Passage 2:
There’s a strong prejudice in our society against romantic couples with a considerable age difference.        6    .And when Emmanuel Macron was elected president of France, many eyebrows were raised as it came to light that his wife Brigitte was 24 years older than him. When the topic of age-gap relationships comes up, someone is bound to mention the “half your age plus seven” rule. According to this rule, you take the age of the older person,divide it in half, and then add 7 to determine the youngest age of a person that they can be romantically involved with.
  7      . For instance, an 18-year-old high school senior can date a 16-year-old sophomore, but a 21-year-old college student should only date those 18 and older. But the rule also breaks down at older ages. George Clooney was 53 when he married the 36-year-old Amal, whose age is still above his lower limit of 34.Furthermore, the “half your age plus seven” rule doesn’t explain why people look down on May-December romances.   8     . However, an article recently published by Azusa Pacific University psychologists Brian Collisson and Luciana Ponce de Leon provides our first insight into the reasons behind social prejudice against age-gap relationships.
Collisson and Ponce de Leon started with the hypothesis that people look down on age-gap romances because they perceive them as being unequal.   9   . According to this view, the older partner couldn’t have attracted the younger partner on the basis of looks or personality alone, so they must have enticed them with money or other resources.   10    . But in modern egalitarian societies, the belief that people should marry for love—and love alone—is strong.
(AB) Specifically, the prediction is that people will believe the older partner is getting more out of the relationship than the younger partner is.
(AC) In fact, very little research has been conducted to date on this subject.
(AD) There’s nothing scientific about this rule, but it does reflect the general consensus that age gaps are more important at younger than older ages.
(AE) In traditional societies, it’s not at all unusual for younger women to marry older men who are politically powerful and economically secure.
(BC) Tabloids were abuzz when actor George Clooney announced he was marrying Amal Alamuddin, who is 17 years his junior.
(BD) Such relationships no doubt make irresistible fodder for office gossips or private jokes in social cliques or circles.
【題組】6.