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  3. Just like a lot of other nations in the world, China is entering an aging era

Just like a lot of other nations in the world, China is entering an aging era

游客2024-11-08  1
问题    Just like a lot of other nations in the world, China is entering an aging era demographically. How serious is this problem and what can we do to tackle it? Read the excerpt carefully and write your response in NO LESS THAN 300 WORDS, in which you should;
   1.   summarize briefly the author’s opinion;
   2.   give your comment.
   Marks will be awarded for content relevance, content sufficiency, organization and language quality. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
   Write your article on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.
   Excerpt
                                                  Aging
   Liu Caiping is a former teacher, now 71, who has lived alone in Xi’an since her husband died last year. The radio is her steadfast companion. Her eyesight is failing and she rarely goes out. Like many city residents, her former neighbors have scattered, and her two daughters are far away. When she can no longer live alone she will go to a nursing home, she says. That option remains extremely rare for old Chinese. And that highlights the problem: China is struggling to cope with a rapidly aging society and a rising number of elderly people living by themselves.
   For most of the past two millennia the family has been central to how Chinese have seen themselves— and the state has been seen as a family writ large. Filial piety was somewhere near the heart of a Confucian order regulating society, and the family was an extended, stable unit of several generations under one roof. A very common saying encapsulated it all: yang er fang lao—"raise children for your old age".
   Today multi-generation families are still the norm. Almost three-fifths of people over 65 live with their children, a higher proportion than that in most rich countries. Yet things are changing fast. Increasingly, parents are living apart from their children—and when one spouse dies, as with Ms. Liu, the other often lives alone. A fifth of all single-person households in China are made up of over-65-year-olds. In contrast to younger Chinese living alone, few elderly do so by choice. Many are poorly educated. Women predominate, because they tend to outlive their husbands.
   China is unprepared for the consequences of solo dwelling among the elderly. Government policy enshrines the idea that families should live together and provide for the old and others unable to look after themselves. Despite efforts to extend pensions and other social protection, provisions fall far short because the state assumes offspring will help the old and sick. The welfare system is ill-equipped to help the elderly living alone.
   State financial support has improved in the past decade, but many millions of elderly Chinese still have no pension or retirement income. Health care insurance is increasingly widespread, but usually covers only the basics. Rural areas lag far behind cities in the provision of pensions and health care for the old.
   By 2025 nearly one in four Chinese will be over 60. China’s one-child policy has made a mockery of yang er fang lao—fewer among the younger generation are around for the old to move in with, a trend reinforced by starting families later. By 2050 there are likely to be just 2. 5 working-age adults for every person over 65, down from eight today. Chinese born in the boondocks who migrate to far-off cities in search of work cannot easily take older family members with them even if they want to.
   Despite the challenges, many in China still regard responsibility towards their family as a defining feature of their culture. Not much difference with other countries there. But the expectation of filial piety means that those who are not recipients of it often feel ashamed or isolated. Many are reluctant to seek help from neighbors when they need it, for instance.
   The government acknowledges the problem. When it relaxed the one-child policy, one reason it cited was a growing number of elderly singletons. Some enterprising local governments have introduced schemes aimed at the lonely old. But with a weak social-safety net, little support is in place when families fail to help those living alone.
选项
答案    Aging
   Statistics tell that China is entering an aging era. Once boasting for its filial piety, Chinese society puts the burden of provision for the old on each family. The previous family plan, the current late marriages and the migration away from homes make this task hard to achieve. Despite some pensions and social protection, provisions still fall short to help the old and the solo-dwellers in particular. Schemes are urgently needed to help the elderly or we’ll face a bleak future.
   January 1, 2016 did not only summon the coming of a new year, but also a new policy which says farewell to the family planning in China. Nowadays, Chinese couples are allowed a second child.  One aim of this newly-baked policy is to quench the population crunch. It means the aging problem has been more pressing than expected.
   Once a virtue adored for thousands of years in Chinese culture, the catchword "raise children for your old age" incurs a mixture of feelings due to a spate of reasons. First, many parents live apart from their children. Second, sandwiched between two generations, the middle-aged find themselves inadequate to take care of both. Third, the rising life expectancy, combined with the stingy pensions and provisions for the old makes life especially hard for the elderly.
   To solve this problem, efforts from all sides must be made. But first and foremost, instead of unfairly imposing responsibility solely on the next generation, our nation should do more to dispel the twilight mood. For example, a stronger social-safety network should be built to cover the basic needs of the old. Moreover, health care and pensions should be raised steadily in correspondence with the rising living costs.
   After all, " the working young and the idle old" is our mutual dream. After a whole life’s ferocious dedication to our nation, we deserve a comfortable old life rather than senseless torpor in pauperism.
解析    本题探讨的是中国的老龄化问题，属于社会生活类话题。题目要求简要概括材料中作者的观点，并发表自己的评论。在具体行文方面，考生可以开篇点题，简要概括材料中的观点；然后提出自己对这一问题的看法并给出足够的论据支撑；最后总结全文，重述论点或者升华主题。
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