The survey, “Sex and Sexuality of Chinese 2000-06”, which was released this week, found that roughly two-thirds of people said premarital sex was “acceptable” today.

The survey, conducted by the Institute of Sexuality and Gender at the Renmin University of China and financed by the Ford Foundation, polled more than 6,000 people aged 18-61 from 21 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities across the country.

报道中说，中国人民大学性社会学研究所发布的《中国人的性行为与性关系：历史发展2000-2006》调查报告显示，接受调查的6000多人中，有2/3的人接受婚前性行为。

这里的“premarital sex”指的就是“婚前性行为”。“Premarital”是一个合成词，“marital”是“婚姻的”意思，“pre-”是常见的前缀，意思是“在……之前”，合在一起就是“婚前的”意思。类似的带前缀“pre-”的词还有“pre-tax”（税前的）、“preadolescent”（青春期前的）和“precollege”（进大学前的、大学预科的）等。

此外，“婚前性行为”还可以用“sex before marriage”来表达。如：Women's tolerance of sex before marriage had also increased greatly. （女性对婚前性行为的态度也更加宽容了。）