It is most difficult for parents to decide whether to have a second child or not.

It is often heard that a single child is like to be a lonely child. There are no other children in the family for the child to talk or play with. An only child is not able to get along well with children of his age. Some parents regretted making the decisions to have only one child.

But the number of parents choosing to have only one child is increasing in many parts of the world. In the US, for example, more than 14 percent of women between 18 and 34 plan to have just one child. The same can be seen in the UK. In Japan, the average number of children born per family had gone down to 1.42 by 1996.

For some single-child parents, especially who are busy working every day, time and energy seem to be overwhelming. They don’t have enough time and energy to share with more children. For other people, money is their first consideration. Many couples in Japan choose not to have large families as the cost of supporting a child up to the age of 18 reaches around US＄160,000.

Teenage life — better now, or in the past?

Does this situation sound familiar (熟悉)?

You are complaining (抱怨)to your parents about something. Maybe your computer isn’t powerful enough to play the latest games. 【小题1】 Then you hear...

When I was your age, there weren’t any computers or video games. And I didn’t get a bike until I was sixteen. And it was second-hand. 【小题2】

So, is it really true that life is better for teenagers now? It is certainly true that many teenagers have got more things nowadays. 【小题3】 So parents have got more money to spend on each child. And many things are cheaper than they were when our parents were children.

【小题4】   Thirty years ago, no one could imagine a world with tiny computers and amazing smartphones. And now these things are necessary-we can’t imagine living without them!

However, technology often means we spend more time at home. And often it’s just us, with our computer or television. Teenagers don’t do enough exercise. 【小题5】 some people think teenagers today don’t have so many social activities as they did in the past.

What do you think? How is teenage life better these days?

Wang Xiaojun is 13 years old. He lives in the countryside in Sichuan. Today is his birthday. His parents prepare a nice dinner for him, but the boy says, “I won’t have the dinner because after the dinner, today is over, and my parents are going to Shenzhen tomorrow. I don’t want to let them go.”

Wang Xiaojun has the birthday with his parents for the first time in the past three years. Three years ago, his parents went to Shenzhen to work. They stayed and worked there for three years. Tomorrow they have to go back to Shenzhen.

Wang is not the only stay-at-home child. In the countryside of China, there are many children staying at home without (没有) their parents. Stay-at-home children have a lot of problems. Most of them stay with their grandparents. Some of them don’t study well because their parents can’t help them with their study.

The Chinese government (政府) now is trying to solve (解决) their problems.