2. 外语
  3. In some societies people want children for what might be called familial reasons: to extend the family line or the family name,

In some societies people want children for what might be called familial reasons: to extend the family line or the family name,

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问题     In some societies people want children for what might be called familial reasons: to extend the family line or the family name, to propitiate the ancestors; to enable the proper functioning of religious rituals involving the family. Such reasons may seem thin in the modern, secularized society but they have been and are powerful indeed in other places.
    In addition, one class of family reasons shares a border with the following category, namely, having children in order to maintain or improve a marriage: to hold the husband or occupy the wife; to repair or rejuvenate the marriage; to increase the number of children on the assumption that family happiness lies that way. The point is underlined by its converse: in some societies the failure to bear children (or males) is a threat to the marriage and a ready cause for divorce. Beyond all that is the profound significance of children to the very institution of the family itself. To many people, husband and wife alone do not seem a proper family—they need children to enrich the circle, to validate its family character, to gather the redemptive influence of offspring. Children need the family, but the family seems also to need children, as the social institution uniquely available, at least in principle, for security, comfort, assurance, and direction in a changing, often hostile, world. To most people, such a home base, in the literal sense, needs more than one person for sustenance and in generational extension.
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答案 此外，有一类生儿育女的原因与下列类别有相通之处，即生儿育女是为了维系或改善婚姻：拴住丈夫或让妻子不至于无事可做；修复或重振婚姻；要多子多孙，以为此乃家庭幸福之道。这一点可以由其反面的事实得到进一步验证：不能生育(或不能生育儿子)在有些社会对婚姻构成威胁，并且随时可成为离婚的借口。 孩子对家庭的存在所具有的深远意义远不止如此。对许多人而言。单有夫妻二人还不算是真正的家庭——他们需要小孩来丰富两人的小天地，从而赋予小天地以真正意义上的家庭性质，并从子孙后代身上获取回报。孩子需要家庭，但家庭看来也需要孩子。而在这个变化莫测、往往是充满敌意的世界里，作为一种社会体制，家庭以其特有的方式，至少从原则上让人从中获取安全、慰藉、保障及人生取向。
解析 1、选段是典型的说理性文体。用词严谨，考生需在理解和用词上下功夫。
2、第1段第1句的share a border with…在此处指原因相同或相似，故译为“与…有相通之处”。hold the husband译为“拴住丈夫”十分恰当。occupy有“占据”之义，将occupythe wife译为“让妻子不至于无事可做”，显得通俗易懂。lie在此处应理解为“以…为前提而存在”。
3、第2段第2句的circle在此处是指夫妻生活的空间，故译作“小天地”是十分形象的。将第2段第2句的redemptive influence直译则是“赎回的／偿还的影响”，很费解，此处根据常理译为“回报”。
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