作文題目

As countries develop, their populations tend to live individually or in small family units. In your opinion, what is this cause and what are the effects on society.

題目解讀

不少學生看不懂這個題目，如果讀一下4個月之前的題目，也許會有比較準確的了解。Live individual 意味著不結婚，不和父母住一起;small family units指的是丁克夫婦，不要孩子的夫妻。下面題目中的have children late in life是說生孩子晚。這兩道題都是report題型，且都是問原因和結果。
In some countries around the world men and women are having children late in life. What are the reasons for this development? What are the effects on society and family life? 2012.12.08

提綱: 原因 影響
1.城市生活: 流動性大,不穩定
2.養孩子成本上升
3.工作時間長，家庭時間少

1.老齡化，勞動力缺乏，醫療開支增加
2.幸福感降低，孤獨增加
3.傳統文化丟失

范文

In modern society, young people prefer to stay apart from their parents and live alone in a metropolis. Further, they have a tendency of postponing their parenthood until late 30's or even early 40's.
This trend may involve some factors and the most rooted one can be modern urbanized lifestyle which features high level of mobility and instability of economic situation. In addition, young people facing enormous competition and stress at workplace, have to focus on their jobs and therefor have little time for their families. Obviously under such circumstance, committing to a serious relationship or starting a family, which means tremendous responsibility and dedication, is not a preferable choice. Also the extended family is no longer a realistic option and is replaced by the nuclear one. The cost increase of raising a child is another barrier to late parenthood, and this is especially obvious in major cities around the world.
This change of lifestyle can have some negative effects on individuals and the society as a whole. Firstly low birthrates can result in an ageing population and a lack of labor force in the future. Medical care service will be in high demand and medical cost will rise significantly.
Living alone without long term and stable relationships is widely thought to be associated with personal sense of happiness, which would reduce an individual's general satisfaction with life, but increase the sense of isolation.
Traditionally, cultures and values are passed on in family daily life. However, in modern cities, the young generation living away from the older one have little chance to learn any from their parents. Instead, they are being assimilated by globally popular cultures.

詞匯拓展
1. Metropolis 大都市
2. The tendency of 趨勢
3. Postpone 拖延
4. rooted reason 根本原因
5. urbanized lifestyle 城市化的生活方式
6. feature 以..為特征
7. mobility 流動性
8. instability 不穩定性
9. economic situation 經濟狀況
10. enormous = tremendous 巨大的
11. commit to a serious relationship 承諾于嚴肅的愛情關系
12. start a family 生孩子
13. dedication 奉獻
14. late parenthood 晚生孩子
15. extended family 大家庭
16. option = choice選擇
17. nuclear family 小家庭
18. barrier 障礙
19. preferable 更可取的
20. globally popular cultures 全球流行的文化
21. result in 導致
22. ageing population 老齡化
23. labor force 勞動力
24. Medical care service 醫療服務
25. in demand 被需要
26. long term and stable relationship 長期穩定的關系
27. be associated with 與…相關
28. personal sense of happiness 個人的幸福感
29. satisfaction 滿意
30. isolation 孤立
31. Traditionally 傳統上
32. Pass on 傳遞
33. Assimilate 同化
34. Birthrate 出生率