁰.'"RS: "Can I ask you a personal question?"MARLENE MOSES: "Sure."RS: "Do you have a prenuptial agreement -- are you married?"MARLENE MOSES: "I am married. It'll be thirty-seven years in June. When my husband and I entered in our marriage, we were just really sort of building from the beginning. And that's one of those examples when you're not coming in with much and you build yourselves. So there really wasn't a need for us to have a prenuptial agreement when we married."RS: "Well, did you make a postnuptial agreement?"AA: "Do people do that?"MARLENE MOSES: "No, but people do do that. And we've not had a need to do that, but that is another contract between people. And in that instance it would be between married people. And there has to be consideration, there has to be a bargain in exchange for entering into the agreement. It's not just keeping the marriage together in some instances. There has to be a real reason to have a postnuptial agreement. But people are finding those very useful as well."AA: Marlene Eskind Moses in Nashville, Tennessee, is president-elect of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

RS: And that's WORDMASTER for this week. Archives are at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

1 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

2 valid   

adj.有确实根据的；有效的；正当的，合法的

参考例句：

• His claim to own the house is valid.他主张对此屋的所有权有效。
• Do you have valid reasons for your absence?你的缺席有正当理由吗？

3 duress   

n.胁迫

参考例句：

• He claimed that he signed the confession under duress.他说他是被迫在认罪书上签字的。
• These unequal treaties were made under duress.这些不平等条约是在强迫下签订的。

4 undue   

adj.过分的；不适当的；未到期的

参考例句：

• Don't treat the matter with undue haste.不要过急地处理此事。
• It would be wise not to give undue importance to his criticisms.最好不要过分看重他的批评。

5 aisle   

n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道

参考例句：

• The aisle was crammed with people.过道上挤满了人。
• The girl ushered me along the aisle to my seat.引座小姐带领我沿着通道到我的座位上去。

6 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

7 invalid   

n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的

参考例句：

• He will visit an invalid.他将要去看望一个病人。
• A passport that is out of date is invalid.护照过期是无效的。

8 detrimental   

adj.损害的，造成伤害的

参考例句：

• We know that heat treatment is detrimental to milk.我们知道加热对牛奶是不利的。
• He wouldn't accept that smoking was detrimental to health.他不相信吸烟有害健康。

9 scrutinized   

v.仔细检查，详审( scrutinize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The jeweler scrutinized the diamond for flaws. 宝石商人仔细察看钻石有无瑕庇 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Together we scrutinized the twelve lemon cakes from the delicatessen shop. 我们一起把甜食店里买来的十二块柠檬蛋糕细细打量了一番。 来自英汉文学 - 盖茨比

10 equitable   

adj.公平的；公正的

参考例句：

• This is an equitable solution to the dispute. 这是对该项争议的公正解决。
• Paying a person what he has earned is equitable. 酬其应得,乃公平之事。