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  3. Marriage emerged as the most popular institution throughout history primarily because it was an effective arrangement to improve

Marriage emerged as the most popular institution throughout history primarily because it was an effective arrangement to improve

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问题     Marriage emerged as the most popular institution throughout history primarily because it was an effective arrangement to improve the care and upbringing of children. Marriage is not necessary to have children, but it has been of enormous importance in the rearing of children.
    With the sharp declines in birth rates since 1970 in Western and other rich countries, including much larger fractions of adults who do not have any children, both men and women have significantly increased their ages at marriage, and sharply raised their tendencies to divorce. In 1950, a typical woman and man married at ages 20.3 and 22.8 respectively, whereas now the typical marital ages are 26. 0 and 27. 7. These changes in age at marriage are related to reduced demand for many children, increased college education of both men and women but especially of women, much greater labor force participation of married and divorced women, and the narrowing of the gender gap in earnings.
    The most important economic and social concerns due to low marriage rates are the effects on rearing of children. These effects are not due to lower marriage rates alone, but rather to the close connection between these low rates and high divorce rates, and to the greater tendency of women to have children without being married, or without living with the fathers of their children.
    Although many single mothers do an absolutely wonderful job in raising their children, common sense and most academic findings suggest that having a father present during the raising of children generally has a positive effect on the development of non-cognitive(非认知性)traits of children. These include a general respect for authority and reduced rebelliousness in school, and the avoidance of gangs and other criminal activities. It also appears that the absence of fathers has a greater effect on the non-cognitive traits of sons than daughters, although that is a less well-established finding.
    I am not claiming that children are worst off when their parents divorce if their parents were fighting a lot, or if they had abusive(粗暴的)fathers. Rather, it appears that up to a significant point, children are better off in intact families even when their families are not ideal.
What may give rise to the changes in marriage age?
选项 A、Sharply rising divorce rate.
B、Greater work participation of men.
C、Increased college education of women.
D、Narrowed gender gap in the labor market.
答案C
解析 事实细节题。本题考查导致结婚年龄变化的因素。由定位句可知，导致这些变化的因素有：对要多个孩子的需求降低了、男女尤其是女性受大学教育水平提高、已婚和离婚女性在劳务市场的比例增加，男女收入差距减小，故答案为C)。A)“急剧增长的离婚率”虽然是原文提到的事实，但并不是导致结婚年龄变化的因素，故排除；B)“男性在劳动市场更大的占有率”与原文意思相反，原文说的是女性，故排除；D)“劳务市场上不断缩小的性别差异”是对原文的曲解，原文说的是收入差距缩小，故排除。
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