新视野大学英语第三册Book3 Unit9.docVIP

Unit 9 ? Section A Premarital Agreements ? I. Warm-up Activity 1. Topic Discussion i. Student’s Discussion 1) What is a premarital agreement according to the passage? ― A premarital agreement is a contract negotiated by lawyers and signed by the prospective marriage partners before the wedding. 2)What are prunups and who sign them? Premarital agreements -or “prenups”- are mainly designed to deal with financial issues and how assets will be distributed when the event of divorce or death arises. 3) Do you think a premarital agreement is necessary? —This question is open-ended with no right or wrong answers. Yes: Prenups sometimes may help save a couple from a terrible marriage because they can ensure a fair division when divorce occurs and protect one’s personal wealth. No: Prenups sometimes prove to be of no use to some happy marriages because prenuptial agreements seem to be only popular among wealthy people. ? ii. Teacher’s Summary Signing agreements before marriage has become popular in the United States since the 1980’s. Premarital agreements are designed to solve problems like how to divide up financial assets if a couple divorces. Some people are strongly against premarital agreements but others argue that there are several reasons for them: for example, to protect the considerable accumulation of wealth of one of the spouses, to protect children from a previous marriage, to lay bare the responsibilities and save a couple from a terrible marriage, etc. With50% of all marriages in America ending up in divorces, premarital agreements seem to be gaining in acceptance in the United States. How do you think about this issue? Let’s have a further discussion. ? 2. Questions on the Topic and the Passage 1) Why has signing prenups become popular in the US since the early 1980’s? —Because divorce, with its accompanying money problems, is common in the US, and more and more states began passing laws that affected the division of assets in a divorce. 2) What are