Teaching Handout of Lesson 10

I Background Information
USA Today 《今日美国》
apple pie (1) 苹果派
Father Knows Best (3) 《父亲最知道》
Sex and the City (3) 《欲望都市》
seven-year itch (5) 七年之痒
starter marriage (5) 初婚
Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire (5) 《谁想嫁给百万富翁？》
The Monogamy Myth (13) 《一夫一妻的神话》
multiple marriage (13) 多次婚姻
live-in unions （15） 同居关系
maritial unions （15） 婚姻关系
opposite-sex couples (15) 异性伴侣
children out of wedlock （16） 私生子
later marriage （17） 晚婚
Rutgers University (14) 罗格斯大学
The Case for Marriage (21) 《结婚的理由》
The Defense of Marriage Act (25) 婚姻保护法
Ralph Nader (26) 1996，2000，2004，2008 独立党总统候选人
covenant marriage （30） 契约婚姻
Marriage 101 at Northwestern University (31) 东北大学《婚姻 101》课程
Straight people (33) 异性恋者

II Pre-reading: language focus

A. Words
Exalt (1) institution (3) extol (3) sever (4)
psyche (5) confound (7) wanting (9) malady (11)
mock(4) dilute（13） fragile (15) scar（17）
adultery (18) stump (31) bedrock (32) franchise (32)

B. Phrases
1. correlate with (be related to) (4)
2. see eye-to-eye (with sb on/over sth) (7)
3. be fixated on (v.pay attention to exclusively and obsessively) (9)
4. level off (become level or even) (12)
5. have an affair (have affairs with sb ) (18)
6. fill a certain need (20)
7. by many measures (from all aspects) (23)
8. be preocuppied with (27)

III First reading: general understanding of the text

Title: The State of Our Unions
A. Bush’s suggested 1 to preserve marriage (1)
B. Peculiar state of marriage in America (2—10)
1. Support for the marriage institution (3)
2. Changes in the state of marriage for the past four decades (4)
3. 2 feelings about marriage (5)
4. Different concepts on marriage (6-10)
a. Unchanged love for the 3 of marriage (6)
b. Changed concepts on marriage:
Homer’s concept (7)
Trump’s concept (8)
c. Reasons for the change of marriage concepts (9-10)
C. 4 besetting/attacking marriage (11—18)
1. Divorce
a. Increase of divorce rate (12)
b. Shortening of marriage 5 : multiple marriages, starter marriage (13)
2. Cohabitation
a. Percentage of newly weds with cohabitation experience (14)
b. Risks posed by cohabitation (15)
3. Children born out of wedlock (16)
4. Later marriages (17)
5. Adultery: Percentage of husbands and wives with adultery experience (18)
D. Strength of Marriage (19—28)
1. Gravitational pull of marriage (19)
2. No ideal replacement for marriage (20)
3. The 6 and their impact on kids (21-22)
4. The fine state of marriage (23-28)
a. 7 marriage rate (24-25)
b. Homosexuals amounting to a large share of unmarried people (26)
c. Housing market’s 8 with the desire of married couples (27)
d. Artificial 9 of America’s divorce rate (28)
E. Efforts made to strengthen the marriage institution (29—31)
1. High re-marriage rate of divorced people (29)
2. State governments’ efforts to strengthen marriage: marriage-education courses; covenant
marriage; marriage-skills workshops; (30)
3. Society’s efforts to strengthen marriage: marriage movement; marriage courses (31)
F. 10 of same-sex marriage (32-36)
1. Opponents’ view (33)
2. Proponents’ view (34,35,36)

IV Second reading: detailed understanding of the text

A. Analysis and translation of well-crafted sentences
1. Unlike Mom, the flag and apple pie, there’s something about marriage that Americans want
to attack and to protect, to restrict and to expand, to exalt and to ridicule. (Para 1)

2. It’s (Marriage is) the acknowledged gold standard for raising children. It has been extolled in
cultural touchstones from Father Knows Best to Sex and the City. (Para 3)

3. Feelings about marriage are complex, and only an amendment to the national psyche would
change that. (Para 5)

4. Marriage is such a great idea that Americans seem to love it too much-- the idea, that is. The
reality of marriage-- crumbs in the bed, toilet seat up (or down), meatloaf again--suffers in
comparison. (Para. 6)

5. She says that the expectation of a long term marriage is fading and that “somebody has to be
willing to say the emperor is not wearing any clothes. But maybe not at a $25,000 wedding for a
couple of twentysomethings, which may turn out to be a “starter marriage” that ends before the
couple has children and before they even turn 30. (13)

6. The alternatives -- single parenting and cohabitation -- are avaiable to people, but they are
making a bargain that requires less of them and gives them less in return (21)

7. The institution of mariage itself strikes men as being in no brouble at all,” says Robert Lang,
a demographer at Virginia Tech. “How many things do 95% of people do?... They should have a
defense of voting act.” (25)

8. The housing market is preocuppied with the desire of married couples and families for large
houses, not putting up apartments for recent divorces. (27)

9. What stumps some pcople is why, if marriage is such a bedrock 根基 of traditional values,
the franchise 特权 should not be expanded to gay men and lesbians. (32)

10. ....same sex marriages taking place in San Francisco and ordered by the court in
Massachusetts starting in May will reassure marriage’s protectors. . (Para 35)

11. There was a time when you couldn’ t marry between races. It was always to protect
marriage. Isn’t that what this is going to be 10-20 years from now?. (Para 36)

B．Statements for discussion

1. It (Marriage) correlates with health, wealth and happiness. (3)

2. Culture absorbs redefinition of marriage. (36)

 Lesson 10 The State of Our Unions

Divorce, cohabitation and adultey have hurt institution of mrriage

By Rick Hampson

1. President Bush wants a constitutional amendment to preseve mariage. But what, exactly, would
it preserve. Unlike Mom, the flag and apple pie, there’s something about marriage that
Americans want to attack and to protect, to restrict and to expand, to exalt and to ridicule.

2. What the president called civilization’s “most fundamental institution” is, in America, a rather
peculiar one.

3. It’s an institution that 59% of us currently inhabit and that more than 9 in 10 of an eventually
embrace, at least once and for a little while. It correlates with health, wealth and happiness. It’s
the acknowledged gold standard for raising children. It has been extolled in cultural touchstones
from Father Knows Best to Sex and the City.

4. But it’s also an institution that over the past four decades has been increasingly severed by
divorce and mocked by adultery. It has been ignored by couples who live together and have
children out of wedlock. And it has been postponed by those who marry later in life.

5. The nation that introduced the concepts of the seven-year itch, the starter marriage and Who
Wants to Marry a Millionaire, is also one that believes love and marriage go together like a horse
and carriage. Feelings about marriage are complex, and only an amendment to the national psyche
would change that.

6. Marriage is such a great idea that Americans seem to love it too much-- the idea, that is. The
reality of marriage-- crumbs in the bed, toilet seat up (or down), meatloaf again--suffers in
comparison. And, since the introduction of no-fault divorce in Clifornia in 1969, it has gotten
easier and easier across the nation to leave a real marriage behind and move on in search of the
ideal one.

7. Everyone is an expert on marriage. Here’s Homer, 29 centeries ago: “There is nothing more
admirable than two people who see eye-to-eye keeping house as man and wife, confounding their
enemies and delighting their friends.

8. And here’s twice divorced Donald Trump, two years ago: “Marriage is a great institution if you
get it right.”

9. A lot happened between the ages of these sages 智 者 . Marriage turned into a contract.
Television, in its first 30 years, was fixated on the perfect marriage as the basis for the perfect
family. But anyone who compared their marriage to the Seavers found it wanting.

A sacred obligation

10. What the Supreme Court in the 19th century referred to as a “sacred obigation” had by 1965
becomec merely “an association of two individuals.” Then came the sexual revolution and
women's liberation.

11. At the moment, the institution is beset by these maladies:

12. Divorce. As many as 50% of new marriages end in divorce. The divorce rate leveled off in
1990s. There’s no question divorce has become more common: A Census study showed that 90%
of women who married between 1945 and 1949 reached their 10 th anniversary, compared to 73%
of those who married between 1980 and 1984

13. Peggy Vaughan, the author of The Monogamy Myth says marriage’s meaning “is getting
diluted and polluted. We have serial monogamy as multiple marriages become the norm.” She
says that the expectation of a long term marriage is fading and that “somebody has to be willing to
say the emperor is not wearing any clothes. But maybe not at a $25,000 wedding for a couple of
twentysomethings, which may turn out to be a “starter marriage” that ends before the couple has
children and before they even turn 30.

14. Cohabitation. At least half of all newlyweds have lived together first. Researchers say. And
David Popenoe, a Rutgers University sociologist, estimates that two thirds of people who marry
have lived with somebody else first.

15. Live-in unions are more fragile than marital unions, and many live-ins have children. About
41% of opposite-sex couples living together have children younger than 18 at home. But
sociologists Pamela Smock and Wendy Manning have found that children born to couples who
live together have about twice the risk of seeing their parents split than those with married
biological parents.

16. Children out of wedlock. About a third of children are born out of wedlock, and roughly the
same percentage live with only one parent.

17. Later marriages. President Bush married at age 31 -- past the median age of 27. JohnWall, a
professor of ethics and religion at Rutgers University-Camden, says the children of baby boomers,
themselves often scarred by divorce, now are reluctant to try marriage themselves.

18. Adultery. Although there are no good statistics on the subject, Vaughan estimates that 60% of
both husbands and wives have had an affair during either their current marriage or a previous one.
Others (Other) trend-trackers say the percentages are much smaller.

19. “A lot of people in the ’60s and ’70s thought they could escape the gavitational pull of
marriage,” says Robert Thompson, who studies and teaches pop culture at Syracuse University.
“But it proved to be a lot stronger than they thought. The society had too much invested in it.”

20. Too many old wedding photos, too many bridal gowns in the attic, too many stories about the
time “when your father and I...” Americans may be dissatisfied with marriage. But we don’t know
anything else. Marriage fills a certain need, and there’s nothing to take its place.

21. “The alternatives -- single parenting and cohabitation -- are avaiable to people, but they are
making a bargain that requires less of them and gives them less in return,” says Linda Waite, a
Univcrsty of Chicargo sociologist and co-author of The Casc for Marriage.

22. David Blankenhorn, founder of the Institute for American Values, a think tank on the family,
calls marriage “our society’s most pro-child institution... If you want kids to do well, then you
wnat your marriage to do well.”

23. Marriage is, by many measures, doing just fine.

24. According other most recent figures, 65% of men and 71% of women marry by age 30. By age
60, those figures rise to 97% for men and 95% for women.

25. “The institution of mariage itself strikes men as being in no brouble at all,” says Robert Lang,
a demographer at Virginia Tech. “How many things do 95% of people do?... They should have a
defense of voting act.” (The Defense of Marriage Act.” Which defines marriage as a union
between a man and a women, has been passed by Congress and 38 states. 捍卫婚姻法案; 比尔·克
林顿签署通过)

26. Lang says he suspects “a large share of the people not married in a lifetime are gay, or they’re
Ralph Nader 不可理喻之人.”

27. Similarly, sales and production of homes for single people are down. The housing market is
preocuppied with the desire of married couples and families for large houses, not putting up
apartments for recent divorces.

28. Speaking of which, Lang says the divorce rate is artificially inflated by people with multiple
devorces.” The actress and serial bride Zsa Zsa Gabor, he says, could have gone into a town and
“lifted the divorce rate to 50% on her own.”
Srengtheing the institution

29. May of those who divorce more than once also try again, and thus spend much of the life, for
better or worse, married.

30. In recent years there have been many attempts to strengthen marriage. Florida requires
marriage education courses in high school. Louisiana, Arkansas and Arizona have approved
“covenant marriages” in which couples voluntarily limit their ability to divorce. Arizona provides
state funds to help couples attend privately run marriage-skills workshops. Oklahoma has used
welfare money to reduce the divorce rate.

31. There is a National Marriage Projecet at Rutgers that studies and promotes marriage, anational,
non partisan Marriage Movement and all sorts of courses in marriage, from Marriage 101 at
Northwestern University to “Couple Communication” in suburban Maryland .

32. What stumps some pcople is why, if marriage is such a bedrock 根基 of traditional values,
the franchise 特权 should not be expanded to gay men and lesbians.

33. “Because it’s morally wrong,” says Terry Calhoun, 47, a Roman Catholic who lives in
Stockton, III. with his second wife. “Marriage has slipped a lot,” he says, “and reserving it for
straight people would strengthen it.”

34. This makes no sense to John Plessis, 69, of Scottsdale, Ariz. He’s a retired steamship
company executive who says he has lived with several women over the years but never married.
“Gays are people, too,” he says. “I don’ t see what dfference it makes if they’re allowed to get
married.”

35. Cheryl Jacques, president of the Human Right Campaign, a gay civil rights organization, says
same sex marriages taking place in San Francisco and ordered by the court in Massachusetts
starting in May will reassure marriage’s protectors. When gays and lesbians marry, she says,
“for the vast majority of Americans, absolutely nothing bad happens. ... gay or lesbian family is
made stronger, safer and more secure.

36. Lang, the Virginia Tech demographer, notes that there was a time when you couldn’ tmarry
between races. It was always to protect marriage. Isn’t that what this is going to be 10-20 years
from now? Culture absorbs redefinition of marriage.”

Contributing: Kare S. Peterson, Haya EL Nasser and Paul Ozerberg

From USA Today. February 26.2004

Assignments

1. Put these words into the spaces in the paragraphs below.

concludes tend saliva 唾液; period

unclear bliss widowed samples

depression chances hormone physiological

conditions influence responses insights

A new study suggests that marital (1) ____________ has beneficial health effects. The
research is from Carnegie Mellon University in the USA. It (2) ____________ that
being married reduces your levels of a stress hormone called cortisol. Researchers
tested for cortisol in the (3) ____________ of 572 adults aged 21-55 on three
different, non-consecutive days. Multiple saliva (4) ____________ were taken
throughout each 24-hour (5) ____________. The researchers found that the married
people in the sample had less cortisol than people who were single, separated,
divorced or (6) ____________. The researchers said: "Married people (7)
____________ to be healthier than both the previously and never married, but the
mechanisms through which this occurs remain (8) ____________."

The stress (9) ____________ cortisol has many different functions in our body. It
regulates blood sugar levels, immune (10) ____________ and inflammation 炎症 and
can increase the risk of heart disease. It also increases the (11) ____________ of
surviving cancer. High levels of cortisol have been linked to mental (12)
____________ such as anxiety and (13) ____________. Laboratory director Sheldon
Cohen said: "These data provide important (14) ____________ into the way in which
our intimate social relationships can get under the skin to (15) ____________ our
health." Researcher Brian Chin added: "It is exciting to discover a (16) ____________
pathway that may explain how relationships influence health and disease."

2. Cloze (Which of these words go in the text?)

Authorities in China are looking at a new way of (1) ____ the country's increasing
divorce rate. In parts of China, couples who (2) ____ for divorce are being asked to
take an exam to (3) ____ how much they still might love each other and whether or
not their marriage can be (4) ____. Up to half of all Chinese marriages between those
who were born in the 1980s have ended in divorce. China's rising divorce rate has
been attributed to the increased empowerment of working women, who are more
financially independent and less reliant (5) ____ a partner. Media sources say the rise
of social media and dating apps are adding to the problem, (6) ____ there are
increasing numbers of extramarital affairs.

The divorce tests have had a (7) ____ reaction in China. Liu Chunling, the director of
a marriage-registration office, told reporters that the test was aimed (8) ____ reducing
the divorce rate and preventing "impulsive divorces". She said: "Only the harmony of
millions of family units can (9) ____ the harmony of an entire society." Chinese
Internet users were less enthusiastic about the 15-question test being used to
determine a couple's (10) ____ for each other. One post on the Weibo social media
site asked: "So if you remember your wedding anniversary you can't divorce? Divorce
isn't a case of (11) ____." Another wrote: "They are adults and they have the right to
divorce. This is interference (12) ____ domestic affairs."

1.A. exalting B. vaulting C. halting D. salting

2.A. file B. case C. folder D. document

3.A. ascertain B. retain C. entertain D. contain

4.A. salvaged B. savaged C. suave D. assuaged

5.A. in B. on C. to D. at

6.A. is B. has C. was D. as

7.A. tonic B. clean C. mixed D. frame

8.A. by B. to C. on D. at

9.A. achieve B. archive C. archery D. reprieve

10.A. love B. lovely C. loveliness D. lovey-dovey

11.A. magnesium B. amnesia C. forget D. old photos

12.A. at B. by C. in D. as