填空题

We generally view the family as being one of our most stable institutions: yet, our family system has (36) a number of changes in the past. Two hundred years ago, marriages were often arranged by parents, with economic (37) being the most important factor of who married whom. Two hundred years ago, divorce was (38) ; now, more than one out of three marriages are in (39) . Two hundred years ago, women did not work out of the home. and children were an economic (40) ; now nearly 50 percent of married women work outside the home, and children are a (41) responsibility. In our (42) society, the family is now changing even more rapidly than it did in the past. In (43) the future of the American family, some authorities foresee the family as racing toward extinction. They say that (44) , and this will be its only function. Family optimists, on the other hand, predict the family’s entering a Golden Age—an era where (45) . Most sociologists, however, do not agree with either the pessimists or the optimists; instead, (46) , many of which will probably be thrown away, but some likely to be found satisfying and functional and gradually becoming "typical".