Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter.
Family Sociology
A．The structure of the family and the needs that the family fulfills vary from society to society. The nuclear family—two s and their children—is the main family unit in most western societies. In others, especially in Asian societies, it is a subordinate part of an extended family unit, which also consists of grandparents and other relatives. A third type of family unit, which is becoming more prevalent, is the single-parent family, in which children live with an unmarried, divorced, or widowed mother or father.
B．The family unit began primarily as an economic unit; men hunted, while women gathered and prepared food and tended children. Infanticide and expulsion (驱逐) of the infirm (体弱，虚弱) who could not work were common. Later, with the advent of Christianity, marriage and childbearing became central concerns in religious teaching. However, after the Reformation, which began in the 1500s, the purely religious nature of family ties was partly abandoned in favor of civil bonds. Today, most western nations now recognize the family relationship as primarily a civil matter rather than a religious one.
C．The modem family differs from earlier traditional forms, primarily in its functions, composition, and life cycle and in the roles of husbands and wives. Many of the functions that were once performed by or within the traditional family unit are performed by or within community institutions, e.g., economic production (work), education, and recreation. In the modern family, members now work in different occupations and in locations away from the home. Education is provided by the state or by private groups. Organized recreational activities often take place outside the home. The family is still responsible for the socialization of children. Even in this capacity, however, the influence of peers and of the mass media has assumed a larger role.
D．Family composition in industrial societies has also changed dramatically. The average number of children born to a woman in the United States, for example, fell from 7.0 in 1800 to 2.0 by the early 1990s. Consequently, the number of years separating the births of the youngest and the oldest children has declined. This has occurred in conjunction with increased longevity. In earlier times, marriage normally dissolved through the death of a spouse before the youngest child left home. Today husbands and wives potentially have about as many years together after the children leave home as before.
E．During the 20th century, extended family households declined in prevalence. This change is associated particularly with increased residential mobility and with diminished financial responsibility of children for aging parents, as pension from jobs and government-sponsored benefits for retired people became more common.
F．By the 1970s, the prototypical nuclear family had yielded somewhat to modified structure including the one-parent family, the stepfamily, and the childless family. One-parent families in the past were usually the result of the death of a spouse. Now, however, most one-parent families are the result of divorce, although some are created when unmarried mothers bear children. In 1991, more than one out of four children lived with only one parent, usually themother. Most one-parent families, however, ually became two-parent families through remarriage.
G．A stepfamily is created by a new marriage of a single parent. It may consists of a parent and children and a childless spouse, a parent and children and a spouse whose children live elsewhere, or two joined one-parent families. In a stepfamily, problems in relations between non-biological parents and children may generate tension; the difficulties can be especially great in the marriage of single parents when the children of both parents live with them as siblings (兄弟，姐妹).
H．Childless families may be increasingly the result of deliberate choice and the availability of birth control. For many years, the proportion of couples that were childless declined steadily as venereal and other diseases that cause infertility (不能生育) were conquered. In the 1970s, however, the changes in the status of women reversed this trend. Couples often select to have no children or to postpone having them until their careers are well established. Since the 1960s, several variations on the family unit have emerged. More unmarried couples are living together, before or instead of marrying. Some elderly couples, most often widowed, are finding it more economically practical to cohabit without marrying.
I．All industrial nations are experiencing family trends similar to those found in the United States. The problems of unwed mothers—especially very young ones and those who are unable to support themselves—and their children is an international one, although improved methods of birth control and legalized abortion have slowed the trend somewhat. Divorce is increasing even where religious and legal impediments (阻碍) to it are strongest. Unchecked population growth in developing nations threatens the family system. The number of surviving children in a family has rapidly increased as infectious disease, famine, and other causes of child mortality have been reduced. Because families often cannot support so many children, the reduction in infant mortality has posed a challenge to the nuclear family and to the resources of developing nations. Directions:Family SociologyDivorce is on the rise even where religious and legal impediment to it is the strongest.