Marriage emerged as the most popular institution throughout history primarily because it was an effective arrangement to improve

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问题     Marriage emerged as the most popular institution throughout history primarily because it was an effective arrangement to improve the care and upbringing of children. Marriage is not necessary to have children, but it has been of enormous importance in the rearing of children.
    With the sharp declines in birth rates since 1970 in Western and other rich countries, including much larger fractions of adults who do not have any children, both men and women have significantly increased their ages at marriage, and sharply raised their tendencies to divorce. In 1950, a typical woman and man married at ages 20.3 and 22.8 respectively, whereas now the typical marital ages are 26. 0 and 27. 7. These changes in age at marriage are related to reduced demand for many children, increased college education of both men and women but especially of women, much greater labor force participation of married and divorced women, and the narrowing of the gender gap in earnings.
    The most important economic and social concerns due to low marriage rates are the effects on rearing of children. These effects are not due to lower marriage rates alone, but rather to the close connection between these low rates and high divorce rates, and to the greater tendency of women to have children without being married, or without living with the fathers of their children.
    Although many single mothers do an absolutely wonderful job in raising their children, common sense and most academic findings suggest that having a father present during the raising of children generally has a positive effect on the development of non-cognitive(非认知性)traits of children. These include a general respect for authority and reduced rebelliousness in school, and the avoidance of gangs and other criminal activities. It also appears that the absence of fathers has a greater effect on the non-cognitive traits of sons than daughters, although that is a less well-established finding.
    I am not claiming that children are worst off when their parents divorce if their parents were fighting a lot, or if they had abusive(粗暴的)fathers. Rather, it appears that up to a significant point, children are better off in intact families even when their families are not ideal.
What do we learn from the first paragraph about marriage?

选项 A、It is primarily a necessary step to have children.
B、It meets resistance in Western and other rich countries.
C、It has a tremendous impact on the rearing of children.
D、It is the most important institution throughout history.

答案C

解析 事实细节题。本题考查原文第一段有关婚姻的细节,可使用排除法。A)“是要孩子的必要步骤”与原文意思不符,第一段提到,结婚不一定就要抚养孩子,下文也提到女性未婚生子的情况,故排除;B)“在西方和其他富裕国家受到抵制”是对原文的曲解,第二段只是说1970年以来西方和其他富裕国家的出生率下降,故排除;C)“对抚养孩子有重大影响”与第一段末句意思相符,tremendous impact对应enormousimportance,故为答案;D)“是历史上最重要的单元”与原文不符,原文说的是the most popular,故排除。
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