VOA常速英语2013--美国结婚率“杯具”了（在线收听）

U.S. Marriage Rates Keep Declining 美国结婚率“杯具”了

If you haven't already picked up on the trend from all the whining on Bravo’s Princesses: Long Island, marriage rates in America are at an all-time low. And the median age at which women do say "I do" is now 27, the highest it's been in a century. That's according to a new report by Bowling Green State University’s Julissa Cruz, published by the National Center for Family and Marriage Research. [Julissa Cruz, Marriage: More Than a Century of Change]

你是否还淹没在布拉沃的公主们的抱怨潮流中：长岛，在美国的结婚率一达到了历史新低。一定会说“我愿意” 的中龄妇女现在一般在27岁，这是一个世纪以来最高的年龄。信息来源于博林格林州立大学Julissa Cruz的一篇新的报告。发表于国家中心家庭和婚姻研究所。

In the 1920s, 92 women walked down the aisle each year per 1,000 single women of marrying age. Today, it's a third that. Marriage rates were expected to plateau in the wake of the baby boom, but so far they just keep dropping.

1920年，每年每1000单身妇女中只有92个妇女结婚了。在今天，只有这个数据的1/3。结婚率被期盼能在婴儿潮时期保持稳定，但是目前它们依旧在下降。

Apparently, many college-educated women are simply putting off getting hitched, and many black women might be foregoing it altogether. Because while every ethnic group has seen a drop in the proportion of married women since the '50s, it's dipped lowest for black women—just 26 percent of whom are married.

显而易见，许多受过大学教育的妇女无心结婚，许多黑人妇女可能会一起保持单身，因为自从50年代以来，每一个种族妇女结婚人数都有下降。黑人妇女结婚率达到了最低——只有26%的妇女是已婚的

In the U.K. and most of Europe, the average age for women tying the knot is already more than 30. And if Long Island’s reality stars are an indicator, we're soon to follow.

在英国以及欧洲的大部分地区，妇女的平均结婚年龄已经超过了30岁，如果长岛的现象只是个指示器的话，我们也将紧随其后。

—Christopher Intagliata