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  3. In times of economic crisis, Americans turn to their families for support. If the Great Depression is any guide, we may see a dr

In times of economic crisis, Americans turn to their families for support. If the Great Depression is any guide, we may see a dr

admin2023-03-20  3
问题     In times of economic crisis, Americans turn to their families for support. If the Great Depression is any guide, we may see a drop in our sky-high divorce rate. But this won’t necessarily represent an increase in happy marriages. In the long run, the Depression weakened American families, and the current crisis will probably do the same.
    We tend to think of the Depression as a time when families pulled together to survive huge job losses. By 1932, when nearly one-quarter of the workforce was unemployed, the divorce rate had declined by around 25% from 1929. But this doesn’t mean people were suddenly happier with their marriages. Rather, with incomes decreasing and insecure jobs, unhappy couples often couldn’t afford to divorce. They feared neither spouse could manage alone.
    Today, given the job losses of the past year, fewer unhappy couples will risk starting separate households. Furthermore, the housing market meltdown will make it more difficult for them to finance their separations by selling their homes.
    After financial disasters family members also tend to do whatever they can to help each other and their communities. A 1940 book, The Unemployed Man and His Family, described a family in which the husband initially reacted to losing his job "with tireless search for work." He was always active, looking for odd jobs to do.
    The problem is that such an impulse is hard to sustain. Across the country, many similar families were unable to maintain the initial boost in morale (士气). For some, the hardships of life without steady work eventually overwhelmed their attempts to keep their families together. The divorce rate rose again during the rest of the decade as the recovery took hold.
    Millions of American families may now be in the initial stage of their responses to the current crisis, working together and supporting one another through the early months of unemployment.
    Today’s economic crisis could well generate a similar number of couples whose relationships have been irreparably (无法弥补的) ruined. So it’s only when the economy is healthy again that we’ll begin to see just how many broken families have been created.
In the Great Depression many unhappy couples chose to stick together because
选项 A、living separately would be too costly
B、starting a new family would be hard
C、they wanted to better protect their kids
D、they expected things would turn better
答案A
解析 本题询问为什么大萧条时期许多不幸福的夫妻选择在一起。第2段指出在大萧条时期，离婚率在下降。最后两句指出离婚率下降的原因：不幸福的夫妻离不起婚，他们担心任何一方都没法独自应对困境。A“分开生活的成本太高”中的too costly是对couldn’t afford的同义替换，故为答案。B“组织一个新的家庭会很难”不如A具体，因为“难”并不一定就指经济因素，所以不准确；C“他们想更好地保护自己的孩子”和D“他们期待事情会好转”都没有在原文中提及。
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