扇贝阅读

More Chinese Youth Opt for Pets to Relive Loneliness

很好的描述当代社会现状的文章，特别是针对当代年轻人的生活状态

An increasing number of Chinese young people have opted for to relieve their stresses and strains of everday life, fueling the fast-growing pet market in the country.

• opt v. - if you opt for something, or opt to do someting, you choose it or decide to do it in preference to anything else.做出抉择，选择
• strain n. - if strain is put on an organization or system, it has to do more than it is able to do. 压力；重担

Pet spending in China surged to about 170.8 billion yuan in 2018 and the figure is estimated to reach 200 billion yuan in 2020, said China Youth Daily in a report.(雅思小作文可以借鉴的句型)

The majority of consumers in the pet market were found to be people born in 1980s or 1990s, with some having spent nearly half of their income on their beloved household animals, the report noted.

• beloved adj. - a beloved person, thing, or place is one that you feel great affection for. 钟爱的；深爱的

The rise of the market has signaled the diversified consumption patterns among young people, and embodied economic growth and social and cultural progress.

• embody v. - to embody an idea or quality means to be a symbol or expression of that idea or quality.表现，体现，代表（思想或品质）

However, soaring pet consumption has also reflected the social problems young people are facing, it said, adding increasing pressure in life and a sense of alienation from society made many young city dwellers turn to pet to ease their growing loneliness.

• alienation（+ from/ of） n. - the feeling of not being part of society or a group 疏离感

Such stress was attributed to excessive working hours and lack of leisure time among young Chinese.

Can Dogs Really Understand What You Tell Them?

While dogs were in the scanners, their owners said a variety of familiar and gibberish words to them.

• gibberish n.- if you describe someone's words or ideas as gibberish, you mean that they do not make any sense. 莫名其妙的话；令人费解的观点