Passage Two
　　Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
　　A recent study shows that sixteen out of every 100 American couples have violent confrontations of one sort or another during the course of a year. In six of these cases there is severe kicking, biting, punching or hitting with objects. Almost four of every 100 wives are seriously beaten by their husbands. three of every 100 children are kicked or punched by their parents. More than a third of all brothers and sisters severely attack each other.
　　As expected, the incidence of violence is highest among the urban poor (many of them minorities), blue-collar workers, people under 20 or without religious beliefs, families with a husband who is jobless and those with four to six children. But the study also showed that violence occurs among wealthy families as well. Indeed, the wife of a university president once quietly called Straus, one of the sociologists who conducted the study, to ask what she could do about her husband, who often beat her.
　　Straus suggested seeking assistance from marriage advisors. Straus and his colleagues found out that there are various root causes that give rise to such behavior."The reason are mixed –psychological, sociological, situational," says Straus."The husband, for example, may feel under particular stress because be has been out of work too long. Violence may also be an echo of the past," Straus explains."When Mummy gives her two-year-old a slap(巴掌)for putting something dirty in his mouth, he is learning from infancy that those who love you hit you." Another reason may be the worsening economic situations."If we have a real economic decline, It's going to get worse," says Gelles, one of Straus’ colleagues.
　　These sociologists have no easy answer to violence in the American family. While they welcome such move as the opening of shelters for beaten wives and the establishment of a National Center for Child Abuse and Neglect, they believe that there must be more basic attack on violence,including the reduction of "macho"(大男子主义)themes on the television,the outlawing of physical punishment in schools and perhaps even the elimination of death sentences. As Straus explains,"Violence is an acceptable solution to problems in American society. And that is how it is used in families.