Families changing
What does “family” mean to you--- a place of happiness, a house of love, or a shelter from hardship? For a country, families mean more than all of that. A small change in the average family can have a big impact 25______ society.
That’s why the government keeps track of changes in Chinese families. On May 13, it issued the 2015 report on family trends in China, 26______ (cover) 32,494 families across our country.
One of the most significant changes for Chinese families is 27______ they have kept shrinking, from 5.3 people on average 60 years ago to 3.35 today. The family planning policy has played a big role in cutting Chinese families down into 28______ (small) ones. Introduced in the 1970s, the policy has slowed down the growth of the young population and helped cause the older population to make up a larger part of the total.
But this trend has led to new challenges for the country---a shrinking labor force and a growing number of elderly people. 29 ______ (keep) developing rapidly and better support the elderly, almost all provinces and municipalities have given the green light to couples who want to have two children 30______ one of the two parents is an only child.
China’s quick urbanization has also led more of the labor force to move to big cities, creating new types of family. If your parents work in another city, they are part of the country’s recurrent families, 31______ make up 17.2 percent of the total.
But China is by no means the only country that 32______ (see) an increase in the diversity of family types in recent years. The UK, for instance, has the most single-parent families among major countries in Europe.
25.on 26. covering 27. that 28. smaller 29. To keep 30. if 31.which 32.has seen