Family Problems

Reading and Speaking 1

13. Read Article 1 and do the multiple choice task given below. Article 1 Marriage is dead. Not so weddings

Marriage isn’t what it used to be, says the bus-pass brigade¹, and this is true. For one thing, fewer people are doing it – the number of weddings in England and Wales falls every year. Just under 250,000 people exchanged marriage vows in 2001, compared with 331,000 in 1990, with first-time marrying couples accounting for most of the decline. In the modern world, more people are living together, even having children out of wedlock.

Yet even as marriage goes out of fashion, weddings are thriving – and becoming more expensive. According to You and Your Wedding, which carries out an annual survey, their average price has increased from £10,715 to £15,243 in the past five years. Couples are spending less on hotel receptions (taking advantage of falling prices) but more on everything else, with particularly large increase in frivolities like shoes and jewellery.

Why are young couples splashing out? These are the same people, remember, who must start saving money now if they expect to eat in their old age. Part of the reason is the deregulation of civil weddings. In the old days, church-shy couples had to endure ceremonies that were nasty and short, so they didn’t make much of a fuss. Now they can get married in ritzy surroundings, and since 1995, a steadily increasing number (20% at last count) have done so.

But a more important clue comes from the rising age of couples. The average first-time bride and groom were 27.7 and 29.7 years old in 2001 – up three years since 1991. Middle-class women used to delay childbirth to have a career. Now they seem to be delaying marriage as well. Marco Francesconi, a demographer at Essex University reckons, and many others share his view, they are trying to raise their value on the marriage market: “We all have an option value attached to ourselves, and we know that it will go up if we make certain investments,” he says.

In this light, a pricey wedding makes a lot of sense. What better way to prove you have made it than by hosting a lavish event – and what better way to prevent your beau from straying than by asking them to put down a massive non-refundable deposit on the marriage?

(From ‘The Economist’, abridged)

Choose the best answer to the following questions.

1. What does paragraph 1 of the article imply?

1. Marriage isn’t as desirable as it used to be.

2. Now there are fewer people of a marrying age than 15 or 20 years ago.

3. People prefer to have children out of wedlock.

1. What does not explain why average price of weddings is rising?

1. The age of marrying couples is rising.

2. Couples can get married in expensive and fashionable surroundings.

3. Couples don’t have to be married in church any more.

1. Marco Francesconi’s statement means that

1. marriage is a good investment.

2. women believe that expensive weddings make men appreciate them more.

3. marrying couples want to attract attention.

1. The main idea of the article is that

1. the institute of marriage is becoming obsolete.

2. increasing numbers of people want lavish weddings.

3. an expensive marriage has become a way to make a marriage last.