Bài hát: Listening Practice Through Dictation CD 4-23 - V.A

Unit 23 American Families Today
W: American families today are very different
from what they were about a hundred years ago. The main dif erence is that families are now much smaller. In the past, most families lived on
farms. They needed children to help them work.Today, most families live in cities. Parents do
not expect their children to work for them. It is also becoming very expensive to raise and educate
children. Many parents cannot af ord to have a
large family. Others think that there are already
too many people in the world. If they have more
than two children, it wil increase the population. Also, the types of families are changing. Statistics show that there are more single parents than ever before. More and more unmar ied couples are having children, and a growing number of couples are choosing to have no children at al . Traditional families- a married
couple with children- live in less than 25 percent of al US homes. One reason for this trend is the greater number of working women. In the past, women
depended on their husbands for money. Now, many women have jobs. They don’t have to be married to have money. Another reason is divorce. This is when a husband and wife decide not to be married anymore. Almost half of al
US marriages end in divorce. Many people decide not to get married at al . They prefer to
be single and live without a husband or a wife.