美语情景对话 第608期:Why do people get married 为什么结婚

Wendi: What is the point of getting married or having a wedding or? I guess there's not really one in the same but what's the whole point?

温迪：结婚还有举行婚礼有什么意义？我想意义不尽相同，但是总体来说意义是什么？

James: Generally, I think people get married because they've been in a relationship for long time and they feel it's what society wants them to do.

詹姆斯：一般来说，我认为人们结婚的原因是他们交往了很长时间，而且其他人认为他们应该要结婚了。

Wendi: Right.

温迪：对。

James: But also I think in terms of having children, having a son and daughter, it's possibly important to have the wife and husband married, sorry, the parent married to bring up the children together, but increasingly so in England people are not seeing marriage as so important. More and more it's just, people have been together for five or six years, then, they ask, "Do you want to marry me?" cause they've been together for five or six years.

詹姆斯：我认为，在涉及到生孩子、生儿育女的问题上时，结婚的夫妻共同抚养孩子非常重要，但是英国有越来越多的人认为结婚并不是那么重要。人们交往五六年以后，才会问你想不想和我结婚，他们已经交往了五六年的时间。

Wendi: Given the increase in divorce. It's sitting at I think 50% in Canada and where you're from, England, do you think marriage is outdated?

温迪：考虑一下持续增加的离婚率。我想你的祖国英国和加拿大的离婚率大概有50%，你认为结婚是不是不再那么重要？

James: I don't think it's necessary anymore. I think people only do it because people have done it for hundreds and hundreds of years. It's not to do with religion. It's not to do with law. It's to do with just culture and yeah, perhaps it's out-dated and more and more of my friends won't get married because they have a wonderful relationship and then as soon as they get married, it seems like then it is able to end. It's like marriage is split-up, whereas relationships might not have ended. There's more pressure once your married.

詹姆斯：我认为结婚已经没有必要。人们之所以还这么做，是因为这已经持续了数百年的时间。这与宗教无关，也与法律无关。只与文化有关，可能结婚已经不再重要，而且我有很多朋友都没有结婚，因为他们的恋爱关系很稳定，看起来他们一结婚，这种关系可能就会结束。就好像结婚以后会吵架离婚，可是如果不结婚那他们的恋爱关系可能就不会结束。结婚以后会有更多的压力。

Wendi: So if you think, well if you could kind of imagine in your mind the concept of marriage and what it is, has caught up to where we are today, what would the evolution of marriage sort of become?

温迪：如果你能在脑海中想象一下结婚的概念以及婚姻发展到今天的情况，你认为婚姻的演变是怎样的？

James: The evolution of marriage has become just living with your partner because essentially people got married so they could live with their partner right and raise a family together. Now in today's culture, today's society you don't need to be married to do that. It's perfectly acceptable. I'm still slightly old-fashioned, I guess, in that I would want to be married before I have children, but there's not reason for that other than I'm still slightly old-fashioned and most of my friends are five years younger than me would not care, one way or the other if they are married or not before they had children. And essentially, I think people like marriage because it's a nice day. It's more I think for women. Women in England, I'm sure it's the same in Canada, dream of their wedding day, since they are little girls and they want that day to remember and they want that special day. For men, more I think, it's just about making their mothers and their wives happy and they like a nice party.

詹姆斯：婚姻演变成和爱人生活在一起，因为人们结婚以后就能和爱人生活在一起，组建一个家庭。在当今文化和当今社会中，你不结婚也可以这么做。这是完全可以接受的。我的思想还很保守，我认为我必须先结婚才能生孩子，但是除了我比较保守之外，其实没有其他的理由这么做，我有许多比我小五岁左右的朋友就不在意这些，他们不在意生孩子前是否已经结婚。我认为人们结婚还有个原因是婚礼那天能成为纪念日。可能对女性来说是这样的。我确定加拿大的女性和英国女性一样，从小女孩时期就开始憧憬她们的婚礼，她们希望可以纪念这一天，使那一天成为特殊的一天。我认为，对男性来说，这可能只是一个使母亲和妻子开心的日子，他们喜欢的是婚礼派对。

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重点讲解：
1. in terms of 在…方面；从…角度看；根据…来说；
例句：They have tremendous pressure in terms of schooling and employment.
他们在学习和就业方面面临了巨大的压力。
2. bring up 养育；抚养；养大；
例句：She brought up four children.
她养大了4个孩子。
3. as soon as 一…就…；
例句：You'll never guess what happened as soon as I left my room.
你怎么也猜不出我一离开房间就发生了什么事。
4. other than （用于否定陈述后）除了…以外；
例句：You can't get there other than by swimming.
你只能靠游泳游到那边去。
5. one way or the other （指之前提到的两个可能的决定或结论）无论哪个；
例句：We've got to make our decision one way or the other.
不是这样就是那样，我们无论如何都得作出决定了。