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1、Section J Reading Comprehension (40 points)0Read the passage. Then answer the questions that follow. (5 points each)A Short History of the Changing FamilyPast Definitions of FamilyALike the community, the family is a social institution. Long ago, human beings lived in loosely-related groups. Each gr
2、oup had a common ancestor. But for over a millennium * there have been two main types of families in the world: the extended form and the nuclear form. The extended family may include grandparents, parents, and childrcn-in other words, relatives living in the same house or close together on the same
3、 street or in the same area. In contrast, the nuclear family consists of only parents and their biological or adopted children. Because of the industrialization in the nineteenth century, the nuclear family became the most common family structure.BKinds of Families TodayToday there are many differen
4、t kinds of families around the globe. Some people live in traditional familiesthat is to say. a stay-at-home mother, a working father, and their own biological children. Others live in two-paycheck familiesthat is. both parents work outside the home. There are many single-parent families； in other w
5、ords, only a mother or a father lives with the children. Still others have adoptive or foster families (i. c. , ndults take care of children not biologically theirs) or blended familiesin other words, divorced or widowed men and women marry again and live with the children from their previous* or ea
6、rlier, marriages. Some kids have stepparentsthat is, mothers or fathers related to them by marriage instead of biology. In other families, some youngsters under the age of 8 have to take care of kidseither their own or their younger siblings. In different countries around the world there are also sa
7、me-sex partnershipswith or without childrenchildless marriages, unmarried live-in relationships communal living groups, and so on.The Early 20th CenturyWhat caused the structure of the family to change? Here is an example from the Western world. !n the early 1900s in the United States* the divorce r
8、ate began to rise, and the birthrate began to decline； in other words, couples stayed married for fewer years, and they had fewer children. Women often chose to get an education and take jobs outside the home. Decades later, the same things began to occur in other industrialized countriesand then de
9、veloping countries of the world as well.DThe 1930s and 1940sThe decades of the 1930s and 1940s were difficult years in both industrialized and developing countries. Many families faced serious financial problems because the heads of households lost their jobs. During World War II (1939-1945) * milli
10、ons of women had to take care of their homes and their children alone. Because so many men were at war, thousands of these “war widowsthat is to say, women whose husbands were away at war一had to go to work outside the home. Most women worked long hours at hard jobs. There werent many perfect familie
11、s. They had problems.EAfter World War IIDuring the next decade the situation changed in many places. There were fewer divorces and people married at a younger age and had more children than in the previous generation. Men made enough money to support the family, so a mother seldom worked outside the
12、 home when her children were small. Children began living at home longerthat is, until an older age, usually after high school or even college. The traditional family was returning in the United States, it seemedas in many other countries.FThe End of the 20th CenturyIn the years between 1960 or so a
13、nd the end of the 20th century, however, there were 1020 many new changes in the structure of the family around the globe. From the 1960s to the 1990$, the divorce rate in the Western world greatly increased and the birthrate fell by half.The number of single-parent families rose, and the number of
14、couples living together without marriage went up even more. At the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries young adults of some economic classes started staying with their parents longer* marrying later, and having kids at an older age. if at ali.The Family of the FutureMany people today
15、 would like the traditional two-parent family backthat is to say, they want a man and a woman to marry for lifej they also think the man should support the family and the woman should stay home with the children. However, few families now fail into this category. In fact, if more women decide to hav
16、e children on their own, the singleparent household may become more typical than the traditional family in many countries. Also, unmarried couples may decide to have more childrenor they might take in foster children or adopt. And because people are staying single and living longer (often as widows), there may be more one-person households in the future. On the other hand* some people believe similar events happen again and ag
