TRANSLATION FOR INTRODUCTION TO UNIT ONE

1. Population, Housing

China has very many social problems, such as the population problem, housing problem, traffic problem, unemployment problem, economic problem and the problem with corruption and so on.

This unit has selected two reports. The first one talks about the population problem.

China has too many people and the population grows too fast. In 1950, the population of China was about 5 hundred millions; thirty years later, in 1982, the population was 1.025 billions, the population having doubled. By 1990, it already surpassed 1.1 billions. Although the Chinese government put forward the one child policy as early as the end of the 70s, but China’s population still grows too fast. In every four and a half people in the world, there is a Chinese. Too big a population greatly affects the standard of living. Production has been continuously developing, but people’s income, on the other hand, increases slowly.

The second piece talks about the housing problem.

Along with the population problem, the housing problem also occurred. In 1980, the average living area per person for Beijing city residents is only 3 point some square meters. Later, many new and tall buildings were built in Beijing. By 1990, the living area reached an average of 6.7 square meters per person. But housing is still not enough, because in the past one household lives in one apartment. Now the kids have grown up and got married. One person alone needs an apartment.

These two problems are very serious. They are problems that are urgently in need of solutions at the present time in China.