听一分钟英文：Families-家庭

=What does family mean to you? In a perfect world, all families should be happy and everyone should get on well together. I know a lot of families that have many problems. Brothers and sisters who don’t like each other, parents who never talk to each other. I wonder why this is. How can you live so close to your family members and feel apart from them? There is a lot of talk in the news about the breakdown¹ of family life. Divorce² is rising everywhere in the world. This means³ single parents have less time to spend with their children, which creates problems. Maybe the stress of modern life puts too much pressure on families. It seems as though family life was better a generation or two ago. Is this true for families in your country?

1 breakdown   

n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌

参考例句：

• She suffered a nervous breakdown.她患神经衰弱。
• The plane had a breakdown in the air,but it was fortunately removed by the ace pilot.飞机在空中发生了故障，但幸运的是被王牌驾驶员排除了。

2 divorce   

n.离婚；分离；vi.离婚；vt.离婚；脱离

参考例句：

• Did he divorce his wife or did she divorce him?是他要和妻子离婚，还是妻子要和他离婚？
• None of us like the divorce of word and deed.我们都不喜欢言行不一。

3 means   

n.方法，手段，折中点，物质财富

参考例句：

• That man used artful means to find out secrets.那人使用狡猾的手段获取机密。
• We must get it done by some means or other.我们总得想办法把它干完。