《英语流行话题阅读:语境识词3500》Unit83:女性回归家庭?

　　Unit 83
Girls Want to Stay at Home?
Their grandmothers fought for the vote, their mothers battled to have everything, but the upcoming generation of British girls have decided¹ to turn the clock back: They just want to stay at home with their babies.
According to a survey of 5,000-plus teenage girls in Britain, their main ambition is to complete university and return to the homestead.
More than nine out of 10 of the girls believe it should be up to their husbands to provide them with bread.
More than 90 percent of those polled² for CosmoGirl magazine's November issue believe it's the man's role to provide the household's money. And 85 percent maintain³ they would rather rely on their partner for financial support than be a successful, independent woman.
Instead of making a career for themselves, girls today plan to be married by the age of 25 -- three years below the current national average of 28.2 years old.
And, although 43 percent of those questioned believe they should continue with their education until they have a university degree, one in four say that getting married is their number one priority⁴ in life.
The supposedly super-modern, "fun comes first" teenage generation has proved to be remarkably⁵ traditional in every area of beliefs: Over 50 percent say they would not dream of having children before seeing a ring on their finger.
The desire to have children is kicking in earlier too. On average, teenage girls plan to have their first child at 26 and most plan to have one or two more children over the following four years. The national average now is 1.64 children per couple.
"This is so unsurprising," said author Claire Rayner. "The majority of girls have no bright future and nothing very special to look forward to. All they can hope for is their own man and their own baby."
"This survey doesn't indicate that the battles of feminism have been lost," Rayner added, "It was never opposed to marriage or children. It's about equal chances for women to do what they wanted to do, which is exactly what these girls are choosing to do."

1 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

2 polled   

剪去了树梢的； 剪了毛[发]的； 秃头的； 锯了角的

参考例句：

• They polled the cattle. 他们把这头牛的角切短了。
• They polled the President. 他们对总统进行民意测验。

3 maintain   

vt.支撑；赡养，抚养；维持，保有

参考例句：

• He has to maintain a large family on a small salary.他不得不依靠很少的工资养活一家人。
• We must do our best to maintain sales at their usual rate.我们要尽力使销售额保持在平日的水平上。

4 priority   

n.优先处理的事，居先，优先（权）

参考例句：

• The development of the national economy is a top priority.发展国民经济是应予以最优先考虑的事。
• Things should be taken up in order of priority.办事应有个先后次序。

5 remarkably   

ad.不同寻常地，相当地

参考例句：

• I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
• He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。