大学英语（3）教学：教参3第3课final.docVIP

Unit 3 Social Problems Useful Information As societies change and develop, many problems emerge. Change itself can be a social problem if it occurs too quickly. This is sometimes called the problem of “future shock”. One of the greatest problems of developing societies is the problem of overpopulation. As advances in medicine, nutrition, and technology increase the average lifespan, birth rates do not decrease rapidly enough, and the result is overpopulation. The world’s current population of about six billion people is likely to double in the next 20 to 30 years, and the additional people are most likely to be found in mushrooming urban areas where other social problems abound. One of the greatest problems of developed societies is the problem of pollution. As the rapid production of consumer goods creates excessive waste products, the disposal of the wastes becomes more difficult, and the result is pollution. Factory wastes and emissions from factories or vehicles add to the problem. At the same time key resources such as oil are rapidly depleted, and some of them cannot be renewed or replaced. There are several problems that affect almost all societies. Poverty and crime exist in the most advanced industrial societies as well as in developing societies, but they may take very different forms. If most of a society’s members are relatively poor, it may not seem as unjust as it does when homeless people exist alongside billionaires, and it is hard to compare a bicycle thief with a Mafia boss. A society which gives young people ready access to drugs, guns, and cars is more likely to have delinquent gangs than a society which has fewer such temptations or promotes greater parental control. Some social problems are quite old. There has always been social inequality, though the current extent of economic stratification may be increasing. There has always been prejudice, though laws forbidding discrimination against ethnic minorities and others are quite recent. S