Today I'd like to talk about being the family's only child. Some older people look at us with admiration. "You guys are real-ly lucky to be the only kids in your families. You must have everything and you needn't worry about anything. "But one of my neighbors' daughter killed herself last summer because she had a quarrel with her teacher at school. Why is she so fragile? Why are little children in our generation so frail and vulnerable in face of hardship and adversity? I'm afraid this is partly because of 's one-child policy.

Since each family has only one child, the child often gets too much love and attention from the parents and grandparents, which makes him feel like the king of the world and everyone else is his servant. There are lots of spoiled kids now who do not ap-preciate or respect other people, not even their parents who are doing everything they can for the children. Pride and selfishness are what lead these kids to later failures in getting along with oth-er people.

Another problem is that parents are doing too many things, or everything, for the child and, thus, the child becomes so depen-dent that he is quite unable to live without parents' babysitting. A few years ago there was a summer camp which both Chinese and Japanese children took part in. I was really embarrassed to know that Chinese children couldn't cook, wash, bear hardships on their own and they didn't help or think of each other. On the contrary, Japanese children showed great difference. They were more capa-ble in facing difficulties, solving problems and they were more considerate and united.

I think it's really time for all the parents to think about these problems and make a change in the family. Let's take a look a) the eagles. Instead of feeding young eagles for long, old eagles force their children to fly by pushing them to a cliff. Having no choice, young eagles learn to fly quickly. Our parents should also teach children useful skills to live and teach them to love and think not only of themselves but also of others.

Ladies and gentlemen, fathers and mothers, I'm now saying for my generation that we do not want to be vulnerable flowers growing in greenhouses. We want to be strong eagles that can fly and struggle by ourselves!

点评：

This speech for which she won the third place was made by Wang Fei at the National English Speaking Competition final round Beijing.

Her point of view on China's one-child policy is vividly de-scribed in the speech. The comparison between the Chinese chil-dren and Japanese children and the example of the eagles are very convincing. At the end of her speech she said the younger genera-tion wants to be strong eagles instead of vulnerable flowers in greenhouses. This is a forceful ending to support her viewpoint.

指导教师：邹政权