My Family
My name is 伤心未必要哭泣. I am from a worker's family. There are six people in my family. They are my grandfather, my grandmother, my father, my mother, my sister and I.
Every member in my family works for his or her own trade①. My grandfather and grandmother are peasants. They do farm work every day in my hometown. My father is a senior engineer. He is now working in Africa, helping to build a power station. My mother is a teacher. She teaches English in a middle school. My sister, five years older than I, is a doctor in the People's Hospital of our county. She loves her work and does it well. I am a middle school student. And I am going to take this year's college entrance examination. I wish that I could be enrolled② by a famous university.
That is my family. All the members in my family live in harmony③. We love each other devotedly

【词语解释】
① for one's own trade 各专其事
② enrol(l)[in'r ul] v．招收；录取
③live in harmony 和睦相处
【写法指要】
这是一篇介绍家庭概况的说明文。写这类文章时要把家庭每个成员的情况都予以介绍。引言段总说家庭的组成，扩充段分别介绍各个成员的概况。通常，按由老到少的顺序陈述。本文扩充段第一句是段落主题句。结尾段总是写“和睦相处”、“相亲相爱”、“幸福美满”等吉利的话语。

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　　In the past, people made great use of their extended families to help improve their lives. However, this is not the case anymore as extended families are clearly less important now than they used to be.

　　These days, it is much easier for a person to live alone and not rely upon any family members for help. In the past, extended family members were crucial to people’s survival since most of them lived on farms and needed much physical labor to cultivate the land. But this is not the case nowadays. For example, my uncle lives alone in a big city and works for a bank. Most of his work involves dealing with figures, reports, and records. He gets paid enough to make a living. He does not require any of his family members’ assistance to “survive.” This is a tremendous change from times in the past.

　　Furthermore, while people often relied upon extended family members to take care of various household chores in the past, this is simply not the case anymore. Instead, people can employ various services to take care of all their needs. In the past, a grandmother or aunt might have helped to take care of the children in a family. However, parents now merely send their children to daycare centers. This is what my parents did for us when my brother and I were growing up. Duties and chores once done by extended family members are being replaced by people in paid positions.

　　Finally, most extended family members live too far away from one another to be of any use both in general and in times of need. A person who is not around cannot have any influence on the other members of his or her family. While my grandparents are wonderful, loving people, they live several hours away from us. We typically only see them on holidays or occasions like weddings or funerals. They have virtually no influence on me or anyone in my family. While this was not the case in the past, it is definitely true for many people today.

　　In conclusion, because people can survive living alone, can employ others to do important chores, and do not live close to many extended family members, it is clear that extended family members are not nearly as important as they once were. Additionally, I find it likely that this trend will continue and that extended family members’ influences will continue to decrease.