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  3. Are We Turning into a Nation of Loners? Marriage is down, and so is childbirth. But divorce is up, along with single-person

Are We Turning into a Nation of Loners? Marriage is down, and so is childbirth. But divorce is up, along with single-person

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问题                                    Are We Turning into a Nation of Loners?
    Marriage is down, and so is childbirth. But divorce is up, along with single-person living. This is Britain today.
    A period of unprecedented change in British family life, where adults lead more isolated lives, bringing up children on their own or not having them at all, is described in a report today. The independent Family Policy Studies Centre paints a picture of an evolving society with fewer children, fewer marriages, more divorces and more solo living, where "marriage and partnerships are much more fragile than they were".
    Although the government has gone further than any other in developing explicit policies for parenting and marriage, ministers should become "more in tune with contemporary family life", it says. They need to consider the effect of these changes, the report says, not just on children affected by the breakdown of adult relationships, but on society as a whole and "right across the life cycle".
    The report says it is still too early to talk of the death of the "traditional family", because four-fifths of dependent children still live in a family with two parents, and nine in ten of those parents are married. But other statistics included in the report demonstrate significant changes in family demographics (人口统计) with profound, often unexplored, consequences.
    More than 6.5 million people in Britain—about 28% of households—now live on their own, three times as many as 40 years ago, the report says. Nearly a quarter of women born in 1973 will still be childless at the age of 45, compared with about one in ten of those born in 1943. Women are having children later, on average at 29 rather than at 26, as in the 1970s, and they are having fewer offspring. The average of 1.73 children per woman in the late 1990s, though higher than in most EU countries, is well below the 2.1 needed to retain the population at its present level in the long term.
Lone parents trebled
    The 21% of dependent children living in lone parent households (the vast majority with their mother) has trebled (三倍) from the 7% in 1972. The number of lone parents has trebled in the past 25 years—there were about 1.6 million such parents and 2.8 million dependent children by the mid 1990s, compared with just over 500000 lone parents and 1 million dependent children in 1971. Within that 1.6 million, the fastest growing group is single, never-married lone mothers. Their proportion, 42% in 1997, is nearly double the proportion of 24% for 1984.
    "Twenty years ago such women would have married only to see their relationship end in separation or divorce," the report says. "Single lone mothers should be seen as the modern equivalent of teenagers in earlier generations whose shotgun marriages (为怀孕所迫的结婚) failed."
    The annual marriage rate is at its lowest level since records began 160 years ago. In 1961 approximately 330000 first-time marriages and 50000 remarriages took place. By 1997 these figures had dropped to fewer than 200000 first-time marriages and approximately 120000 remarriages. Of every five marriages, two will end in divorce. More than 150000 children under 16 experience the divorce of their parents, and if present rates continue, 28% of children under 16 will experience divorce. The cost of family breakdown to the public purse has been estimated at about 5 billion a year.
    But marriage is still more stable than cohabiting, with couples who live together unmarried three or four times more likely to split up. Future research will show a rise in the proportion of cohabiting couples, from the one in ten in the most recently available figures. And the presence of children in a cohabiting relationship does not appear to reduce the breakdown rate significantly. Although the Centre itself devotes some space in its report to children, it says ministers should broaden their scope to consider the wider implications of these changes. "The impact right across the life cycle, including that on the growing numbers of older people, must be fully taken on board, as must the effect of these family changes on society," said Ceridwen Roberts, director of the Centre.
    Ms Roberts said: "When we just talk about children, I think this fudges (篡改事实) the issue sometimes. We have also got to look at the effects on adults. I think the government has a responsibility to look at the full social and economic cost of relationship fragility. We need to encourage a public debate about whether those costs should be borne by private individuals, or directly and indirectly by society. If we are going to have a serious discussion about whether there is a social policy impact on relationship breakdown you can’t just ignore the cost."
    Through his chairing of the ministerial group on the family, Jack Straw, the home secretary, has concentrated on the impact of family breakdown on children. That is unlikely to alter. "The main part of our family policy is about ensuring children are better supported, everything springs from that," said a Home Office source.
Misconceptions
    The Centre recommends introduction of family impact statements, spelling out the impact of any government policy. In its report, the Centre also dispels some common misconceptions: that people living alone are not part of a family, when in fact the family remains "the key social network and primary source of informal care and support for most people"; that most non-resident fathers do not keep in contact with their children, when nearly half in 1996 saw their children at least once a week. The extended family continues to be very important, although contact with relatives has lessened, and family members are the main providers of care for elderly relatives. Grandparents are still important in childcare.
    Mr. Straw last week confirmed his commitment to promoting the family, but he said he wanted to "develop policies that support people in families as they really are today, not according to some outdated ideal". He thought it unlikely that the traditional nuclear family ever really existed. "This government is committed to supporting families whatever form they take. This government will not preach about marriage," he said.
    Patricia Morgan, author of an Institute of Economic Affairs book entitled Farewell to the Family, claimed the government was anti-marriage and too willing to accept family breakdown and lower birth rates. She said the increased number of women having children late or not at all was made up largely of graduates.
    "Some people might say it is those women who should have children because a mother’s education does correlate quite significantly to the child’s. I think it must have an effect on the population if more intelligent women are not having children or having them in smaller numbers."
    She said the number of cohabiting couples was rising fast and did not lead to secure relationships. "Most go split," she said. It took people five years on average to find another partner, and she thought there were insufficient penalties on those who break up a marriage.
Ms Roberts demands that the government take on the responsibility for finding out the ______ of family relationship crisis.
选项
答案social and economic cost
解析 根据第十段第三句话“I think the government has a responsibility to look at the full social and economic cost of relationship fragility．”可知，人们呼吁政府承担责任，弄清家庭危机对经济和社会所产生的影响。故“social and economic cost”是正确答案。
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