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

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Are money problems driving you apart?
是錢的問題讓你們分手了？

Sometimes love really can be measured in pounds and pence.
有時候愛情可能真的會用金錢來衡量。

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.
每年大家都會因為這個吵來吵去：我們去不去旅行？我家的那位會說不去，因為熱水器可能會壞，屋頂可能會塌下來，我們沒錢救自己。我會說人只能活一次，我們工作這么辛苦，不去度假生活又有什么意義。不好今年經濟不景氣也好，明年不會吵架了，因為我們是不會去旅行了。

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.
錢應該是最可能讓一段關系跌入谷底的東西了，所以我們應該心懷感激。對于大部分家庭來說，經濟不景氣可不僅僅是不能去度假這么簡單。YouGov調研公司在今年5月進行的一項2000人的民意調查顯示，22%的人表示，會因為對金錢的擔憂跟伴侶吵架。不過現在并不清楚經濟衰退時期離婚和分居比率會否上升——財務壓力意味著夫妻會吵架更多，但很難承擔分手。 在線人際關系信息中心ICOR近期的一項報告援引研究結果顯示，關于金錢的吵架尤其容易傷害夫妻的關系：對孩子們的傷害更大。金錢糾紛主要表現為激烈的言語攻擊，兩人會多次爭吵但問題仍無法解決，男性會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.
為什么關于錢的爭吵會讓人很情緒化？即使并非經濟衰退期也是如此，而這樣的爭吵也不單純只是關于錢而已。

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)心理學家Kim Stephenson認為，人們會對錢的問題小題大做，是因為錢對男性和女性有著不同的象征意義。他解釋道：“人們都會談論錢，但是心中卻對錢有不同的概念。錢是用來省的，用來花的，保障安全，贏取自由，用來向某人表示你愛他/她，用來得分。”

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當做某些手段：買到地位，贏過附近剛剛買了輛拉風汽車的人，或者向父母表現他們的成功。他警告道，雖然夫妻需要足夠的錢讓生活不至于艱辛不幸福，但再多5000英鎊的金額也無法讓他們更幸福。

"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."
“最大的問題是夫妻會認為彼此了解他們的財政狀況，但其實并非這樣。談論金錢比談論死亡其實更算是禁忌。但夫妻需要了解清楚家里的情況，聯名賬戶誰在付多少？賬戶里大家各自又有多少？一段健康的關系中，你們不需要對錢有相同的看法，但大家需要談論關于錢的事情?！?/div>

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.
美國衛(wèi)生組織國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處理模式，對婚姻的質量和穩(wěn)定性很重要”。對彼此的收入坦誠相待，對家庭的開支進行規(guī)劃，聽起來可能不浪漫，但其實這才是愛情真正的語言。