新视野大学英语 读写教程第二册 unit3-c

Section C

Finding¹ a Marriage Partner

All humans are born into families — and families begin with the joining together of a man and a woman in marriage. All societies have their own form of marriage. The ideas that we have about marriage are part of our cultural background; they are part of our basic beliefs about right and wrong. As we study marriage, we find that different cultures have solved the problem of finding a spouse² in different ways.
In traditional Chinese culture, parents made marriage decisions for their children. Parents who wanted to find a spouse for their son or daughter asked a marriage counselor³ （媒人） to find someone with the right qualities, including age and educational background. Older family members, who understood that the goal of marriage was to produce healthy sons, made the all-important decision of marriage. In traditional Chinese society, sons were important because they would take positions as head of the family and keep the family name alive.
As part of our cultural background, beliefs about marriage can be as different as the cultures of the world. The Hopi, a native people of North America, used to have a very different idea about freedom. The Hopi allowed boys to leave their parents' home at age thirteen to live in a kiva, a special home for young males. Here they enjoyed the freedom to go out alone at night and secretly visit young girls. Most boys tried to leave the girl's home before dawn, but a girl's parents usually did not get angry about the night visits. They allowed the visits to continue if they thought the boy was someone who would make a good marriage partner. After a few months of receiving visits, most girls were expecting a baby. At this time they could choose their favorite boy for a husband.
The Hopi culture is not the only one that allowed young people to visit each other at night. Some Bavarian people of southern Germany once had a "windowing" custom that took place when young women left their windows open at night so that young men could enter their bedrooms. When a woman was expecting, the man usually asked her to marry him. But women who were not with child after windowing were often unable to find a husband. This was because ability to bear children was a very important requirement⁴ for women in this culture, and the windowing custom allowed them to prove their ability to others in the community. Some people are surprised when they learn of this old custom because they think people of southern Germany followed the Catholic⁵ （天主教的） religion beliefs, which teach marriage is a holy⁶ right given by God in order to create children. But the windowing custom is only one example of the surprising views of marriage that have existed around the world.
One view of marriage that surprises most of us today was held by John Noyes, a religious⁷ man who started the Oneida Community in the state of New York in 1831. Noyes decided⁸ that group marriage was the best way for men and women to live together. In this form of marriage, men and women changed partners frequently⁹. They were expected to love all members of the community equally¹⁰. Children belonged to all members of the community, and all the adults worked hard to support themselves and shared everything they had. Members of the Oneida Community lived together for a while without any serious problems; however, this way of life ended when John Noyes left in 1876. Without his leadership and special way of thinking, members of the community quickly returned to the traditional marriage of one woman and one man.
A more famous example of a different style of marriage is found among the Mormons. The group's first leader, Joseph Smith, believed that a man should be allowed to have several wives. As the Mormon church grew, many of the men followed Smith's teaching¹¹ and married a number of wives. The Mormons believe that it is a woman's duty to marry at a young age and raise as many children as possible. For example, in 1854, one Mormon leader became a father nine times in one week when nine of his wives all had babies. Today the Mormon church teaches that marriage should involve one man and one woman as partners who will be together not only during this life but also forever.
Today some men agree with the old custom of having as many wives as desired. Some young lovers¹² today dream of the former freedom of the Hopi, and some wish that a marriage counselor would help them find the perfect mate¹³. Finding a spouse with whom we can spend a lifetime¹⁴ has always been an important concern. Despite all these unusual traditional ways of finding a marriage partner, one idea is the same throughout¹⁵ the world: Marriage is a basic and important part of human life.
Words: 818

1 finding   

n.发现，发现物；调查的结果

参考例句：

• The finding makes some sense.该发现具有一定的意义。
• That's an encouraging finding.这是一个鼓舞人心的发现。

2 spouse   

n.配偶(指夫或妻)

参考例句：

• Her spouse will come to see her on Sunday.她的丈夫星期天要来看她。
• What is the best way to keep your spouse happy in the marriage?在婚姻中保持配偶幸福的最好方法是什么？

3 counselor   

n.顾问，法律顾问

参考例句：

• The counselor gave us some disinterested advice.顾问给了我们一些无私的忠告。
• Chinese commercial counselor's office in foreign countries.中国驻国外商务参赞处。

4 requirement   

n.需要，要求，请求，规定，必要条件

参考例句：

• Patience is a requirement in teaching.耐心是教学必备的条件。
• Your requirement that she wait till next week is reasonable.你要求她等到下周是有道理的。

5 catholic   

adj.天主教的；n.天主教徒

参考例句：

• The Pope is the supreme leader of the Roman Catholic Church.教皇是罗马天主教的最高领袖。
• She was a devoutly Catholic.她是一个虔诚地天主教徒。

6 holy   

adj.神圣的，圣洁的，至善的；n.神圣的东西

参考例句：

• She was still a holy and pure young girl.她仍是一个圣洁的少女。
• He reads the Holy Bible every night.他每晚读《圣经》。

7 religious   

adj.宗教性的，虔诚的，宗教上的；n.修道士，出家人

参考例句：

• She is very religious person who goes to church every Sunday.她十分虔诚，每个星期天都上教堂。
• It is hard for me to reject religious beliefs.要我抛弃自己的宗教信仰是困难的。

8 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

9 frequently   

adv.常常，屡次，经常地，频繁地

参考例句：

• Please write to me frequently.请经常给我来信。
• I like that you should call on me frequently.我喜欢你经常来拜访我。

10 equally   

adv.平等地；公平地

参考例句：

• Divide the cake into quarters and share it equally.把蛋糕分成四份，大家平均享用。
• The blue sky belongs equally to us all.蓝天为人所共有。

11 teaching   

n.教学，执教，任教，讲授；(复数)教诲

参考例句：

• We all agree in adopting the new teaching method. 我们一致同意采取新的教学方法。
• He created a new system of teaching foreign languages.他创造了一种新的外语教学体系。

12 lovers   

爱好者( lover的名词复数 )； 情人； 情夫； 情侣

参考例句：

• They were off-screen lovers. 他们是真实生活中的情侣。
• Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet 罗密欧和朱丽叶这一对莎士比亚笔下命运多舛的恋人

13 mate   

n.伙伴，同事；配偶；大副；v.(使)交配

参考例句：

• Where is the mate to this glove?这副手套的另一只在哪儿？
• She has been a faithful mate to him.她一直是他忠实的配偶。

14 lifetime   

n.一生，终身，寿命，使用期限

参考例句：

• He wrote many books during his lifetime.他一生著作甚多。
• During his lifetime his work was never published.他的作品在他的有生之年从未出版过。

15 throughout   

adv.到处，自始至终；prep.遍及，贯穿

参考例句：

• These magazines are sold at bookstores throughout the country.这些杂志在全国各地书店均有发售。
• Guilin is known throughout the world for its scenery.桂林以山水著称于世。