Divorce is the act by which a valid marriage is dissolved, usually freeing the parties to remarry. In regions in (1) ancient (2) authority still predominates, divorce may be (3) and rare, especially when, as among Roman Catholics and Hindus, the religious (4) views marriage (5) indissoluble. Custom, (6) , may make divorce a simple matter in (7) societies. (8) some Pueblo Indian tribes a woman could divorce her husband (9) leaving his moccasins on the doorstep. The (10) of individual determination and mutual (11) are making divorce (12) acceptable in the (13) parts of the world.
Among premodern societies, the rate of marital stability is difficult to (14) (15) the varying definitions of (16) and divorce. It seems to be broadly true (17) wherever divorce is a legal impossibility the wedding is a well-defined event conducted with (18) formality. The (19) principle does not hold true: elaborate marriage ceremonial is quite compatible with high divorce rates. Many anthropologists agree that divorce is generally more permissible in matrilineal societies (20) in patrilineal ones, in which the procreative and sexual rights of the bride are often symbolically transferred to the husband with the payment of bride-price.
18（）
A.less
B.little
C.normal
D.considerable
参考答案：D
解析：
[解题思路] 形容词。less意为“较少的的”；little意为“很少的”；normal意为“正常的”； considerable意为“相当多的”。形容词作定语，看与中心词能否构成合理的修饰关系。后面的中心词是formality，即“正式程度”，如果[A]成立，那么[B]也可以成立，因此都可以排除。而[C]不能修饰正式程度，只能选[D]。这与整个句子的意思也取得了一致，句子说：凡是不能合法离婚的地方，婚礼都非常精细，而且正式。故空白处应该为“相当、非常大”才能与前文“well-defined”构成语义一致。