华尔街中级英语Lesson 80

1. –My, You are a professionally trained marriage guidance counselor¹. Could you describe your work?
-Yes, we deal with any type of relationship issue that comes our way. We used to
deal with marriages, but 1990s obviously reflect a change in the way behaviors are,
and very much now, people are cohabiting rather than marrying. And,  therefore, open our doors to anybody who is in a relationship where things are difficult. So our
work is focused on either relationship breakdowns³ or marital⁴ breakdowns in the hope
that we can either help people to reconcile or help them to separate without too
much animosity and with more understanding.

2. The breakdown² of marriage in Britain is about 33,34%, well higher than any other European country. With in fact, that’s first marriages, 50% of second marriages breaking down.

How long have you been doing this sort of work?
-I’ve been involved in counseling now for 8 years.
-What sort of qualifications do you need to do what you do as a profession?
-For counseling, you don’t actually need any formal qualifications, but the actual selection procedure is extremely stringent⁵. It’s a two year training.

1 counselor   

n.顾问，法律顾问

参考例句：

• The counselor gave us some disinterested advice.顾问给了我们一些无私的忠告。
• Chinese commercial counselor's office in foreign countries.中国驻国外商务参赞处。

2 breakdown   

n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌

参考例句：

• She suffered a nervous breakdown.她患神经衰弱。
• The plane had a breakdown in the air,but it was fortunately removed by the ace pilot.飞机在空中发生了故障，但幸运的是被王牌驾驶员排除了。

3 breakdowns   

n.分解( breakdown的名词复数 )；衰竭；（车辆或机器的）损坏；统计分析

参考例句：

• Her old car was unreliable, so the trip was plagued by breakdowns. 她的旧车老不听使唤，一路上总是出故障。 来自辞典例句
• How do we prevent these continual breakdowns? 我们如何防止这些一再出现的故障？ 来自辞典例句

4 marital   

adj.婚姻的，夫妻的

参考例句：

• Her son had no marital problems.她的儿子没有婚姻问题。
• I regret getting involved with my daughter's marital problems;all its done is to bring trouble about my ears.我后悔干涉我女儿的婚姻问题, 现在我所做的一切将给我带来无穷的烦恼。

5 stringent   

adj.严厉的；令人信服的；银根紧的

参考例句：

• Financiers are calling for a relaxation of these stringent measures.金融家呼吁对这些严厉的措施予以放宽。
• Some of the conditions in the contract are too stringent.合同中有几项条件太苛刻。