Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: The most important problems affecting our society today can be solved within our lifetime.

Predicating the future is notoriously difficult. However, it is not difficult to foretell that the most important problems affecting our society today cannot be solved within our lifetime.

First and foremost, poverty cannot be eradicated within our lifetime. Poverty has existed since the beginning of civilization and generations of people have declared war on poverty; however, despite all the effort, many people around the world still have trouble getting access to basic necessities of life--even in the most developed and affluent countries like America, there are still approximately 39.8million people living below the poverty line, let alone the less developed countries like Ethiopia where about 44 percent of the population is chronically or at least periodically food insecure. Worse, because of climate change and economic crisis, more families are suffering and hunger is seen growing worldwide.

Besides, wars, big or small, will plague the world for a considerably long time. Why? Let’s first analyze why wars exist. People fight against each other because they harbor different opinions over religion, state boundary, or, because people scramble for dwindling natural resources like oil and clean water. Considering the truth that it is difficult for people of different religions to reconcile, and natural resources are becoming less and less, it is next to impossible to eliminate war.

Last but not least, environmental deterioration is a knotty problem that cannot be solved in the next several decades. Even worse, we have reason to believe that environmental
degradation is likely to go from bad to worse. As we all know that economic growth in developing countries is so fast that it puts great strain on the global environment. Take China for example. Chinese economy is growing by 9% annually which means that much energy like coal and oil are burned, emitting more and more pollutants. Besides, various wastes and contaminated waters are recklessly discharged from plants and factories. What’s more, a booming economy puts money in consumers’ pockets so you see an increasing number of private cars driving on the roads, resulting in tainted air by fumes from those cars. As all developing countries have a desire to rapidly build a strong economy in a relatively short period, I see little hope that our fragile environment will improve.

In conclusion, the world is filled with too many prickly problems that deserve our attention. To achieve an affluent, peaceful and desirable life, we still have a bumpy and long road to go.

你是否同意以下观点：影响我们当今社会最重要的问题在我们有生之年都会得到解决。

众所周知，预测未来极其困难。但是，我们不难推测，影响我们当今社会最重要的问题，在我们有生之年，得不到解决。

首先，在我们有生之年，不能消除贫困。自文明出现以来，贫困就已经存在。一代又一代的人向贫困宣战。但是，尽管做出巨大努力，世界上很多人还是很难得到基本的生活必需品——即便在最发达、最富有的国家，如美国，还有大约3980万人口生活在贫困线以下，更别提像埃塞俄比亚等一些最不发达国家了。埃塞俄比亚有约44%的人口的食物长期得不到保障。更糟糕的是，由于气候变化和经济危机，越来越多的家庭遭受贫困的困扰。饥饿也继续在世界范围内蔓延。

再者，大大小小的战争仍然会长期肆虐。为什么呢？首先我们分析一下为什么会有战争。战争之所以存在，是因为人们对宗教，国界想法不一，也因为人们争夺日益减少的自然资源比如石油和淡水。考虑到不同宗教信仰的人难以妥协，自然资源不断减少，消除战争几乎是不可能的事情。

最后，环境恶化这个棘手的问题在接下来的几十年也难以解决。更糟糕的是，我们有理由相信，环境将进一步恶化。我们都知道，发展中国家的经济发展如此之快以至于这种发展给世界环境带来了极大的压力。拿中国举例，
中国的经济以每年9%的速度增长，这就意味着，要燃烧大量的能源如石油和煤炭，燃烧就会释放大量的污染。并且，各种废物和污水也肆无忌惮地从大大小小的工厂排放出来。此外，增长的经济让消费者更有钱。所以路上的私家车越来越多。这些车排放出来的尾气也污染了空气。因为所有发展中国家都想在短期内快速发展经济所以我认为脆弱的环境没有什么希望得到改善。

总之，太多棘手的问题值得我们关注。要想过富裕、和平而且合意的生活，我们任重而道远。