Trying to Find a Partner

One of the most striking findings of a recent poll in the UK is that of the people interviewed, one in two believes that it is becoming more difficult to meet someone to start a family with.
Why are many finding it increasingly difficult to start and sustain intimate relationships Does modern life really make it harder to fall in love Or are we making it harder for ourselves
It is certainly the case today that contemporary couples benefit in different ways from relationships. Women no longer rely upon partners for economic security or status. A man doesn’t expect his spouse to be in sole charge of running his household and raising his children.
But perhaps the knowledge that we can live perfectly well without a partnership means that it takes much more to persuade people to abandon their independence.
In theory, finding a partner should be much simpler these days. Only a few generations ago, your choice of soulmate (心上人) was constrained (限制) by geography, social convention and family tradition. Although it was never explicit, many marriages were essentially arranged.
Now those barriers have been broken down. You can approach a builder or a brain surgeon in any bar in any city on any given evening. When the world is your oyster (牡蛎), you surely have a better chance of finding a pearl.
But it seems that the old conventions have been replaced by an even tighter constraint, the tyranny of choice.
The expectations of partners are inflated (提高) to an unmanageable degree, good looks, impressive salary, kind to grandmother and right socks. There is no room for error in the first impression.
We think that a relationship can be perfect. If it isn’t, it is disposable. We work to protect ourselves against future heartache and don’t put in the hard emotional labor needed to build a strong relationship. Of course, this is complicated by realities. The cost of housing and child-rearing creates pressure to have a stable income and career before a life partnership.
The word "sustain" (paragraph 2) could be best replaced by

A credit card that will not work unless it hears its owner’s voice could become an important weapon in the fight against fraud (欺骗).
The card requires users to give a spoken password that it recognizes using a built-in voice-recognition chip. The idea is to prevent thieves using a stolen card or fraudsters using someone else’s credit card details to buy goods online.A model built by engineers at Beepcard in Santa Monica, California, represents the first attempt to pack a microphone, a loudspeaker, a battery and a voice-recognition chip into a standard-sized credit card.
They are not quite there yet: the card is the length and width of an ordinary credit card, but it is still about three times as thick. The company now plans to make it thinner.
The voice card is based on an earlier Beepcard technology designed to prevent fraud in online transactions. This earlier card has no microphone, but has a built-in loudspeaker that it uses to "squawk" (发出叫声) a voice ID signal via a computer’s microphone to an online server.
By verifying (证实) that the signal matches the card details, the server can establish that the user is not simply keying in a credit card number but actually has the card to hand. The ID code changes each time the card is used in a pre-ordered sequence that only the server knows.
This prevents fraudsters recording the beeps, noting the card details and then playing back the audible ID when they key in the details later. But this earlier technology cannot prevent fraudulent use of stolen cards. The new one can.
The new voice card also identifies itself by its ID squawk, but it will not do this until it has verified the legitimate (合法的) user’s spoken password. Thieves will be unable to use the card because even if they knew the password they would have to be able to copy the owner’s voice with a high degree of accuracy.
The challenge for Beepcard has been to develop voice-recognition and audio circuitry that can be powered by a mini battery embedded (潜入的) in a credit card. To maximize battery life, the electronics are only switched on when the card is being used. Pressing a button on the card’s surface prompts it to utter "Say your password" in female voice. If the voice-recognition software proves that the password is authentic (真实的), it sends its ID squawk which the server then identifies, allowing the transaction to proceed.

A．employing young drivers
B．running quality schools
C．providing free driving lessons
D．building sound relationships