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  3. The following two excerpts are about the practice of renting boyfriends

The following two excerpts are about the practice of renting boyfriends

游客2024-11-06  11
问题         The following two excerpts are about the practice of renting boyfriends and girlfriends for the Chinese New Year. From the excerpts, you can find that there is some opposition to this practice.
        Write an article of NO LESS THAN 800 words, in which you should:
        1. summarize the main ideas of both excerpts, and then
        2. express your opinion towards the practice, especially whether it is a good way to solve the problems.
Excerpt 1
        Renting a girlfriend or boyfriend for the Chinese New Year and taking her or him to meet the parents, is a practice that reveals the dating difficulties some Chinese experience and it also indicates about some features of parent-child relationship in China.
        "Rent a girlfriend to take home for the new year", also translated more simply to "rent-a-date", is a hot topic in China for already a decade. This year, this practice seems to be discussed less compared to previous years, though this is not because the scope of the phenomenon has been reduced, but rather because few people are surprised by it.
        The term can be modified to "rent a boyfriend" instead, and "new year" could be replaced by other big holidays. This practice, as the name implies, is basically finding a date, who would be willing, for a decent salary, to accompany one to visit his parents during the holiday.
        The main reasons expressed when justifying this practice are located on the line between showing filial piety, making parents less worried, and avoiding their constant nagging for a change. These objectives are more intense in more "traditional" families, whereas early marriage is promoted, though evidence show that "rent-a-date" is also quite common in developed urban societies and even among the middle class. Being a single child in the modern society is quite a burden also when it comes to parents’ marriage expectations.
Excerpt 2
        A booming market has emerged where women or men offer their services of being the perfect partner for a day. Renting a girlfriend or boyfriend for Chinese New Year has become a solution for many who don’t want to face another year of annoying questions about their (non-existent) love life. While men looking for a fake girlfriend often have concerns about her trustworthiness and whether or not their parents will like her, the women offering their services also have their worries. One woman interviewed by People’s Daily says that she first talks with potential clients to see what their expectations are. She makes it very clear that she will not share a bed with him, she says, as some customers have "inappropriate wishes".
        Renting a girlfriend for the holidays temporarily solves one problem. But since the most dreaded questions for Chinese New Year also include those on whether or not you own a car, have a house, got a raise, passed your exams, and are planning on children or are pregnant yet, we can only wonder if these kinds of Chinese New Year services will come to include more "fake it" until you make it possibilities. Rent a baby, anyone?
选项
答案                                                                         Fake It Till You Make It?
        The Spring Festival is a time for family reunions. As excited as they may be about returning home, many Chinese singletons are dreading the inescapable question from their parents and relatives: "When are you getting married?" To deflect all the unwanted attention, some of them have come up with a funny way — renting a date to bring home. This phenomenon actually underscores the mounting pressure on most single people, which is caused by the difference in attitudes and expectations about marriage between parents and their post-80s children. Despite the boom in the partners rental business, this practice is doubted by many people in terms of trustworthiness and safety. In my opinion, renting a date is far from being a permanent solution to the marital problem.
        Children hire boyfriends or girlfriends to please their parents over the holidays and to make their own lives easier, but actually that can achieve the exact opposite to the planned purpose. The parents will be upset to hear a few months later about the inevitable breakup. Besides, as the agreements signed by the two parties involved on boyfriend or girlfriend rentals are not protected by law, disputes may occur. There is a real case where a man had a dispute with his fake girlfriend over the red packets she accepted from his family. Unfortunately, his parents found out the whole thing and it caused a lot of family conflicts. Apart from the potential unpleasantness, renting partners is unlikely to solve the deeper issues behind the phenomenon. What we really expect to see is that the gender ratio between Chinese men and women will become more balanced, and the traditional ideas about marriage will undergo serious transformations.
        Although young people understand very well that fake relationships are at odds with the seriousness of love, they are willing to take a risk because they are under so much pressure. The only way to stop all this chaos is if parents learn to chill out and stop pressuring their kids about marriage, relationship and all the other minutiae of their lives.
解析         材料围绕时下热议的“租男（女）朋友回家过年”的话题，提供了两个选段，主要从租男（女）朋友回家过年出现的原因和这一做法的隐患两方面进行分析。
        选段一指出，这一做法的原因主要是找对象不容易（the dating difficulties），孩子不想面对亲友对其感情生活的压力（don’t want to face…love life）；而且出于孝心（filial piety），孩子不想让父母担心（making parents less worried）。
        选段二指出，这一做法对于男女双方都存在隐患，对男性客户而言，他要考虑假女友的可信度（trustworthiness），而假女友也会担心客户提出不恰当的要求（inappropriate wishes），自身的安全性缺乏保障。
        此外，最根本的问题在于这一做法只是一时之计（temporarily），这个谎言将衍生更多的谎言（include more “fake it”），最后甚至可能得租个“孩子”来圆谎。
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