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WheneverCatherine Brown，a 37-year.old journalist，and her friends，professionals in their 30s and early 40s，meet at aLondon caf6，their favorite topic ofconversation is relationships：men’sreluctance to commit，wo men’s independence，andwhen to have children--or，increasingly，whether to have them at all.“With the years passing my chances of having a child godown，but I Won’t malty anyone just to have achild，”saysBrown.To people like Brown，babiesare great_if the timing is right.Butthey’re certainly not essential.

In much of the world，havingkids is no longer a given.“Neverbefore has childlessness been

an understandable decision for women and men in so many societies，”says Frank Hakim at the LondonSchool of Economics.Youngpeople are extending their child—freeadulthood by postponing children until they are well into their 30s.or even40s and beyond.

A growing share are ending up with nochildren at all.Lifetime childlessness in westernGer-many has hit 30 percent among university—educated women，and is rapidly rising among lower—class men.InBritain，thenumber of women remaining childless has doubled in 20 years.

The latesttrend of childlessness does not follow historic patterns.For centuries it was not unusual for a quarter of European women toremain childless.Butin the past.childlessnesswas usually the product of poverty ordisaster.of missingmen in times of war.Today the decision to have—or not have—a child is theresult of a complex combination of factors，includingrelationships，career

Opportunities，lifestyleand economics.

In some caseschildlessness among women can be seen as a quiet form ofprotest.InJapan，supportfor working mothers hardly exists.Childcare is expensive，men don’t help out，andsome companies strongly discouragemothers from returning to work.“In Japan，it'scareer or child，”says writer KaoriHaishi.It’s not justwomen who are deciding against children;according to a re-cent study，Japanese men are even less inclined to marry or want a child.Their motivations，though，may havemore to do with economic factors.

1、It Can beinferred that，formany women，havingbabies nowadays is __________.

A.ahard commitment

B.helpfulto their career

C.essentialfor happiness

D.anunderstandable decision

參考答案：A

2、CatherineBrown and her friends feel that having children is not __________.

A.totallywise

B.ahuge problem

C.arational choice

D.absolutelynecessary

參考答案：D

3、In theold days。manywomen remained childless __________

A.asa quiet form of protest

B.becauseof lack of support

C.becauseof unfortunate circumstances

D.becausethey lacked social responsibility

參考答案：C

4、We learnthat childlessness at present __________.

A.affectsEurope more than it does Asia

B.producesmore benefits than in the past

C.ismore a woman’s decision than a man’s

D.ismore complex in its cause than that in the past

參考答案：D

5、According to the text，when a Japanese man decides not to have children，he probably feels unable to __________.

A.helpwith housework

B.affordto have a child

C.bea responsible father

D.balancework and family

參考答案：B