Part 3 的家庭題幾乎都圍繞一個核心：家庭在變。考官想聽的是你能不能 analyse 這些變化——而不是單純 nostalgically 嘆氣說「以前比較好」。
家庭題的四個切入角度
| 角度 | 題目範例 | |------|----------| | 結構對比 | How are families today different from 50 years ago? | | 代際關係 | Should grown-up children live with their parents? | | 少子化 | Why are people having fewer children? | | 性別角色 | Are gender roles within families changing? |
5 題代表題 + Band 7+ 範例
Q1. How are families today different from 50 years ago?
I'd say the biggest shift is size — the extended family has largely given way to the nuclear family, and even that is shrinking. My grandparents grew up with five or six siblings; my generation mostly has one or none. Generally speaking, that's tied to urbanisation and the cost of raising children, though cultural attitudes have clearly shifted too.
Q2. Why do you think people are having fewer children?
It really depends on the country, but the common factors are remarkably consistent. Arguably the biggest one is economic — housing, childcare and education have all risen much faster than wages. On top of that, women have legitimately wider career options now, and postponing children tends to mean having fewer. It's not a single cause; it's several trends reinforcing each other.
Q3. Should grown-up children live with their parents?
It tends to depend on the culture. In Taiwan and much of East Asia, multi-generational living is still common and often preferred — it helps with childcare and elderly care. In Northern Europe or the US, on the other hand, there's more pressure to move out early as a sign of independence. On the whole I'd say neither model is inherently better; they just reflect different values.
Q4. Are fathers taking on more childcare than before?
Broadly speaking, yes, though the pace is uneven. Surveys consistently show fathers spending more time with children than their own fathers did. That said, the heavy lifting — the mental load, the scheduling — still disproportionately falls on mothers. So the trend is real but incomplete.
Q5. Will the traditional family disappear in the future?
Honestly, I doubt it. I'd say "traditional" is a moving target — what feels traditional now was itself a 20th-century invention. Family is extraordinarily adaptable; its forms change, but the underlying need for close kinship doesn't really. So we'll see more diversity — single-parent families, blended families, chosen families — but "the family" as a concept will persist.
三層結構提醒
Claim — I'd say / Broadly speaking / It depends on the culture...
Reason — because of urbanisation / tied to economics / driven by...
Example — My grandparents had five siblings / Taiwan's TFR is 0.9...主題詞彙（Band 7 級）
| 詞彙 | 中文 | 範例 chunk | |------|------|------------| | nuclear family | 核心家庭 | the shift towards the nuclear family | | extended family | 大家庭 | living with the extended family | | multi-generational household | 多代同堂 | multi-generational households remain common | | blended family | 重組家庭 | blended families are increasingly visible | | single-parent household | 單親家庭 | single-parent households face extra pressure | | declining birth rate | 低生育率 | a rapidly declining birth rate | | ageing population | 高齡化人口 | an ageing population strains services | | childcare burden | 育兒負擔 | the childcare burden is unevenly shared | | mental load | 心理負擔 | the mental load of running a household | | filial piety | 孝道 | filial piety remains culturally central | | empty nest | 空巢 | empty-nest syndrome in older parents | | kinship | 親屬關係 | kinship ties remain strong | | gender roles | 性別角色 | more fluid gender roles at home | | work-family conflict | 工作家庭衝突 | manage work-family conflict | | intergenerational support | 跨世代扶養 | intergenerational support flows both ways |
台灣考生常見陷阱：傳統優於現代
「以前家庭比較好、大家住一起比較溫暖」——這種預設立場會把你鎖在 Band 6。Band 7 的家庭題要能看見每個時代都有自己的優點與代價。
修正：加入「另一面」句型：
Multi-generational households do preserve a lot of warmth and practical support. On the other hand, they can also compress people into roles they never chose — daughters-in-law traditionally carried enormous unpaid labour, which is something we tend to romanticise away.