Directions: Read the
following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into
Chinese.
Not many industries are doing well in the recession. But along
with discount retailers and pawnbrokers, online-dating sites such as eHarmony,
corn and OkCupid. com have seen business look up. There are several theories to
explain why. 46． It may be that people have more time to devote to their
private lives as the economy slows; that uncertain times increase the desire for
companionship; or that living alone is expensive, whereas couples can split many
of their costs. "People who have been single for
years are suddenly focused on finding someone," says Greg Waldorf, the boss of
eHarmony, a wholesome marriage-oriented site with more than 20m paying
subscribers. 47．He favours the companionship-in-hard-times theory:
"Going through difficult times with someone special is better than doing
it alone. " In a recent survey carried out for his company, 25% of women
said stress about the state of the economy made them more inclined to seek a
long-term relationship. The company also noticed that the number of visits to
its website was higher than average on days when the Dow Jones Industrial
Average fell by more than 100 points. At OkCupid, which
is aimed at a more casual, youthful crowd, there has been a jump in membership
since the financial crisis set in, and an even bigger jump in how often members
use the site. Back in September, users were sending 6,000 on-site instant
messages a day, says Sam Yagan, OkCupid’s boss. Now that number is over
18,000．48．OkCupid has the advantage of being free, which has proved popular
with people looking for partners for what Mr. Yagan euphemistically calls "cheap
entertainment". After all, if you have a girlfriend or a boyfriend, he says,
"you can just play Scrabble instead of going out for the evening. "
49．But perhaps the boom is the result of neither a
nesting instinct, nor a desire to save money. AshleyMadison. corn, a very
different type of dating site, is also doing well. Instead of arranging
marriages, the subscription-based site arranges affairs-and never before have so
many people been looking for a bit on the side. Ashley Madison’s boss, Noel
Biderman, thinks his site, and others, are prospering for another reason: money
problems. "The majority of relationship discord stems from economic troubles,"
he says. 50．Instead of fighting, married people are taking stock of their
lives. "They want to do something that makes them feel better about
themselves," Mr Biderman says, "and $ 49 is a tiny expenditure for a life-
altering affair. "