family

sxm_alice

发此帖是想看看国人对“家”的认识，下面是一小段，我陆续打入其它的段落
发达国家对家的意识越来越淡薄，导致为单亲家庭和再婚家庭两种类型，不知道中国到那时候“家”会什么样的感觉
“Family”-------the word has different meanings for different people, and even the dictionary gives several definitions; “a group of people related by blood or marriage,” “two adults and their children,” “all those people descended from a common ancestor,” “a household,” and so no. Some people think of a family as a mother, a father, and their children, other include grandparents, anuts, uncles, and cousins. For some of us, family means the group of relatives living far away from home. For others, having children. Some families have long histories, while others know very little about their ancestors. No matter if it is young or old, large or small, traditional or modern, ervery family has a sense of what a family is. It is that feeling of belonging, of love and security that comes from living together, helping and sharing.

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There are basically two types of families; nuclear families and extended families. The nuclear family usually consists of two parents (mother and father) and their children. The mother and father form the nucleus, or center , of the nuclear family. The children stay in the nuclear family until they grow up and marry. Then they  form a new nuclear families.

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The extended family is very large.There are often many nuclear families in one extended family. An extended family include children, parents, grand-parents, uncles, aunts, and cousins. The  members of an extended family are related by blood (grandparents, children, brothers, sisters, etc) or by marriage (husbands, wives, mother-in-law, etc). They are all related, so the members of an extended family are called relatives.

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Traditionally, all the members of an extended family lived in the same area. However, with the change from an agricultural to an industrial society , many nuclear families moved away from the family home in order to find work. In industrial societies today, the members of most nuclear families live together, but most extended families do not live together. Therefore we can say that the nuclear family becomes more important than the extended family as the society industrializes.

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In post-industrial societies like the United States, even the nuclear family in changing. The nuclear family is becoming smaller as parents want fewer children, and the number of childless families is increasing. Traditionally , the father of a nuclear family earned money for the family while the mother cared for the house and the children. Today , more than 50% of the nuclear families in the United States are two-earner families------both the father and the mother earn money for the family ------and in a few families the mother earns the money while the father takes care of the house and the children. Many nuclear families are also "splitting up"--------more and more parents are getting divorced.

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What will be the result of this "splitting" of the nuclear family? Social scientists now talk of two new family forms: the single parent family and the remarried family. Almost 20% of all American families are single parent families, and in 85% of these families the single parent is the mother. Most single parents find it very difficult to take care of a family alone, so that they soon marry again and form remarried families. As social sientists study these two new family forms, they will be able to tell us more about the future of the nuclear family in the post-industrial age.

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帖子发完了，在后工业化时代，美国的家庭出现两种形式“单亲家庭”和“再婚家庭”，这是否是社会工业化发展导致家庭分化的原因呢？中国在未来的发展中，家庭是否也踏着美国的路重蹈覆辙呢？我不知道中国未来会是什么样的家庭组成形式。希望是那种核心家庭的再续。。。