雅思閱讀材料大集合：結婚前先做一下“配對測試”吧
爲了幫助大家在備考雅思閱讀的時候能夠多多練習一些材料，下面小編給大家帶來雅思閱讀材料大集合：結婚前先做一下“配對測試”吧。
Getting married? Take the quiz first
想要結婚嗎?先做“配對測試”吧!
A British family law firm is urging couples to take a "compatibility quiz" before getting married or deciding to live together.
英國一家家庭法律事務所建議情侶們在結婚或決定同居之前先做個“配對測試”。
Bross Bennett's compatibility test focuses on key questions about finances, family ties, children and aspirations that most couples struggle with and might have to answer anyway if their marriage breaks down and they end up divorcing.
布洛斯?貝內特事務所的“配對測試”主要考察金錢、家庭關係、孩子、以及志向等方面的關鍵問題。這些都是婚姻破裂，以離婚收場時，大多數夫婦都糾纏不休，又不得不面對的問題。
Partner Ruth Bross compared taking the quiz to the kind of considerations and research an employer might make before hiring someone.
事務所合夥人魯思?布洛斯將做這項測試比作老闆招聘員工前的考查。
"No one who is truly committed to a relationship will ever mind making the full and frank disclosure that is asked of them; if they do, you might like to ask yourself why," she said in an emailed statement containing the quiz.
她在談到這項測試的一封郵件聲明中說：“真正對兩人的關係認真負責的人不會介意毫無保留而且坦誠地回答這些問題，如果他們介意的話，你就要問問自己爲什麼了。”
The quiz asks about assets and how each party would like to share them, what kind of relationships they have with their extended family and friends, whether they want children, their religious views, spending habits and career plans:
測試中提到的問題包括財產，以及每位家庭成員將如何分享這些;與親友的關係如何;是否想要孩子;宗教信仰;消費習慣;以及職業規劃等。
A copy of the quiz is below:
下面就來看看這些測試題吧：
Finance
金錢
Do you know the extent of each other's assets? How do you both view the sharing of these assets? Do you have the same attitude to saving?
你們互相瞭解對方的財產情況嗎?你們如何看待這些財產的分配?你們對儲蓄持相同看法嗎?
Will one of you want to put into a pension what the other wants to put into a new car?
會不會一方想存養老金，另一方想買輛新車?
Will you pool your resources or do you want to keep everything separate? Joint accounts or separate? Will you contribute in proportion to your incomes, or equally?
你們將共享資源，還是分開管理?開設共有賬戶還是個人賬戶?家庭支出按收入比例，還是平攤?
Are you going to have to pay off your partner's debts perhaps from what you thought was going to be the deposit on your house?
你會把準備買房的錢拿來給對方還債嗎?
Family Ties
家庭關係
What sort of relationship do you have with your extended family? Are they good at staying in touch? Are they local? Affectionate? Over-involved? Have you had any major fallings out?
你和其他家庭成員之間是何種關係?他們善於保持聯絡嗎?在當地嗎?感情很深?過於親密?你和他們有大的矛盾嗎?
Children
孩子
Do you want children? How many? How do you want to raise your children? What sort of values do you want to pass on?
你想要孩子嗎?想要幾個?你想怎樣撫養孩子?你想把怎樣的價值觀傳遞給下一代?
Religion
宗教
What are your religious views -- do you agree on what religion you will bring up the children in? Church/mosque/synagogue? Once a week or once a year? Or no religion at all.
你的宗教觀是什麼?你們對培養孩子的宗教信仰達成共識了嗎?__、伊斯蘭教、還是猶太教?一週還是一年參加一次宗教活動?或者無宗教信仰?
Leisure and fun
休閒娛樂
Do you like doing the same things in your spare time? Do you share common interests? Is your idea of a holiday lying flat on the beach for two weeks and your partner's rock-climbing?
你們在休閒時間的娛樂方式一樣嗎?有沒有共同的興趣愛好?是否會出現你覺得放假時去沙灘曬兩週太陽，而你的伴侶想去攀巖的情況?
Lifestyle
生活方式
What sort of lifestyle are you aiming for? Where do you want to live?
你想要什麼樣的生活方式?你想在哪裏生活?
Spending
消費
Do you have an expensive shoe or gadget habit? Does one of you think of a particular purchase as an essential that the other regards as a "discretionary spend"? Do you have any other secret addictions: handbags, chocolate, football? Do you gamble, online or otherwise?
你有買很貴的鞋子或者小玩意的習慣嗎?會不會有一方覺得某種特定的消費是必須品，而另一方覺得“太隨意”?你有其它不爲人知的購物癮嗎?比如手袋，巧克力，足球?你賭博嗎?參與在線賭博還是其他方式?
Work
工作
Are your respective career paths compatible, is either of you going to have to make compromises? Are you prepared to? Will you want to give up work when you have children? What does your partner think about this and can you manage financially? What about part-time working?
你們的職業規劃協調一致嗎?是否有人要做出妥協?你們準備好這樣了嗎?有了孩子以後你要放棄工作嗎?你的伴侶對此怎麼想?這樣做不會經濟拮据吧?做個兼職怎麼樣?
Roles - traditional or modern?
定位---傳統型還是現代型?
Will you expect to live along traditional lines: woman as homemaker and man as breadwinner? Who will organise the finances? Will household responsibilities be shared equally? Who will assume responsibility for paying bills?
你希望按照傳統方式生活嗎?女人做家庭主婦，男人養家餬口?誰掌管財政大權?家庭職責要平等分擔嗎?誰來付賬單?
Honesty
忠誠
Are there any old flames for whom you still hold a candle?
你還在懷念舊情人嗎?
雅思閱讀材料大集合：追求時間越長以後的感情質量越高?
Looking for true love? Take your time: study
情人節尋找真愛：花時間來學習
Couples who get to know each other before being intimate have a better chance of having a lasting relationship, but in some cases even a casual fling can lead to true love, according to a new research.
一項調查表明，在確定親密關係之前彼此互相瞭解的情侶感情更有可能長久，但在某些情況下，一夜情也能帶來真愛。
Most of the 56 percent of 642 adults questioned in the study who said they had waited until they got serious before they had sex reported having a high quality relationship.
在接受調查的642名成年人中，56%的人稱他們在兩人確立戀愛關係後才發生性關係，這其中的大部分人稱自己的感情質量較高。
The number was higher than for the 27 percent of people who had sex while dating casually and the 17 percent who were intimate while in a non-romantic relationship.
另外有27%的人稱他們在約會期間就隨意發生了性關係，17%的人在發生關係時與對方還不是戀人關係，在這兩種情況下，報告感情質量高的人的比例都不如前者高。
"There's something about the characteristics of people who wait before sex that is linked to higher-quality relationships," said sociology professor Anthony Paik of the University of Iowa.
艾奧瓦大學的社會學教授安東尼?帕伊克說：“在發生性關係前耐心等待的人有一些特點，這些特點與高質量的戀愛關係有關。”
Paik, who reported the findings in the journal Social Science Research, said the research suggests that the courtship process acts as a screening mechanism.
這一在《社會科學研究》期刊上發表的研究結果稱，該研究表明求愛的過程發揮了篩選機制的作用。
"The debate is 'why can't we have sex now?' The expectation is that sex should occur very quickly. But doing so, you're losing out on some information that might be useful," he explained in an interview.
他在一個採訪中解釋說：“問題的焦點是‘爲什麼我們現在不能做愛?’。人們期望性行爲會很快發生。但如果這麼做，你就失去了一些可能有用的信息。”
It's almost an economic equation, he added.
他說，這相當於一個經濟學方程式。
"On average, the more costly the process leading into the relationship, the more likely it is to work. That's what the data would suggest."
“一般來說，確立戀愛關係的成本越高，其運轉良好的可能性越大。這是調查數據告訴我們的。”
But Paik said the findings did not show that an early sexual relationship had a direct negative impact on relationships.
但帕伊克稱，調查結果並沒有顯示過早發生性行爲對感情有直接的負面影響。
When he filtered out people who said they had frequent non-romantic or casual dating sexual relationships he found that the gap in relationship quality between serious and nonserious contexts of sexual activity disappeared.
帕伊克將在非戀愛關係時頻繁發生性關係和和隨意約會期間發生性關係的人單拿出來進行分析後發現，無論是在認真還是不認真的關係狀況下發生性關係，這兩種情況下的感情質量沒有太大差別。
"It means it's possible for two strangers to lock eyes in a bar, and go home together, and actually end up in a long-term relationship," Paik said.
帕伊克說：“這意味着，兩個陌生人在酒吧相遇，相互吸引，然後一起回家，最終成眷屬的可能性還是存在的。”
雅思閱讀材料大集合：美國教師三個月只吃麥當勞瘦了17公斤
John Cisna, a science teacher in Ankeny, Iowa, enlisted his students help him with an experiment: He wanted to see what would happen if he only ate McDonald’s for three months.
約翰·西斯那是美國愛荷華州安可尼市的一名科學老師，他和自己的學生們共同完成了一項實驗：他想知道連續三個月只吃麥當勞快餐會是什麼結果。
Inspired by the film Super Size Me, Cisna planned to put together an amateur documentary about the process.
受到紀錄片《大號的我》的啓發，西斯那計劃以一個非專業人士的視角重新記錄這一過程。
小編注：《大號的我》是一部2004年錄製的紀錄片，主人公一個月內只吃精加工、高脂肪的麥當勞食物，一個月後他的健康垮了。
Following a strict 2,000-calorie diet, Cisna had his students construct meals for him using McDonald’s online nutritional information.
在他的學生的幫助下，他依據麥當勞網站上的食品營養信息，設計了一份每天2000卡路里的食譜。
They also tried to stay close to the recommended dietary allowances for carbohydrates, fat, proteins, and cholesterol.
他們儘量不讓食物中含有的糖類、蛋白質、脂肪以及膽固醇超過推薦標準。
Cisna didn’t heavily restrict himself; a typical breakfast would be two egg white McMuffins and a bowl of maple oatmeal, lunch would be salad, and dinner would be a value meal — like a cheeseburger and fries.
但西斯那並沒有對自己過於苛刻：他的早餐是2個蛋清漢堡、一碗楓燕麥片，約翰午餐經常吃沙拉，晚餐通常選擇麥當勞的傳統食物，如起司漢堡加薯條。
“So this isn’t something where you say, ‘Well, he went to McDonald’s and he only had the salads,’” he said. “No, I had the Big Macs, the quarter pounders with cheese. I had sundaes, I had ice cream cones.”
“我並沒有像有些人說的那樣，‘去麥當勞只吃沙拉’”，他說，“事實上，我吃了帶奶酪的大漢堡巨無霸，我吃了聖代，我還吃了冰淇淋甜筒。”
The owner of the local franchise was so interested in how the experiment would turn out that he agreed to provide the 90 days of meals to Cisna for free.
當地的麥當勞經營商對他的實驗很感興趣，併爲他免費了3個月的提供食物。
In addition to watching his caloric intake, Cisna also began walking 45 minutes a day. Cisna admits that before the experiment, he didn’t exercise or monitor his eating habits.
除了注意自己的卡路里攝入量之外，西斯那還每天步行45分鐘。西斯那承認，在這項實驗之前，他既沒有鍛鍊的習慣，也沒有控制過飲食。
When the experiment was over, Cisna had lost 37 pounds and brought his cholesterol down to 170 from 249.
三個月的實驗結束之後，西斯那瘦了37磅(約17公斤)，膽固醇從249降低到了170。
“I can eat any food at McDonald’s I want as long as I’m smart for the rest of the day with what I balance it out with,” Cisna said.
西斯那說，“ 只要我能在中控制好熱量標準，我就可以在麥當勞隨心享用任何高熱量的食物了。”
雅思閱讀材料大集合：情人節的由來
There are varying opinions as to the origin of Valentine's Day. Some experts state that it originated from St. Valentine, a Roman who was martyred for refusing to give up Christianity. He died on February 14, 269 A.D., the same day that had been devoted to love lotteries.
關於情人節的起源有許多種說法。一些專家認爲情人節源於一個名叫聖·瓦倫丁的人。他是羅馬人，因爲拒絕放棄__而於公元前269年2月14日慘遭殺害，這也正好是全城舉行愛情抽籤的日子。
Legend also says that St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer's daughter, who had become his friend, and signed it "From Your Valentine".
相傳聖·瓦倫丁曾留下一本日記給了獄卒的女兒，署名爲“你的瓦倫丁”，據說這名獄卒的女兒是桑特·瓦倫丁的朋友。
Other aspects of the story say that Saint Valentine served as a priest at the temple during the reign of Emperor Claudius. Claudius then had Valentine jailed for defying him. In 496 A.D. Pope Gelasius set aside February 14 to honour St. Valentine.
還有別的說法。有人認爲在克勞迪亞斯君王統治時期，聖·瓦倫丁曾經是一名神父，因爲公然挑戰克勞迪亞斯君王的權威身陷囹圄。所以公元前496年羅馬教皇格萊西亞斯特意將2月14日作爲一個特別的日子以紀念聖·瓦倫丁。
Gradually, February 14 became the date for exchanging love messages and St. Valentine became the patron saint of lovers. The date was marked by sending poems and simple gifts such as flowers. There was often a social gathering or a ball.
此後2月14日就成爲了一個具有特殊意義的日子。這天人們向自己心儀的人表示愛意。而聖·瓦倫丁也就成爲了愛的守護神。在2月14日這天，人們會用詩或者類似鮮花的小禮物送給自己心愛的人，還會組織聚會或舞會來慶祝這個特殊的節日。
In the United States, Miss Esther Howland is given credit for sending the first valentine cards. Commercial valentines were introduced in the 1800's and now the date is very commercialized.
艾斯特·霍蘭德小姐是美國位發送情人節卡片的人。早在19世紀初，情人節就已初露商業化的端倪，而如今這節日已經完全被商業化了。
