eager than ever to establish families. They quickly brought down the age at marriage

　　for both men and women and brought the birth rate to a twentieth century height __1__

　　after more than a hundred years of a steady decline, producing the “baby boom.” __2__

　　These young adults established a trend of early marriage and relatively large

　　families that went for more than two decades and caused a major but temporary __3__

　　reversal of long-term demographic patterns. From the 1940s through the early

　　1960s, Americans married at a high rate and at a younger age than their __4__

　　Europe counterparts. __5__

　　Less noted but equally more significant, the men and women who formed __6__

　　families between 1940 and 1960 nevertheless reduced the divorce rate after a __7__

　　postwar peak; their marriages remained intact to a greater extent than did that of __8__

　　couples who married in earlier as well as later decades. Since the United States __9__

　　maintained its dubious distinction of having the highest divorce rate in the world,

　　the temporary decline in divorce did not occur in the same extent in Europe. __10__

　　Contrary to fears of the experts, the role of breadwinner and homemaker was not

　　abandoned.

　　参考答案及解析:

　　1. 将height改为high/peak。

　　整句话的大意为他们把男女的婚龄降了下来，使出生率达到了20世纪的高峰。

　　high可以用作名词，意为“高峰”，“高水准”，“最高纪录”。

　　height可以作“极点，顶点”解释。例如：The height of cleverness is to conceal one’s cleverness。

　　2. 将第二个不定冠词a 去掉。

　　steady decline 意为持续的下降，前面不用加冠词。又如：years of hard work。根据语感可以判断出来。

　　3. 在went后加on，或将went改为lasted。

　　此处是“持续”的意思，所以可以用went on 或者last来表达。

　　4. 将high改为higher。

　　此处意为美国人结婚率比以前提高了，有与战前相比的意思，因此应用比较级。

　　5. 将Europe改为European。

　　6. 删掉more。此处的大意为战后离婚率也下降了，这个现象不大有人注意，但同样也很重要。另外，more与equally相矛盾。

　　7. 将nevertheless改为also或者删掉nevertheless。

　　此处上下文之间不是转折关系，而是递进关系。

　　8. 将that 改为those。

　　此处的代词应指marriages这个复数名词，因此应用those。此处考察代词与先行词一致的问题。

　　9. 将Since改为Although/Though/While。此处是转折关系，不是因果关系。

　　10. 将in改为to。短语to the extent是固定搭配。