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The problems of the elderly are attracting greater attention largely because the American population is growing steadily older as the proportion of its aged members increase. At the time of the first United States census in 1790, half of the people in the country were 16 or younger. By the turn of the present century the median age (年龄中值) of the population had risen to 22.9 years; by 1970, it was 27.7; and by 1977, it had reached 28.9; the median age will reach 35 by the year 2000, and had reached approach 40 by the year 2030. In time, the burden of the years affects even the healthiest individual. Aging is accompanied by physiological changes: apart from the more obvious signs of age—such as baldness, wrinkling, changes in body form, and stiffness (僵硬) of limbs—there is a general process of atrophy (萎缩) of the cells and gradual degeneration (退化). However, the rate of physiological aging varies greatly from one person to another. Some people show noticeable signs of aging as early as fifty. Others seem relatively young and vital at seventy. In general, however, ill health becomes more common with advancing age. They suffer from some chronic health condition. But ill health need not have only physiological causes; it can have social and psychological causes as well. People tend to follow social expectations to fill the roles that are offered to them. In a sense, all we offer the aged is a sick role—the role of the weak person who has outlived his or her usefulness to society. Unlike the elders in a traditional society, the American aged would no longer lay automatic claim on their kin for support and social participation. They are unwilling to do so. On the contrary, they are more likely to have to try not to be a “nuisance” to their now independent adult offspring. In America, childhood is romanticized, youth is idolized, middle age does the work, has the power and pays the bills, and old age gets little or nothing for what it has already done. For many elderly Americans, old age is a tragedy, a period of quiet despair.【缺少答案,请补充】
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