亲爱的微友：

我在前面的雅思备考经验中提到过，世上最艰难的事莫过于下定决心写一篇雅思作文。从前我练习雅思作文的时候，常常会眼看着一道题目脑子一片空白连续发呆一个小时。

直到现在依然如此。每次写公众号推文的时候，开头总是一气呵成，但只要思路稍有堵塞，就会把鼠标移到浏览器漫无目的地闲逛去了。写中文尚且这样，更别提半天蹦不出一个词的英文了。

所以，对我等拖延癌晚期患者而言，练习雅思作文真的是需要人督促的。今天我就来督促督促你——从现在开始，我每周带头写一篇雅思作文，考雅思的你也请在文章下方赞赏或者留言以示决心（点赞只算点赞，不算决心，因为看不到名字），然后毫不犹豫地动笔写作去。

移民成功的我都还在苦练英文，你还有什么借口虚掷光阴？

下面是今年4月8日的大陆考题：

In some countries, people are having children at a later age in life. What are the reasons? Do the advantages outweigh disadvantages?

我的答案是这样的：

People used to start giving birth to children in early twenties, but married couples nowadays, especially those in developed countries, tend to consider having children in their late twenties or thirties.

There are three reasons for this social shift. The first one is that university education has been readily accessible to most families. As a result, most young people spend their early twenties studying instead of working as their parents did, and thus begin their career at a later age. This consequently delays their marriage and maternal or paternal age. Secondly, many young people prefer to live and work in urban areas where the cost of living is huge and the pressure of work is high. The prospect of devoting an enormous amount of money and time to rearing a baby deters them from bringing the baby to the world. Finally, it is no longer a social norm for couples to have children immediately after getting married. Such social pressure reduced, many couples choose to enjoy a life without having to look after children when they are young.

I believe that putting off parenthood for a few years has more benefits than drawbacks. It is true that older first-time mothers tend to suffer more health problems than their younger equivalents, but this concern is being addressed by increasingly developed medical care systems. On the other hand, couples in their late twenties or thirties are often economically better off after years of work, which means their children can be better provided for their development. What’s more, while young women used to give up their career for the sake of taking care of children, now they are becoming more productive in workplace, which helps to improve gender equality.

In conclusion, the trend of having children at a later age stems from the development of education, economy and social values. Despite some health worries for older mothers, I think this is shaping our world in positive ways.

许久没写，这一篇300字的文章花了我两个小时。所以平常练习的时候也并不需要纠结写作速度，哪怕花上四五个小时写一篇高质量的文章，也好过每次花四十分钟低水平重复自己。

如果有什么错误，也请不吝指出哦。

祝五一愉快

荞爸