2011年12月四級(jí)考試閱讀真題第三篇竟也是摘自衛(wèi)報(bào)的新聞！原文題目"Are money problems driving you apart?" 錢(qián)的問(wèn)題讓你分手了嗎？原文于2009年底發(fā)布。小編禁不住要感嘆：四級(jí)出題官！你是有多喜歡衛(wèi)報(bào)??？

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Are money problems driving you apart?
是錢(qián)的問(wèn)題讓你們分手了？

Sometimes love really can be measured in pounds and pence.
有時(shí)候愛(ài)情可能真的會(huì)用金錢(qián)來(lái)衡量。

It's an annual argument. Do we or do we not go on holiday? My partner says no because the boiler could go, or the roof fall off, and we have no savings to save us. I say that you only live once and we work hard and what's the point if you can't go on holiday. The joy of a recession means no argument next year – we just won't go.
每年大家都會(huì)因?yàn)檫@個(gè)吵來(lái)吵去：我們?nèi)ゲ蝗ヂ眯校课壹业哪俏粫?huì)說(shuō)不去，因?yàn)闊崴骺赡軙?huì)壞，屋頂可能會(huì)塌下來(lái)，我們沒(méi)錢(qián)救自己。我會(huì)說(shuō)人只能活一次，我們工作這么辛苦，不去度假生活又有什么意義。不好今年經(jīng)濟(jì)不景氣也好，明年不會(huì)吵架了，因?yàn)槲覀兪遣粫?huì)去旅行了。

Since money is reputed to be one of the things most likely to bring a relationship to its knees, we should be grateful. For many families the recession means more than not booking a holiday. A YouGov poll of 2,000 people in May this year found 22% said they were arguing more with their partners because of concerns about money. What's less clear is whether divorce and separation rates rise in a recession – financial pressures mean couples argue more but make splitting up less affordable. A recent report from ICOR (the online Information Centre on Relationships) cited research showing arguments about money were especially damaging to couples – even more so to their children. Disputes were characterised by intense verbal aggression, tended to be repeated and not resolved, and made men, more than women, extremely angry.
錢(qián)應(yīng)該是最可能讓一段關(guān)系跌入谷底的東西了，所以我們應(yīng)該心懷感激。對(duì)于大部分家庭來(lái)說(shuō)，經(jīng)濟(jì)不景氣可不僅僅是不能去度假這么簡(jiǎn)單。YouGov調(diào)研公司在今年5月進(jìn)行的一項(xiàng)2000人的民意調(diào)查顯示，22%的人表示，會(huì)因?yàn)閷?duì)金錢(qián)的擔(dān)憂(yōu)跟伴侶吵架。不過(guò)現(xiàn)在并不清楚經(jīng)濟(jì)衰退時(shí)期離婚和分居比率會(huì)否上升——財(cái)務(wù)壓力意味著夫妻會(huì)吵架更多，但很難承擔(dān)分手。 在線(xiàn)人際關(guān)系信息中心ICOR近期的一項(xiàng)報(bào)告援引研究結(jié)果顯示，關(guān)于金錢(qián)的吵架尤其容易傷害夫妻的關(guān)系：對(duì)孩子們的傷害更大。金錢(qián)糾紛主要表現(xiàn)為激烈的言語(yǔ)攻擊，兩人會(huì)多次爭(zhēng)吵但問(wèn)題仍無(wú)法解決，男性會(huì)比女性情緒更為氣憤。

So why are arguments about money so emotive? Since they seem to be so even without a recession, they have to be about more than literally pounds and pence.
為什么關(guān)于錢(qián)的爭(zhēng)吵會(huì)讓人很情緒化？即使并非經(jīng)濟(jì)衰退期也是如此，而這樣的爭(zhēng)吵也不單純只是關(guān)于錢(qián)而已。

Kim Stephenson, an occupational psychologist, believes money is such a big deal because of what it symbolises, which may be different things to men and women. "People can say the same things about money but have different conceptions of what it is for," he explains. "They will say it's to save, to spend, for security, for freedom, to show someone you love them, to keep score."
職業(yè)心理學(xué)家Kim Stephenson認(rèn)為，人們會(huì)對(duì)錢(qián)的問(wèn)題小題大做，是因?yàn)殄X(qián)對(duì)男性和女性有著不同的象征意義。他解釋道：“人們都會(huì)談?wù)撳X(qián)，但是心中卻對(duì)錢(qián)有不同的概念。錢(qián)是用來(lái)省的，用來(lái)花的，保障安全，贏取自由，用來(lái)向某人表示你愛(ài)他/她，用來(lái)得分?！?/div>

He says men are more likely to see money as a way of buying status, of trying to best the man down the road who's just bought a flash car, and of showing their parents that they've achieved something. He warns that, while couples need enough money not to struggle and be unhappy, an extra ￡5,000 above that amount won't make them any happier.
他表示男性更容易把錢(qián)當(dāng)做某些手段：買(mǎi)到地位，贏過(guò)附近剛剛買(mǎi)了輛拉風(fēng)汽車(chē)的人，或者向父母表現(xiàn)他們的成功。他警告道，雖然夫妻需要足夠的錢(qián)讓生活不至于艱辛不幸福，但再多5000英鎊的金額也無(wú)法讓他們更幸福。

"The biggest problem is that couples assume each other knows what is going on with their finances, but they don't. There seems to be more of a taboo about talking about money than talking about death. But you both need to know what you are doing, who is paying what into the joint account and how much you keep separately. In a healthy relationship you don't have to agree about money, but you have to talk about it."
“最大的問(wèn)題是夫妻會(huì)認(rèn)為彼此了解他們的財(cái)政狀況，但其實(shí)并非這樣。談?wù)摻疱X(qián)比談?wù)撍劳銎鋵?shí)更算是禁忌。但夫妻需要了解清楚家里的情況，聯(lián)名賬戶(hù)誰(shuí)在付多少？賬戶(hù)里大家各自又有多少？一段健康的關(guān)系中，你們不需要對(duì)錢(qián)有相同的看法，但大家需要談?wù)撽P(guān)于錢(qián)的事情。”

Research from a wholesome organisation in the US called the National Healthy Marriage Resource Center says that establishing a "fair and equitable pattern of handling money early in marriage appears to be important for the quality and stability of the marriage". Admitting your incomes to each other and making budgets for your household expenses may not seem romantic but it is, in fact, the real language of love.
美國(guó)衛(wèi)生組織國(guó)家健康婚姻資源中心的研究表示，“在婚姻初期，建立公平公正的金錢(qián)處理模式，對(duì)婚姻的質(zhì)量和穩(wěn)定性很重要”。對(duì)彼此的收入坦誠(chéng)相待，對(duì)家庭的開(kāi)支進(jìn)行規(guī)劃，聽(tīng)起來(lái)可能不浪漫，但其實(shí)這才是愛(ài)情真正的語(yǔ)言。