More surprising. perhaps, than the current difficulties of traditional marriage is the fact that marriage itself is alive and thriving. As Skolnick notes, Americans are a marrying people: relative to Europeans, more of us marry and we marry at a younger age. Moreover, after a decline in the early 1970s, the rate of marriage in the United States is now increasing. Even the divorce rate needs to be taken in this pro-marriage context: some 80 percent of divorced individuals remarry. Thus, marriage remains, by far. the preferred way of life for the vast majority of people in our society.

　　What has changed more than marriage is the nuclear family. Twenty-five years ago. the typical American family consisted of a husband， a wife， and two or three children. Now, there are many marriages in which couples have decided not to have any children. And there are many marriages where at least some of the children are from the wife's previous marriage, or the husband's. or both. Sometimes these children spend all of their time with one parent from the former marriage: sometimes they are shared between the two former spouses (配偶)。

　　Thus， one can find the very type of family arrangement. There are marriages without children: marriages with children from only the present marriage; marriages with “full-time” children from the present marriage and "part-time" children from former marriages. There are stepfathers, stepmothers, half-brothers, and half-sisters. It is not all that unusual for a child to have four parents and eight grandparents! These are enormous changes from the traditional nuclear family. But even so. even in the midst of all this， there remains one constant: most Americans spend most of their adult lives married.

    附：passage2译文与重点词汇

    也许，传统的(traditional：conventional)婚姻(marriage)方式目前出了危机(difficulty：trouble)，但比这更令人惊讶的(surprising：shocking)是婚姻本身是充满活力(alive：energetic)与兴旺(thriving)的这一事实。正如史戈尔尼克所述(note：say，speak)美国人是喜欢婚配生活的民族：与欧洲人相比(relative)，我们中的大多数人会选择结婚，且结婚的年龄偏小。而且，经过20世纪70年代初的一次下降(decline：drop)后，美国的结婚率正在逐步上升。在倾向婚配的情况(context：condition，situation)下，即使将离婚(divorce)率也考虑(take in：consider)进去，我们也会发现大约80%离过婚的人选择再婚。因此，到目前为止，对社会上大多数的人来说，结婚仍然是人们首选的(preferred：enjoyable)生活方式。

    比婚姻变化更大的是核心( nuclear)家庭。25年前，典型的(typical: representative)美国家庭由丈夫、妻子和两个或三个孩子组成( consist of: compose of).现存.结婚后有许多大妇决定不要小孩。

　　在许多婚姻中，至少有些孩子要么是妻子以前结婚乍的，要么是丈夫以前结婚生的，要么是双方以前各自结婚生的。有时，这些孩子是和以前的父亲或母亲一起生活，有时候是和以前的( former: previous)父母亲轮流生活。

　　因此，人们可以找到一种合适的家庭组合( arrangement: rank)方式。有的婚姻不要小孩;有的婚姻只要现在结婚生[FS:PAGE]的小孩：还有的人结婚后伞部时间和现在结婚的小孩在一起，部分时间和以前结婚生的小孩在一起。这些家庭中有缝父( stepfather)、继母和同父异母、同母异父的兄弟姐妹。

　　所以，一个孩子拥有4个父母、8个祖父母完全不足为奇( unusual: abnormal. rare)，这些是传统的核心家庭所发生的巨大(enormous: tremendous)变化。但即便如此，在所有这些变化之中(midst: middle)，仍然有一个因素始终不变( constant: lasting)：大多数美国成年人的时光是在婚姻中度过的。