作文题目

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.

题目解读

不少学生看不懂这个题目，如果读一下4个月之前的题目，也许会有比较准确的了解。Live individual 意味着不结婚，不和父母住一起;small family units指的是丁克夫妇，不要孩子的夫妻。下面题目中的have children late in life是说生孩子晚。这两道题都是report题型，且都是问原因和结果。
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

提纲: 原因 影响
1.城市生活: 流动性大,不稳定
2.养孩子成本上升
3.工作时间长，家庭时间少

1.老龄化，劳动力缺乏，医疗开支增加
2.幸福感降低，孤独增加
3.传统文化丢失

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.

词汇拓展
1. Metropolis 大都市
2. The tendency of 趋势
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..为特征
7. mobility 流动性
8. instability 不稳定性
9. economic situation 经济状况
10. enormous = tremendous 巨大的
11. commit to a serious relationship 承诺于严肃的爱情关系
12. start a family 生孩子
13. dedication 奉献
14. late parenthood 晚生孩子
15. extended family 大家庭
16. option = choice选择
17. nuclear family 小家庭
18. barrier 障碍
19. preferable 更可取的
20. globally popular cultures 全球流行的文化
21. result in 导致
22. ageing population 老龄化
23. labor force 劳动力
24. Medical care service 医疗服务
25. in demand 被需要
26. long term and stable relationship 长期稳定的关系
27. be associated with 与…相关
28. personal sense of happiness 个人的幸福感
29. satisfaction 满意
30. isolation 孤立
31. Traditionally 传统上
32. Pass on 传递
33. Assimilate 同化
34. Birthrate 出生率