3．3. 3 Compare and Analyze比较与分析
①In addition，one class of family reasons shares a border with the following category，namely，having children in order to maintain or improve a marriage;to hold the husband or occupy the wife;to repair or rejuvenate the marriage;to increase the number of children on the assumption that family happiness lies that way．The point is underlined by its converse: in some societies the failure to bear children(or males)is a threat to the marriage and a ready cause for divorce．
Beyond all that is the profound significance of children to the very institutions of the family itself．To many people，husband and wife alone do not seem a proper family—they need children to enrich the circle，to validate its family character，to gather the redemptive influence of offspring．②Children need the family，but the family seems also to need children，as the social institution uniquely available，at least in principle，for security，comfort，assurance，and direction in a changing，often hostile，world．
①此外，还有一些家庭方面的原因与下面的这种动机有关，也就是想通过生孩子来维持或改善婚姻状况;或者是用孩子来拴住丈夫或妻子;或者是通过生孩子来修复婚姻或给婚姻注入活力;或者是因为有多子多福的想法，所以想多生孩子。这种愿望可以从相反的情况得到强调:在某些社会中，如果夫妻不育或不能生育男孩，就会对婚姻产生威胁，也可以成为离婚的正当理由。
除了上述所有原因以外，人们还认为生育后代对家庭制度至关重要。对很多人来说，只有丈夫和妻子的家庭似乎是不健全的，还需要有孩子来丰富家庭的生活，体现家庭的特点，并且孩子会对婚姻产生补偿作用。②孩子需要家庭，但家庭好像也同样需要孩子，养育后代似乎是一种独特的社会习俗。至少从原则上说，只要遵从这种社会习俗，即使人们生活在多变而险恶的环境中，也能够得到安全感，获得慰藉，增强信心，并使自己的生活有明确的目标。
Notes:①The original sentence contains a series of coordinate infinitive phrases which are used to express the different reasons of having children．These infinitives are translated into a string of short Chinese clauses which are linked by a repetition of“或者” ．
②The original long sentence contains two coordinate main clauses．The second one is far more complex than the first one．So it is divided into several meaningful groups according to its structure : “but the family seems…” ，“as the social…” ，“at least in principle” ，“for security，comfort” ，etc．And each is translated into a Chinese clause．Notice that in this process，new words are added to make the expressions more complete in meaning，such as “获得慰藉” ，etc．Besides，the word order of the original sentence is also partially altered to suit to the linguistic habit of Chinese．