美語情景對話 第608期:Why do people get married 爲什麼結婚

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?

溫迪：結婚還有舉行婚禮有什麼意義？我想意義不盡相同，但是總體來說意義是什麼？

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：一般來說，我認爲人們結婚的原因是他們交往了很長時間，而且其他人認爲他們應該要結婚了。

Wendi: Right.

溫迪：對。

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：我認爲，在涉及到生孩子、生兒育女的問題上時，結婚的夫妻共同撫養孩子非常重要，但是英國有越來越多的人認爲結婚並不是那麼重要。人們交往五六年以後，纔會問你想不想和我結婚，他們已經交往了五六年的時間。

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 It's sitting at I think 50% in Canada and where you're from, England, do you think marriage is outdated?

溫迪：考慮一下持續增加的離婚率。我想你的祖國英國和加拿大的離婚率大概有50%，你認爲結婚是不是不再那麼重要？

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：我認爲結婚已經沒有必要。人們之所以還這麼做，是因爲這已經持續了數百年的時間。這與宗教無關，也與法律無關。只與文化有關，可能結婚已經不再重要，而且我有很多朋友都沒有結婚，因爲他們的戀愛關係很穩定，看起來他們一結婚，這種關係可能就會結束。就好像結婚以後會吵架離婚，可是如果不結婚那他們的戀愛關係可能就不會結束。結婚以後會有更多的壓力。

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?

溫迪：如果你能在腦海中想象一下結婚的概念以及婚姻發展到今天的情況，你認爲婚姻的演變是怎樣的？

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：婚姻演變成和愛人生活在一起，因爲人們結婚以後就能和愛人生活在一起，組建一個家庭。在當今文化和當今社會中，你不結婚也可以這麼做。這是完全可以接受的。我的思想還很保守，我認爲我必須先結婚才能生孩子，但是除了我比較保守之外，其實沒有其他的理由這麼做，我有許多比我小五歲左右的朋友就不在意這些，他們不在意生孩子前是否已經結婚。我認爲人們結婚還有個原因是婚禮那天能成爲紀念日。可能對女性來說是這樣的。我確定加拿大的女性和英國女性一樣，從小女孩時期就開始憧憬她們的婚禮，她們希望可以紀念這一天，使那一天成爲特殊的一天。我認爲，對男性來說，這可能只是一個使母親和妻子開心的日子，他們喜歡的是婚禮派對。

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重點講解：
1. in terms of 在…方面；從…角度看；根據…來說；
例句：They have tremendous pressure in terms of schooling and employment.
他們在學習和就業方面面臨了巨大的壓力。
2. bring up 養育；撫養；養大；
例句：She brought up four children.
她養大了4個孩子。
3. as soon as 一…就…；
例句：You'll never guess what happened as soon as I left my room.
你怎麼也猜不出我一離開房間就發生了什麼事。
4. other than （用於否定陳述後）除了…以外；
例句：You can't get there other than by swimming.
你只能靠游泳游到那邊去。
5. one way or the other （指之前提到的兩個可能的決定或結論）無論哪個；
例句：We've got to make our decision one way or the other.
不是這樣就是那樣，我們無論如何都得作出決定了。