书摘<br/>Task 3 Group Discussion<br/>1. What will you take into account when choosing your partner?<br/>When we are in love with someone, we seldom think about anything else except our own feeling. But if we are to marry someone, we would usually think over what qualities we hope our partners have.<br/>A sense of responsibility tops the list of the qualities that I want my<br/>future partner to have, for it is essential to the maintenance of a stable marriage. Second come honesty and sense of humor, which are of the same<br/>significance, since honesty is the basis for trust, while a sense of humor can<br/>make everyday life more enjoyable, ease the tension in our life and help us gain relaxation from the tense competition outside in society. After these qualities, I believe potential power and intelligence are also important,especially the former. As for some other qualities, such as income, age,height, etc. , they do not mean so much as the previous ones, but it will be better if he/she has a steady income, and his/her age and height can match mine.<br/>Obviously, it is hard to find a person with all these desired qualities.<br/>What we should keep in mind is that we can never attach too much importance to the trivial and material ones and neglect the major ones.<br/>2. Views on divorce <br/>When people get married, nobody would expect their marriage to end up in a divorce. But if the marriage does not have a solid foundation, for example, in the case of arranged marriage or material-oriented marriage, it is very likely for the couple to split up in the end. And sometimes both sides are expecting too much of their marriage but neither of them wants to take any responsibility, then very possibly the two will turn their backs to each other some day.<br/>Some say divorce is the tragedy of a failed marriage, but this is not<br/>necessarily the case. If the couple extremely cannot forbear to live together<br/>and always quarrel or stay in a "cold war", they can choose to separate, because such a situation brings forth lots of problems, unhappy life, ineffective work, bad memory for children, etc.. If so, diyorce offers them an opportunity to end their misery and turn a new leaf in their life. But just as everything has two sides, to get a divorce is to some extent to replace one social problem with other problems. For instance, it results in broken families and may cause misery to both the children and the divorced parents.<br/>The parents' divorce is very terrible to their children. The young will feel lonely, having an incomplete life. They will be in lack of warm love from their parents. All this might make the children become a social problem -- drug addicts, gamblers, gangsters, etc.. In addition, it might cause a mental or psychological illness.<br/>Divorce also has negative effects on the partners. It can make them unhappy and poorer. They'll be easy to get angry. More seriously, it may lead to life failure in weak people, because after they separate to live alone,each person's burden will increase. The situation will be even worse if he/she has to bring up the children.<br/>Therefore, when their marriage is in trouble, the couple should first try to find out the problem and solve it. They have to be understanding and tolerant. Only when they have no other choice, should they carefully consider choosing divorce to be their last resort.<br/>3. Dink family or happy family<br/>The great changes taking place in China in the past decades have led to<br/>great changes in the Chinese family structure. Together with the implementation of population control policy, these changes result in the<br/>disintegration of large extended families, and bring about more and more smaller families such as stem families and nuclear families. In the recent decade, the rapid economic growth and huge influx of western ideas have witnessed the emergence of another type of family -- Dink family, i. e. family with double income but no kids.<br/>Personally, I think Dink family is just a matter of choice. For some couples, they choose not to have kids because they want to devote their efforts to the larger community instead of their own family, just like the way Premier Zhou did in his lifetime. While others do so because they do not believe they can be qualified parents. They feel they could have other alternatives since they are not good at parenthood. And this at least is better than when they find they are incapable of bring up their kids. Of course there are also such people who consider freedom, privacy and leisure more important than becoming parents. They choose to have no children simply because they do not want to be bound to the heavy burden of childcare and the resulting housework. But anyway, it is not so serious a problem as falling away from biological or social norms. It is only people's different choice of their own lifestyle.<br/>However, though the problem of overpopulation is quite serious in China, Dink family is not advisable. One of the main reasons is that the problem of the aging population in our country is also very pressing now. Moreover, most of the couples who choose to live in Dink families are well-educated. This will result in a possible decrease in the overall level of intelligence of the future generations. What's more, many Dink families tend to be less stable than families with kids. Therefore, in present China,one-child family may still be a better choice for most people and the country as well.<br/>……
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