With the deepening¹ of the aging of society, there are a growing number of empty-nesters, which has become a social problem can not be ignored. When the children leave home due to reasons such as work, study, marriage, leaving their middle-aged² parents at home, empty-nesters will produce the symptoms of mental disorders³, known as the family “empty-nest”syndrome.

随着社会老年化的加深，空巢老人的数量也越来越多，这已经成为了不容忽视的社会问题。当孩子们由于工作，学习，婚姻等原因离开家，留下中年父母在家的时候，空巢老人产生精神障碍症状，也称为家庭“空巢”综合征。

Some empty-nesters can live a good life after retire, especially those in city. Most of them live in the same city with their children so that they can visit each other often. Besides, they can participate in various group activities. For example, some middle-aged people attend to universities for the elderly for further study, while others join the choir⁴ or some other public service activities. By these activities, empty-nesters can eliminate⁵ of loneliness and realize their own values.

有的空巢老人退休后可以过上很好的生活，尤其是那些城市里的。他们大部分都和孩子住在同一个城市，这样就可以经常看望彼此。此外，他们还可以参加各种各样的集体活动。比如，有的中年人参加老年大学进一步进行学习，而其他人则参加合唱团喝着一些其他公共服务活动。通过参加这些活动，空巢老人可以消除孤独，意识到自己的价值。

While in rural⁶ area, situations get worse. Most young people work in city, leaving their elderly parents at home to take care of themselves. In rural area, there are much less activities for elderly so that they are busy with the farm work all the day. And some elderly look after their grand-children, which is the main task for elderly in the country.

From the description above, we can know that some elderly people can live a good life although they’re empty-nesters. However, it’s our responsibility to care for our parents and our care is what they really need in life. So, no matter how busy you are, remember to care about them, talk to them frequently.

而在农村地区，情况越来越糟。大部分年轻人在城市工作，把他们年长的父母留在家让他们自己照顾自己。在农村地区，老年活动更少，因而他们一整天都忙于农活。而且有的老人要照看孙子，这成为了农村老人的一项主要任务。从以上的描述我们可以知道，有的老人可以过得很好，尽管他们是空巢老人。然而，照顾老人是我们的责任，他们生活上真正需要的是我们的照顾。因此，不管你有多忙，记得要照顾他们，经常和他们聊天。