評論
打印
And I stumbled, then, on a statistic that really came home to me.
結果我發現了一個震驚的數據。
It was a very interesting academic article in which I found that 67 percent of singles in America today who are living long-term with somebody,
一篇極其有趣的學術文章，發現67%的處于長期同居的美國未婚人士，
have not yet married because they are terrified of divorce.
之所以還未結婚是因為擔心離婚。
They're terrified of the social, legal, emotional, economic consequences of divorce.
他們擔心離婚后面對的社會、法律、情感，以及經濟后果。
So I came to realize that I don't think this is recklessness; I think it's caution.
于是，我認識到這并不是輕率的行為，而是謹慎。
Today's singles want to know every single thing about a partner before they wed.
如今，人們在結婚之前，想對其伴侶的每一個細節了如指掌。
You learn a lot between the sheets, not only about how somebody makes love,
同居能讓人了解到許多事情，不僅是對方的床上功夫，
but whether they're kind, whether they can listen and at my age, whether they've got a sense of humor.
而是對方是否善良，是否善于傾聽，以及到了我這個年紀所關心的，就是對方是否有幽默感。
And in an age where we have too many choices,
當今社會人們有很多選擇，
we have very little fear of pregnancy and disease and we've got no feeling of shame for sex before marriage,
很少為懷孕或疾病感到擔憂，且對婚前性行為毫無愧疚感，
I think people are taking their time to love.
在這種情況下人們選擇愛得慢一些。
And actually, what's happening is, what we're seeing is a real expansion of the precommitment stage before you tie the knot.
而真實情況是，這其實是婚前準備階段的實際延伸。
Where marriage used to be the beginning of a relationship, now it's the finale. But the human brain...
從前，婚姻意味著一段感情的開始，而現在它意味著尾聲。但人類大腦...
The human brain always triumphs, and indeed, in the United States today, 86 percent of Americans will marry by age 49.
人類大腦總是勝出者，如今在美國，86%的美國人將在49歲結婚。
And even in cultures around the world where they're not marrying as often, they are settling down eventually with a long-term partner.
即便在世界上結婚率不高的文化里，最終他們也會和長期伴侶安定下來。
