为什么年后会是离婚高发期

为什么假期结束后往往是离婚高发期？

🤔️小作业：

1. What trend was observed in Google Trends searches for “divorce” mentioned in the article?

A) Searches for "divorce" were consistently highest in January.

B) The term "divorce" peaked in searches at various times over the past five years.

C) Searches for "divorce" decreased significantly in January.

D) "Divorce" was the least searched term during the holiday season.

无注释原文：

'Divorce Month' Fact or Fiction: Do More Couples Split in January?

From: The New York Times, Jan. 4, 2020

January is often reserved for kicking bad habits and beginning work on New Year's resolutions. But some parts of the internet — especially news articles from the last few years and even some law groups — have cast a  dark cloud on the month, suggesting it is a popular time for couples to divorce. They've even unofficially nicknamed January “divorce month.”

Bleak, for sure. But is there any truth behind it? The answer, of course, is complicated.

“Divorce is seasonal,” Vicky Townsend, co-founder and chief executive of the National Association of Divorce Professionals, said last month.

From Thanksgiving until New Year's, lawyers' offices are slow because people have put off divorcing until after the holidays, Ms. Townsend said. And people who may have been considering a divorce in the final months of the year often put off the decision until the holidays have finished, she noted. The idea may be, “New Year's resolutions — it's a new year, new you, new start,” she said. “The holidays are over, and I'm not going into this year as miserable as I was last year.”

People are indeed searching for divorce information just after the holidays.

A Google Trends search for “divorce” last year returned that it was, ever so slightly, most popular from Jan. 6 through Jan. 12. The term also appeared to be trending upward from the last week of December through this week. But over the past five years, the search term peaked at various times including March 2018, January 2017 and September 2016.

The idea of a January divorce trend may have started in the 1970s and 1980s when baby boomers started divorcing at higher rates, said Susan Myres, president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and a divorce lawyer in Houston.

But not every divorce expert thinks January spells bad news for marriages.

David K. Wilkinson, a founding partner of the Wilkinson and Finkbeiner law firm in San Diego, said people start calling lawyers for information after the holidays, but “that doesn't necessarily mean they'll file at that time.”

A 2016 study conducted by the University of Washington analyzed divorce filings in Washington State from 2001 to 2015 and found they peaked in March and August, following the winter and summer holidays.

“People tend to face the holidays with rising expectations, despite what disappointments they might have had in years past,” Julie Brines, associate sociology professor and co-author of the study, said at the time. “They represent periods of the year when there's the anticipation or the opportunity for a new beginning, a new start, something different, a transition into a new period of life. It's like an optimism cycle, in a sense.”

Incompatibility, infidelity and money problems are the three leading causes of divorce, according to a 2013 survey conducted by the Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts.

Responsibilities with children and a lack of romance are also two red flags for people who feel unhappy, Ms. Myres said. “Too much time with family can often trigger someone waking up and realizing, 'This is not what I want for the rest of my life,'” she said. “You'll see an uptick in filings after Valentine's Day and around August,” when children have had summer off and before school starts.

“It is my firm belief that people get divorced because their expectations were not met,” Ms. Myres said. “Whatever their expectations are. When enough of them are not being met, divorce will happen.”

- ◆ -

注：完整题目见本文开头；中文文本为机器翻译并非一一对应，仅供参考

含注释全文：

'Divorce Month' Fact or Fiction: Do More Couples Split in January?

From: The New York Times, Jan. 4, 2020

January is often reserved for kicking bad habits and beginning work on New Year's resolutions. But some parts of the internet — especially news articles from the last few years and even some law groups — have cast a  dark cloud on the month, suggesting it is a popular time for couples to divorce. They've even unofficially nicknamed January “divorce month.”

一月份，往往是人们改掉坏习惯、开始新年计划的时刻。然而，互联网上——尤其是近几年的新闻报道，甚至一些律所——都给这个月份蒙上了一层不祥之影，认为一月份是夫妻离婚的高发期。他们甚至非正式地称一月份为“离婚月”。

reserve /rɪˈzɜːv/ 作名词，1）表示“贮藏（物）；储备（物）；备用（物）”，英文解释为“the act of keeping something or a supply of something until it is needed, or a supply that you keep”举个🌰：She keeps a little money in reserve (= for use if and when needed). 她留下了一些钱以备不时之需。

2）等于reservation，表示“（尤指保护野生动物生存的）自然保护区，禁猎区，保护区”，英文解释为“an area of land kept in its natural state, especially for wild animals to live in and be protected”如：a nature/game/wildlife reserve 自然保护区/禁猎区/野生动物保护区。

作动词，表示“把…专门留给；把…留作；保留”，英文解释为“to keep something for a particular purpose or time”举个🌰：I reserve Mondays for tidying my desk and answering letters. 我把周一的时间留出来专门清理办公桌和回复信件。

kick /kɪk/  作动词，表示“踢，踹”，英文解释为“to hit someone or something with the foot, or to move the feet and legs suddenly and violently”举个🌰：I kicked the ball as hard as I could. 我用尽全力踢球。

作名词，1）表示“极度刺激；极度兴奋；极大的乐趣”，英文解释为“a strong feeling of excitement and pleasure”举个🌰：He gets his kicks from hurting other people. 他以伤害他人为乐。

2）表示“（毒品或酒精的）效力，刺激性”，英文解释为“the strong effect that a drug or an alcoholic drink has”举个🌰：This drink has quite a kick. 这酒的劲相当大。

resolution /ˌrez.əˈluː.ʃən/ 1）表示“决议”，英文解释为“A resolution is a formal decision made at a meeting by means of a vote.”举个🌰：He replied that the UN had passed two major resolutions. 他回复说联合国已经通过两项重大决议。

2）表示“决心，决定”，英文解释为“If you make a resolution, you decide to try very hard to do something.”举个🌰：They made a resolution to lose all the weight gained during the Christmas holidays. 他们下了一个决心要减掉圣诞节期间增加的全部体重。

3）表示“（显微镜、电视、计算机显示屏等的）清晰度，分辨率”，英文解释为“the ability of a microscope, or a television or computer screen, to show things clearly and with a lot of detail”如：a high/low resolution image 高/低清晰度图像。

cast /kɑːst/ 作名词，表示“（一部电影、戏剧或演出的）全体演员”，英文解释为“the actors in a film, play, or show”举个🌰：After the final performance the director threw a party for the cast. 最后一场演出过后，导演为全体演员举办了一场聚会。

作动词，1）表示“分配角色；选派角色”，英文解释为“to choose actors to play the different parts in a film/movie, play, etc.; to choose an actor to play a particular role”举个🌰：He has cast her as an ambitious lawyer in his latest movie. 他选定她在他最近的一部影片里扮演一名雄心勃勃的律师。

2）表示“把（光或阴影）投向；投射”，英文解释为“to choose actors to play particular parts in a play, film, or show”举个🌰：The tree cast a shadow over/on his face. 树影投在他的脸上。

📍cast a shadow over/on something 表示“给…蒙上阴影”，英文解释为“to spoil a good situation with something unpleasant”举个🌰：Her father's illness had cast a shadow over the birth of her baby. 她父亲的病给她孩子的出生蒙上了一层阴影。

nickname /ˈnɪk.neɪm/ 可以作名词，也可以作动词，表示“给…起绰号”，英文解释为“to give a nickname to sb/sth”举个🌰：LR was nicknamed ‘Lu Rou’. LR外号叫“卤肉”。

Bleak, for sure. But is there any truth behind it? The answer, of course, is complicated.

无疑，这听起来颇为凄凉。但这种说法背后真有根据吗？当然，答案很复杂。

bleak /bliːk/ 1）表示“（地方）荒凉的;凄凉的”，英文解释为“If a place is bleak, it is empty, and not welcoming or attractive.”举个🌰：The house stands on a bleak, windswept hilltop. 这座房子坐落在一个饱受风雨侵袭的荒山顶上。

2）表示“（境况）惨淡的，无希望的”，英文解释为“If a situation is bleak, there is little or no hope for the future.”

“Divorce is seasonal,” Vicky Townsend, co-founder and chief executive of the National Association of Divorce Professionals, said last month.

“离婚有其季节性，”美国国家离婚专业人员协会联合创始人兼首席执行官维基·汤森（Vicky Townsend）上个月表示。

seasonal /ˈsiː.zən.əl/ 表示“季节的;季节性的”，英文解释为“relating to or happening during a particular period in the year”如：seasonal vegetables 时令蔬菜。

From Thanksgiving until New Year's, lawyers' offices are slow because people have put off divorcing until after the holidays, Ms. Townsend said. And people who may have been considering a divorce in the final months of the year often put off the decision until the holidays have finished, she noted. The idea may be, “New Year's resolutions — it's a new year, new you, new start,” she said. “The holidays are over, and I'm not going into this year as miserable as I was last year.”

汤森说，从感恩节到新年期间，律师事务所通常较为清闲，因为许多人选择在节后再处理离婚事宜。她指出，那些可能在年末几个月考虑离婚的人往往会推迟到节后再做决定。他们的想法可能是，“新年新气象——新的一年，新的自己，新的开始，”她说。“假期结束了，我不会再像去年那样痛苦地度过今年了。”

put something off 表示“推迟，拖延”，英文解释为“to decide or arrange to delay an event or activity until a later time or date”举个🌰：The meeting has been put off for a week. 会议被推迟了1周。

People are indeed searching for divorce information just after the holidays.

人们确实在节后开始搜索离婚信息。

A Google Trends search for “divorce” last year returned that it was, ever so slightly, most popular from Jan. 6 through Jan. 12. The term also appeared to be trending upward from the last week of December through this week. But over the past five years, the search term peaked at various times including March 2018, January 2017 and September 2016.

去年谷歌趋势搜索结果显示，从1月6日到1月12日，离婚一词的搜索量达到了小高峰。从12月最后一周到本周，该词的搜索量似乎也在呈上升趋势。但在过去五年中，该词的搜索量在2018年3月、2017年1月和2016年9月等不同时间达到过峰值。

trend /trend/ 作动词，表示“（某一时刻在社交媒体或网站上）被提及最多的词语（主题或名字）”，英文解释为“to be one of the words, subjects, or names that is being mentioned most often on a social media website or a news website at a particular time”举个🌰：Within minutes of the incident her name was trending on Weibo. 事件发生几分钟后她的名字就在微博上传开了。

trend本身也可以直接作名词，原意有“趋势；趋向；倾向；动态；动向；热点”，英文解释为“a general direction in which a situation is changing or developing”。

📍trending hashtags或者说a trending topic，可以指微博上的“#热门话题#”；类似的，Youtube首页上的Trending对应的中文就处理为“时下流行”。

peak /piːk/ 可以作名词，也可以作动词，表示“（达到）峰值”，英文解释为“When something peaks, it reaches its highest value or its highest level.”举个🌰：Temperatures have peaked at over 90 degrees. 温度已达到峰值，超过了90度。

The idea of a January divorce trend may have started in the 1970s and 1980s when baby boomers started divorcing at higher rates, said Susan Myres, president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and a divorce lawyer in Houston.

美国婚姻律师学会（American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers）主席、休斯顿离婚律师苏珊·迈尔斯（Susan Myres）说，1月离婚潮的概念可能始于20世纪70年代和80年代，当时婴儿潮一代的离婚率开始上升。

baby-boomer /ˈbeɪ.biˌbuːm.ər/ 表示“（尤指1945至1965年间英国和美国）生育高峰期出生的人”，英文解释为“a person who was born during a baby boom, especially the one that happened in the UK and the US following the Second World War”

But not every divorce expert thinks January spells bad news for marriages.

但并非每位离婚专家都认为1月份对婚姻来说是个不祥之兆。

霍格沃茨新生报到文中提到，spell 熟词僻义，1）表示“咒语，符咒；魔法；着魔”，英文解释为“spoken words that are thought to have magical power, or (the condition of being under) the influence or control of such words”举个🌰：The witch cast/put a spell on the prince and he turned into a frog. 女巫对王子施了魔法，把他变成了青蛙。

2）表示“（持续的）一段时间”，英文解释为“a period of time for which an activity or condition lasts continuously”举个🌰：I lived in Shanghai for a spell. 我在上海住过一阵子。

3）也表示“（特定天气的）一段短暂持续时间”，英文解释为“a short period of a particular type of weather”如：a spell of dry weather 一段天气干燥的日子。

4）作动词，spell disaster/trouble 表示“意味着灾难／会招致麻烦（等等）”，英文解释为“to cause something bad to happen in the future”举个🌰：This cold weather could spell trouble for gardeners. 这种寒冷的天气可能会为菜农带来灾难。

David K. Wilkinson, a founding partner of the Wilkinson and Finkbeiner law firm in San Diego, said people start calling lawyers for information after the holidays, but “that doesn't necessarily mean they'll file at that time.”

圣地亚哥威尔金森和芬克贝纳律师事务所创始合伙人大卫·威尔金森（David K. Wilkinson）说，人们在节后开始打电话向律师咨询信息，但“这并不一定意味着他们会在那个时候提交离婚申请。”

file /faɪl/ 作动词，1）表示“提起（诉讼）；提出（申请）；送交（备案）”，英文解释为“to present sth so that it can be officially recorded and dealt with”如：to file for divorce 提交离婚申请书，to file a claim/complaint/petition/lawsuit 提出索赔/申诉；呈交诉状；提起诉讼。

2）表示“排成纵队行进”，英文解释为“to walk in a line, one behind another”举个🌰：The visitors filed through the entrance to the ticket offices. 参观者们排队通过入口走向售票处。

📍File本身可以表示按一定顺序排列，所以file out of就是以这样的顺序退出某处，表示以有序、整齐的方式离开某个地方。举个🌰：The students filed out of the classroom after the bell rang. 铃声响起后，学生们有序地离开了教室。

A 2016 study conducted by the University of Washington analyzed divorce filings in Washington State from 2001 to 2015 and found they peaked in March and August, following the winter and summer holidays.

华盛顿大学在2016年进行的一项研究分析了2001年至2015年华盛顿州的离婚申请，发现离婚申请的高峰期在3月和8月，即寒暑假之后。

“People tend to face the holidays with rising expectations, despite what disappointments they might have had in years past,” Julie Brines, associate sociology professor and co-author of the study, said at the time. “They represent periods of the year when there's the anticipation or the opportunity for a new beginning, a new start, something different, a transition into a new period of life. It's like an optimism cycle, in a sense.”

“尽管人们在过去几年中可能有过失望，但面对假期，他们往往会抱着更高的期望，”该研究的共同作者、社会学副教授朱莉·布林斯（Julie Brines）当时说道。“它们代表着一年中对新开始、新起点、新事物、向新生活阶段过渡的期待或机会。从某种意义上说，这就像是一个乐观主义的周期。”

sociology /ˌsəʊ.siˈɒl.ə.dʒi/ 表示“社会学，社会关系研究”，英文解释为“the study of the relationships between people living in groups, especially in industrial societies”

optimism /ˈɒp.tɪ.mɪ.zəm/ 表示“乐观；乐观主义”，英文解释为“the quality of being full of hope and emphasizing the good parts of a situation, or a belief that something good will happen”举个🌰：There was a note of optimism in his voice as he spoke about the company's future. 谈到公司的未来，他语气里带着乐观情绪。

Incompatibility, infidelity and money problems are the three leading causes of divorce, according to a 2013 survey conducted by the Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts.

根据离婚财务分析师研究所（Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts）2013 年的一项调查，感情不和、不忠和金钱问题是离婚的三大主要原因。

incompatibility /ˌɪn.kəmˌpæt.əˈbɪl.ə.ti/ 表示“不兼容；不相容；不协调；不一致”，英文解释为“the state of not being able to exist or work with another person or thing because of basic differences”。

infidelity /ˌɪn.fɪˈdel.ə.ti/ 表示“（夫妇间的）不忠实，不贞行为”，英文解释为“(an act of) having sex with someone who is not your husband, wife, or regular sexual partner”如：marital/sexual infidelity 婚姻/性方面的不忠。

📍此前，在《致命女人》大结局一文中就提到过infidelity这个词。《致命女人》讲述的是三位生活在不同年代的女性：60年代的家庭主妇，80年代的社交名媛和2018年的律师，处理着婚姻中的不忠行为。For those who have yet to indulge in Why Women Kill, the series follows the lives of three women from different decades—Ginnifer Goodwin plays a housewife in the '60s, Lucy Liu a socialite in the '80s, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste a lawyer in 2019—and examines how each one deals with infidelity in their marriage.

Responsibilities with children and a lack of romance are also two red flags for people who feel unhappy, Ms. Myres said. “Too much time with family can often trigger someone waking up and realizing, 'This is not what I want for the rest of my life,'” she said. “You'll see an uptick in filings after Valentine's Day and around August,” when children have had summer off and before school starts.

迈尔斯说，对感到不幸福的人来说，照顾孩子的责任和缺乏浪漫也是两个危险信号。“和家人在一起的时间太长，往往会让人醒悟，'这不是我想要的余生，'”她说。“你会发现，在情人节之后以及8月份左右，当孩子们享受暑假和开学前的时期，离婚申请的数量会有所增加。”

表示“危险信号；（用作危险信号的）示警红旗”，英文解释为“If you refer to something as a red flag, you mean that it acts as a danger signal.”

trigger /ˈtrɪɡ.ər/ 1）作动词，除了表示“发动；引起；触发”，英文解释为“to make sth happen suddenly”举个🌰：Nuts can trigger off a violent allergic reaction. 坚果可以引起严重的过敏反应。

2）作名词，表示“扳机”，英文解释为“The trigger of a gun is a small lever which you pull to fire it.”举个🌰：A man pointed a gun at them and pulled the trigger. 一个男人用枪指着他们，扣动了扳机。

类似的还有：

📍stir表示“激发，激起（强烈的感情）；引起（强烈的反应）”，英文解释为“to make someone have a strong feeling or reaction”举个🌰：The poem succeeds in stirring the imagination. 这首诗能够激发起想象力。

📍provoke也表示“激起，引起”，英文解释为“to cause a reaction or feeling, especially a sudden one”，如：provoke debate/discussion 激起辩论/讨论。

📍spur 鼓动；激励；鞭策；刺激；鼓舞”，英文解释为“If one thing spurs you to do another, it encourages you to do it.”举个🌰：It's the money that spurs these fishermen to risk a long ocean journey in their flimsy boats. 是金钱驱使这些渔民驾驶单薄的小船冒险出海远航。

🎬电影《龙之心3：巫师的诅咒》（Dragonheart 3: The Sorcerer's Curse）中的台词提到：To spur the clans to war. 激励部族发起战争。

uptick /ˈʌp.tɪk/ 表示“增长；发展；上升”，英文解释为“an increase in something”举个🌰：An uptick in once-struggling areas could make a significant difference to voters' perceptions of the economy. 贫困地区的经济发展会让选民对经济的看法产生显著的改变。

“It is my firm belief that people get divorced because their expectations were not met,” Ms. Myres said. “Whatever their expectations are. When enough of them are not being met, divorce will happen.”

“我坚信，人们离婚是因为他们的期望没有得到满足，”迈尔斯说，“无论他们的期望是什么。当期望得不到满足时，就会离婚。”

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