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  3. In China, grooms typically have to pay their would-be wives a "bride price," which now often turns into a costly affair and burd

In China, grooms typically have to pay their would-be wives a "bride price," which now often turns into a costly affair and burd

admin2017-07-05  25
问题     In China, grooms typically have to pay their would-be wives a "bride price," which now often turns into a costly affair and burden of the grooms and their families. It has sparked debate around the nation about how the bride price tradition reflects an obsession with materialism and makes it hard for young Chinese couples to start families. The following article gives details of this practice.
    Write an article of NO LESS THAN 300 words, in which you should:
    1. summarize briefly the opinions in the article, and then
    2. give your comment.
    Bride Prices in China Are Sky-High
    Bride prices are a long-standing tradition in China. A "bride price" is an amount of money or goods paid by the groom’s family to the bride’s family upon marriage. Since China’s gender imbalance has made it more difficult for men to find a bride, the "bridewealth" prices have gone up drastically. This holds especially true for the poorer, rural areas in China. According to CCTV, the bride price phenomenon has changed significantly over the past fifty years. During the 1950s, the "bridewealth" would mostly consist of some material items such as a thermos bottle or bedding. In later decades, this changed to more costly things such as furniture, radio’s, watches, or a sewing machine. But in the rural areas of contemporary China, the bride price is now all about hard cash. In some places, like in Shandong province, it is common for the bride’s family to ask for more than 100,000 RMB before their daughter marries—a staggering figure for average rural households in Shandong province. According to sociologist Zhang Yi, rising bride prices have three major reasons. The first is China’s gender imbalance, which has caused a surplus in men, making it statistically more difficult for them to find a wife. The second reason has to do with the population division in China—the majority of China’s single, young men live in the rural areas, whereas the majority of China’s single young women live in the bigger cities. It has caused a highly competitive marriage market, where the bride’s families can ask for a high price. The third reason is the growing trend of the so-called "bride price culture", where many families now feel a low bride price means losing face—if one’s daughter or future wife is "too cheap", it is generally seen as a bad thing, both by the bride’s side as the groom’s. According to Zhang Yi, it is highly unlikely that bride prices will go down in the decade to come.
    On Weibo, not all netizens seem convinced that CCTVs conclusion about the sky-high bride prices is realistic: "I’m from the countryside, but I’ve never heard about sky-high bride prices," one netizen comments. Another Weibo user says: "Where I’m from, the bride price is used to take back home and is considered the ’start-up capital’ for the new family." Some netizens see the sky-high bride prices as a serious problem: "Authorities should standardise bride prices, based on the average income of the locals. Whoever exceeds the standardised price should be punished by law as a human trafficker," one netizen writes.
选项
答案 Should We Do Away with the Bride Price? In modern Chinese society, a major debate in the field of centuries-old marriage tradition revolves around the issue of paying bride price. The article provided describes the phenomenon that the bride price has skyrocketed over the past several decades, and analyzes the rationale behind such changes. In addition to economic prosperity, a key factor for the rising bride price is gender imbalance that has caused a remarkable shortage of women. Although there are critics blaming the sky-high bride price on a distorted materialistic mentality, I don’t believe this phenomenon will disappear in the future to come if the prevailing mode of virilocal marriage is not to be transformed. The so-called marrying a wife or marrying a daughter is actually treating women as a subordinate part of the groom’s side of the family. If this notion or institution continues to exist, then it is baseless to detest the bride price culture. Besides, the media inclines to confuse the cost of marriage with the bride price, exaggerating that the increasingly expensive bride price is shutting out men from marriage. In fact, some valuables paid by the bridegroom’s side such as apartment and car are family possessions purchased in the name of marriage, not to mention the reality that in some areas, the bride price is not a one-way system. The family of the bride also pays out, for example, buying appliance for decorating the house of the newlyweds. Sometimes the bride price is refunded to the new family as the "start-up" capital. The reason why we speak of the bride price as the cost of marriage, why the cost of marriage is sorely counted on the groom, and why it is said to be irrelative with the bride is reiterating the subordination of women to a patriarchal society. The rising bride price is an embodiment of our economic development. Pitifully, our gender views fail to keep abreast with the economic boom. Therefore, we should give a boost to alter the stale opinion instead of discarding the bride price.
解析     材料围绕“娶妻彩礼高昂”这一现象进行分析，介绍了媒体、学者和网友三方对此的看法。
    媒体CCTV指出在过去的十五年间，彩礼价格飞涨(changed significantly)，且形式也有所改变，从简单的物品(material items)到价格稍高的家具，而当前则是直接以现金(hard cash)的形式。
    在社会学家张毅看来，彩礼价格上涨主要有以下三个原因。第一，中国的人口性别失衡(gender imbalance)导致男性娶妻难度增加；第二，中国的城乡男女分布(population division)情况也是导致女方要价过高的原因；第三，在所谓的“婚俗文化”(“bride price culture”)下，许多家庭都认为礼金低有失颜面(losing face)。
    然而，网友们却给出了不同的看法。有来自农村的网友表示从未听说天价彩礼，认为CCTV的报道不足为信(not…seem convinced)。也有人认为彩礼应当被看作是新家庭的“启动资金”(“start-up capital”)。同时，有些网友认为这是一个严重的问题(a serious problem)，建议当局基于当地的收入水平规定彩礼的价格(standardise bride prices)。
    开篇：总结大意，包括彩礼传统的变化及其背后的原因。表明自己的态度——只要中国当前的嫁娶模式不改变，天价彩礼的新闻就会一直热闹下去。
    主体：驳斥舆论对于这一现象的不公正解读，公众在讨论这一问题时，都在混淆一个概念，那就是把娶妻成本与彩礼本身混为一谈。
    结尾：总结全文，得出结论——不同意革彩礼的命。
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