“Family”is of course an elastic word．But when British people say that their society isbased on family life，they are thinking of“family”in its nalTow，peculiarly European sense ofmother．father and children living together alone in their own house as aIl economic and socialunit．Thus．every British marriage indicates the beginning of a new and independent family—hence the tremendous importance of marriage in British life．For both the man and the woman，marriage means leaving one’s parents and starting one's OWN life．The man’s first duty will thenbe to his wife．and the wife’s to her husband．He will be entirely responsible for her financialsupport，and she for the running of the new home．Their children will be their common responsi-bility and theirs alone．Neither the wife’s parents nor the husband’s，nor their brothers or sisters，aunts or uncles，have any fight to interfere with them--they are their own masters. Readers of novels like Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice will know that in former times marriage among wealthy families were arranged by the girl’s parents ，that is，it was marriage among weaalthy familieswerearranged by the，girl paraents that，isit thets'd ty tfindsuitable husband for their daughter preferablyrich one and by skillfulencouragement to lead him eventually to ask their permission to malty her．Until that time，thegirl was protected and maintained in．the parents’home，and the financial relief of getting rid ofher could be seen in their giving the newly married pair a sum of money called a dowry.It isvery different today．Most girls of today get a job when they leave school and become financiallyindependent before their marriage．This has had two results．A gin chooses her own husband，and she gets no dowry． 根据以上内容，回答下列各题。 What does the author mean by“family is of Course an elastic word”?