Different countries, different families – but which is better?
IN CHINA during the 1970s, there was a campaign of “One child is good, two are okay, and three are too many.” This was the beginning of the One-Child Policy for people living in towns and cities. People have been able to save money because one child costs much less than two or three children. But these parents do not have children to care for them when they are old and cannot work, because their one child has to take care of his or her own family and has no time or money for his or her parents.
However, in 2007, about 30 delegates asked the government to cancel the One-Child Policy. According to them, it was better for children to grow up in families with more than one child. They are happier and learn to share better when they have brothers and sisters. In 2013 the Chinese government said that families where one parent is an only child could have two children. And then, in 2015, more than 30 years after the beginning of the One-Child Policy, the government cancelled the policy completely. This means that all couples can have two children now.
IN THE USA, Nadya Suleman gave birth to octuplets in 2009. Twins are two babies born at the same time; octuplets are eight. When the
octuplets were born, Nadya already had six children, who were 7, 6, 5, 3 and twins who were 2 years old. Now she had 14 children.
The children lived with Nadya and Nadya’s parents in a three-bedroom house. They had no father.
Angela Suleman, Nadya’s mother, said that the house was full of toys which Nadya had bought. That is all she bought. She didn’t give her mother any money for food or electricity. Text A 课文译文
国不同，家不同——孰优孰劣？
20世纪70年代的中国曾盛行过这样一个运动口号：一个不少，两个正好，三个多了。面向城乡所有居民的独生子女政策就这样开始了。由于一个孩子比两个或者三个孩子的花费要少得多，所以人们能够攒钱，有了积蓄。但是这样的父母一旦老了，无法工作了，就会没有孩子照顾他们，因为此时他们的独生子女要照顾自己的家庭，没有时间和金钱来赡养父母。
2007年30多位代表谏言政府废除这种独生子女政策。他们认为，孩子最好还是在不止一个孩子的家庭中成长。孩子在这种有兄弟姐妹的家庭会更加开心，也会学会分享。
2013年中国政府宣布，凡是父母一方为独生子女的家庭可以生两个孩子。到了2015年，也就是独生子女政策实施30多年以后，政府完全取消了这一政策。这就意味着现在所有夫妇均可以生两个孩子。
在美国，那德亚·苏勒曼2009年生下了八胞胎。双胞胎是指同时生下的两个婴儿。八胞胎就是同时生下八个婴儿。可是，在产下八胞胎之前，那德亚已经有6个孩子了，分别是7岁、6岁、5岁、3岁，还有2个2岁的双胞胎，所以当时她共有14个孩子。
孩子们同那德亚以及那德亚的父母一起生活在一幢三居室的房子里。孩子们没有父亲。
那德亚的母亲安吉拉·苏勒曼说，家里到处都是那德亚买的玩具。她把钱全花在这些玩具上了，没有钱给母亲去支付家中的食物或者水电的费用。
Dentist’s appointment
When John came home on Thursday, his mother told him that she had made an appointment for him with the dentist. It was on Friday at 4 o’clock. John was not happy. He had football training on Fridays and did not have time to go to the dentist.
“Mum, I have told you thousands of times not to make appointments for me!” said John.
“But you were up all night with toothache,” said his mother.
“Mum, I’m 17 years old, so I can make my own appointments. And, I no longer have toothache.”
So before his mother went shopping, she called the dentist and cancelled the appointment.
Half an hour later his father came home. John looked at his father and saw that his hair was very short. His father had been to the hairdresser. They talked about how John’s mother had always made appointments for the two of them. Although John’s father was always happy with this, John didn’t like it so much.
John went up to his room with a bowl of ice cream to do his homework and then chat with his friends on Facebook. He had just finished his ice cream when he felt a pain in his mouth. “Oh, no, the toothache is back,” he thought. He went into the bathroom, found the painkillers and took two. “Perhaps it will be better in the morning,” John said to himself. But that night the pain got worse. John couldn’t sleep. When he returned to the bathroom for the third time he met his mother. “Is there a problem?” she asked. “Can’t you sleep?” Then she saw the bottle of painkillers in his hand.
“Has the toothache come back?” she asked.
“Yes, it has. Maybe that appointment was not a bad idea after all. You didn’t cancel it, did you?” asked John.
“Sorry John, but yes I did. You will have to make a new appointment in the morning.”
In the morning a very tired John rang the dentist and asked for an appointment to see the dentist. The receptionist told him that he could see the dentist next Thursday at 10 o’clock. When John asked for an earlier
appointment, she told him that next Thursday was the first available appointment.
“I have terrible toothache and it is getting more and more painful. Is there nothing you can do? My mother made an appointment for me for this afternoon but I told her to cancel it. And now I really need to see the dentist fast,” John said.
The receptionist checked her appointment book and told John that the appointment his mother had made was still available, so he could come that afternoon. John was relieved. He put the phone down, looked at his mother and said, “This afternoon at 4 o’clock.” Text B 课文译文
预约看牙
约翰周四回到家时，母亲告诉他她给他约好了牙医，预约的是周五下午四点钟。约翰很不高兴，因为他每周五都有足球训练，没时间去看牙医。
“妈妈，我和你说了多少次了，不要为我预约！”约翰说道。 “但是你牙痛得整晚都睡不着。”妈妈答道。
“妈妈，我已经17岁了，自己能预约。再说，我牙又不痛了。” 就这样，妈妈打电话给牙医取消了预约，然后去买东西了。 过了半小时，父亲回来了，约翰看了父亲一眼，说父亲的头发很短。其实父亲去理过发了。父子俩说起约翰妈妈总是为他们俩预约。
高职国际进阶英语综合教程1 unit4课文原文和译文
