Lesson 12 The American Family

Carolyn Weaver

1、Many Americans formed their idea of family life in the 1950s. Popular television programs—like “Ozzie and Harriet” and “Father Knows Best”—showed a family with two or three children. Mother stayed at home to cook, clean and raise the children. Father earned enough money at his job to provide for all of the family’s needs. These television programs are still shown sometimes. But that kind of American family has become increasingly less common in the last thirty years.

2、Beginning in the late 1950s, a wave of social change swept through American life. Almost every American family was affected. Historians say the American family has changed more rapidly in the last thirty years than in any other time period.

3、Social historians say the most far-reaching change in the family has resulted from changes in women’s work. A majority of married women in the United States no longer stay home all day to cook, clean and raise children. They now have paid jobs outside the home. So their young children spend at least part of the day in a child-care home or center.

4、Changes in the family also resulted from changes in marriage traditions. During the 1960s, many young men and women began to live together without being legallymarried. Some had children. They were a family, but not in the traditional sense. At the same time, more people ended their marriage if it was unhappy. The rate of divorce in the United States increased more than three times in about 20 years. And finally, birth control became more acceptable. Fewer babies were born. The birth rate fell to its lowest point ever in the history of the nation.

5、With divorce and fewer babies, American families got smaller. They began to look less and less 1ike families in the television programs. Many more families were made up of only divorced mothers and children. More two-parent families contained children from a husband’s or wife’s earlier marriage. More families were made up of women who had never married, the children they had outside of marriage, and perhaps a grandmother or aunt.

6、Today’s television programs show this change. Instead of “Father Knows Best”, there is “Kate and Allie”. This program is about two divorced women who live together with their children. The women go to work during the day while their children are in school.

7、Historians say these changes in the family are not really new. They have been growing in America for more than one hundred years.

8、“What is new,” historians say, “is the speed of change.” It was extremely rapid in the 1960s and 1970s.

9、Andrew Cherlin, a professor of social science at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, is a leading expert on families. Mr. Cherlin says changes in the American family began with economic and population changes in the nineteenth century.

10、People began buying the things they needed, instead of making them at home. The birth rate went down as the nation became more industrial. Then, after World War Two, the economy grew quickly. There were many jobs. Having less to do at home, married women went to work at those jobs. Their earnings helped pay for their family’s clothes, education and holidays.

11、Social scientists say female employment also removed an important reason for marriage. In the past, women needed husbands to survive economically. And men needed wives to cook for them and make their clothes.

12、Today, women do not need husbands to survive economically. They can earn their own money. And men do not need wives. They can buy what they need in stores. Because of this, social scientists say, marriages today are based more on the desire for love and friendship, and the desire to create a family.

13、Social scientists Andrew Cherlin and Frank Furstenberg have written about the American family of the future. They say that in the future, several kinds of families will be common.

14、There will be families of a man and woman in their first marriage. Both the husband and wife will work outside the home. Many of these families will have one or two children. But more of them will have none.

15、There will be families of a divorced woman and her children. In nine of ten divorces, the children stay with the mother. Fewer than half of all divorced women, however, receive financial support from their former husbands. So many of these families will be poor. State and federal lawmakers are urging new measures to forcefathers to support their children after divorce.

16、Another common family of the future will be made up of parts of families from other marriages. In 1984, one-third of the men and women who got married had been married before. Many had children from their former marriages. One thousand such “step-families” are created in America every day. They are found everywhere, even the White House. President Reagan’s family includes children from his former marriage.

17、It is not easy for two separate families to learn to live together as one. It may take several years before the new family becomes united. After that, most do well. Ties between step-parents and children may remain strong.

18、With all these changes, studies show that the great majority of Americans say they are very happy with their families and marriages. And most American children say they believe their parents are doing a good job of raising them.

(960 words)

Exercises

Ⅰ. How well did you read?

1. [Check the details] According to “Father Knows Best”, what did mothers usually do in the 1950s in the USA?

A. Mother usually stayed at home to cook, clean and raise the children.

B. Mother usually went to work with their husband.

C. Mother worked both at home and in the factories.

2. [Give the reason] Women do not need husbands to survive economically because ______.

A. they can make money by cooking at home 

B. they can earn money by working outside 

C. they can get paid by the government if they raise their children

3. [Draw a conclusion] From the passage, we can know that marriages in the USA today ______.

A. are based more on the desire to create a family B. remain unchanged as those in the 1950s C. last longer than ever before

Ⅱ. Read for words.

1. Choose one best paraphrase or Chinese meaning for the underlined words.

(1) Almost every American family was affected. (Para. 2, Line 2)

A. taken B. influenced C. changed

(2) Andrew Cherlin, a professor of social science at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, is a leading expert on families. (Para. 9, Line 2)

A. most important B. most popular C. most famous

(3) State and federal lawmakers are urging new measures to force fathers to support their children after divorce. (Para. 15, Line 4)

A. 强烈要求 B. 渴望 C. 制定

2. Choose one best paraphrase or Chinese meaning for the underlined expressions.

(1) Father earned enough money at his job to provide for all of the family’s needs. (Para. 1, Line 4)

A. made enough money

B. spent lots of money

C. borrowed much money

(2) Many more families were made up of only divorced mothers and children.(Para. 5, Lines 2~3)

A. 制造 B. 弥补 C. 由……组成

Ⅲ. Writing practice.

1. According to Andrew Cherlin and Frank Furstenberg, there are some kinds of families in the future. What are they?

2. What kind of family do you prefer? Why?