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  3. Twenty years ago a debate erupted about whether there were specific "Asian values" . But a more intriguing, if less noticed, arg

Twenty years ago a debate erupted about whether there were specific "Asian values" . But a more intriguing, if less noticed, arg

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问题    Twenty years ago a debate erupted about whether there were specific "Asian values" . But a more intriguing, if less noticed, argument was that traditional family values were stronger in Asia than in America and Europe, and this partly accounted for Asia’s economic success. In the words of Lee Kuan Yew, former prime minister of Singapore, the Asian family encouraged "scholarship and hard work and thrift" .
   His claim appears persuasive. In most of Asia, marriage is widespread and illegitimacy almost unknown. In contrast, half of marriages in some Western countries end in divorce, and half of all children are born outside wedlock. Yet marriage is changing fast in Asia. The changes are different from those that took place in the West in the second half of the 20th century. What’s happening in Asia is a flight from marriage.
   Marriage rates are falling partly because people are postponing getting married. Marriage ages have risen all over the world, but the increase is particularly marked in Asia. People there now marry even later than they do in the West. The mean age of marriage in the richest places of Asia has risen sharply in the past few decades.
   A lot of Asians are not marrying later. They are not marrying at all. Almost a third of Japanese women in their early 30s are unmarried; probably half of those will always be.
   Women are retreating from marriage as they go into the workplace. That’s partly because, for a woman, being both employed and married is tough in Asia. Women there are the primary caregivers for husbands, children and, often, for ageing parents; and even when in full-time employment, they are expected to continue to play this role. Not surprisingly, Asian women have an unusually pessimistic view of marriage.
   At the same time as employment makes marriage tougher for women, it offers them an alternative. More women are financially independent, so more of them can pursue a single life that may appeal more than the drudgery of a traditional marriage.
   The flight from marriage is also creating social problems. Compared with the West, Asian countries have invested less in pensions and other forms of social protection, on the assumption that the family will look after ageing or ill relatives. That can no longer be taken for granted. The decline of marriage is also contributing to the collapse in the birth rate. That is beginning to cause huge demographic problems, as populations age with startling speed. Also, marriage socializes men: it is associated with less criminal behavior. Less marriage might mean more crime.

We learn from Paragraphs 1 and 2 that____.
选项 A、there were no specific Asian values twenty years ago
B、Asia’s economic development is due to its traditional family values
C、Asian families seem to be quite different from Western ones
D、Asian view on marriage has been influenced by Western society
答案C
解析 细节题。根据关键词定位至文章的第一段和第二段。第一段第二句指出，一个有趣的观点认为，传统的家庭观念在亚洲比在美国和欧洲更牢同(traditional family values were stronger in Asia than in America and Europe)。第二段则举例证明这一观点：在亚洲，结婚的现象普遍，未婚生子现象很少见，而在西方却恰恰相反，西方人的婚姻有半数以离婚告终，一半的新生儿为私生子。亚洲人的婚姻虽然正在发生变化，但这种变化同西方在20世纪后半叶所经历的变化却有所不同(The changes are different from those that took place in the West…)。故C项正确。
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