Demographic indicators show that Americans in the post war period were more

　　eager than ever to establish families. They quickly brought down the age at marriage

　　for both men and women and brought the birth rate to a twentieth century height __1__

　　after more than a hundred years of a steady decline, producing the “baby boom.” __2__

　　These young adults established a trend of early marriage and relatively large

　　families that went for more than two decades and caused a major but temporary __3__

　　reversal of long-term demographic patterns. From the 1940s through the early

　　1960s, Americans married at a high rate and at a younger age than their __4__

　　Europe counterparts. __5__

　　Less noted but equally more significant, the men and women who formed __6__

　　families between 1940 and 1960 nevertheless reduced the divorce rate after a __7__

　　postwar peak; their marriages remained intact to a greater extent than did that of __8__

　　couples who married in earlier as well as later decades. Since the United States __9__

　　maintained its dubious distinction of having the highest divorce rate in the world,

　　the temporary decline in divorce did not occur in the same extent in Europe. __10__

　　Contrary to fears of the experts, the role of breadwinner and homemaker was not

　　abandoned.

　　參考答案及解析:

　　1. 將height改為high/peak。

　　整句話的大意為他們把男女的婚齡降了下來，使出生率達(dá)到了20世紀(jì)的高峰。

　　high可以用作名詞，意為“高峰”，“高水準(zhǔn)”，“最高紀(jì)錄”。

　　height可以作“極點，頂點”解釋。例如：The height of cleverness is to conceal one’s cleverness。

　　2. 將第二個不定冠詞a 去掉。

　　steady decline 意為持續(xù)的下降，前面不用加冠詞。又如：years of hard work。根據(jù)語感可以判斷出來。

　　3. 在went后加on，或?qū)�went改為lasted。

　　此處是“持續(xù)”的意思，所以可以用went on 或者last來表達(dá)。

　　4. 將high改為higher。

　　此處意為美國人結(jié)婚率比以前提高了，有與戰(zhàn)前相比的意思，因此應(yīng)用比較級。

　　5. 將Europe改為European。

　　6. 刪掉more。此處的大意為戰(zhàn)后離婚率也下降了，這個現(xiàn)象不大有人注意，但同樣也很重要。另外，more與equally相矛盾。

　　7. 將nevertheless改為also或者刪掉nevertheless。

　　此處上下文之間不是轉(zhuǎn)折關(guān)系，而是遞進(jìn)關(guān)系。

　　8. 將that 改為those。

　　此處的代詞應(yīng)指marriages這個復(fù)數(shù)名詞，因此應(yīng)用those。此處考察代詞與先行詞一致的問題。

　　9. 將Since改為Although/Though/While。此處是轉(zhuǎn)折關(guān)系，不是因果關(guān)系。

　　10. 將in改為to。短語to the extent是固定搭配。