美国社会与文化

1. In my presentation, I think I have done my best to present it well. At first, I collect

the content of my presentation through the Internet and other English Books. It includes not only the topics of our text book, but also the topic I’m interested in. And I organize the content in logical order. Secondly, I try to make my PPT briefer with little words and many pictures. Thirdly, I have checked the expression of my presentation many times to avoid grammatical mistakes. After the presentation, I think I was nervous and didn’t show my opinions clearly enough to make them understood. But in the process of my preparation, I have learned what the social problems are in America. What’s more, I have realized that everything has its causes. If we want to solve the problem in the long run, we should first realize the root causes, and try to change the causes. It should be the most effective way to settle the matter. If I have to do it again, I may add the laws and strategy of drug control in different countries. And I may add the high divorce rate. The current situation and the causes and effects of it.

2. I would like to choose “American family” as my new topic. First, in my opinion, if we want to have a better understanding of a society, it’s necessary to look into the basic unit of the society. That is family. Second, since I was young, I have heard that in the American family, children always have freedom to choose what they want to do. Sometimes they even have the courage to argue with their parents. I felt that amazing! So I prefer to work on the topic. Third, nowadays more and more Americans start to pay attention to their family conception. And many new terminologies about family and marriage have brought out. So we

should keep a watchful eye on why these changes happened. That’s the reason why I choose the topic. In our textbook, it tells us many useful aspects. First of all, it shows us the nature of family. That includes what a family is( the traditional definition and the modified definition) and the changing perception of family that is introduced in the chronological order. The second part “changing family structure and patterns” shows us the traditional family structure with relatively singular family pattern (kinship, extended family and nuclear family) and the changing American family structure (family formation, childbearing and family dissolution). In the third part, it tells us diverse patterns of contemporary families and intimate relationships. These patterns includes singlehood, postponing marriage, cohabitation, dual-earner marriages, egalitarian family, comparing two-parent and one-parent households, stepfamilies and gay and lesbian marriages. In the fourth part, the class and families is recommended. First, it tells us what the conception of the social class is and the changes in the social class. Then it divides the society into three classes: upper-class, middle class and the working class. And putting families in the class, the context provide us a structural dimension in looking at different families in the United States. And in the fifth part, it discusses the child-related family issues, such as abortion and the teen pregnancy and unmarried motherhood. In the sixth part, the context shows us many family problems in the United States. The problems are divorce and remarriage, violence (between husband and wife, child abuse), work and family inequality. When it shows us these problems, it also gives us the some factors

that contribute to them. In the seventh part, the context gives us eleven points that a majority of Americans consider as “the family values”. Some are traditional values and others are a blend of traditional and newer, more expressive values. In the following part, it shows us the future of the family in United States. It argues whether the family is going to die and what American family will be like in the future. And it also provides us with many evidences. In the last part, it shows us a very serious social problem—the old age. In this part, it first shows the causes of an aging society, like the continued mow fertility rate and the ever-greater life expectancy rate and the baby boom generation reaching old age. Then it gives us the problems of the elderly, such as health, physical and psychological abuse, housing and the problems of transition and finance. In the end, it provides several solutions to these problems from different aspects( social security, health care, medicare and Medicaid, Old American Act and the alternative care trends). All above is what the context says about it. And I think we can also study the topic from how Americans educate their children, how they treat their marriage and what they think the sense of family responsibility. And also we can discuss the topic from the children’ view. For example, how they consider the parents’ divorce and how they feel like their education and how they often plan their family vacation and so on. Those are much interesting and we can give many examples for each detail. And we can also add some laws about divorce and protecting children to make our research grounded. During the research, I have learned much information about family in the United States.

The changing trends in marriage and family, the different attitude about family and marriage. What’s more, I know the diversification of the American family.