A few months ago as I wandered through my parents’ house, the same house I grew up in, I had a sudden, scary realization. When my parents bought the house, in 1982, they were only two years older than I am now. I tried to imagine myself in two years, ready to settle down and buy the house I’d still be living in almost 30 years later.

It seemed ridiculous. On a practical level, there’s no way I could afford to buy a house anytime soon. More importantly, I wouldn’t want to. I’m not sure where I’ll be living in two years, or what kind of job I’ll have. And I don’t think I’ll be ready to settle down and stay in one place.

So this is probably the generation gap that divides my friends and me from our parents. When our parents were our age, they’d gotten their education, chosen a career, and were starting to settle into responsible adult lives.

My friends and I – “Generation Y” – still aren’t sure what we want to do with our lives. Whatever we end up doing, we want to make sure we’re happy doing it. We’d rather take risks first, try out different jobs, and move from one city to another until we find our favorite place. We’d rather spend our money on travel than put it in a savings account.

This casual attitude toward responsibility has caused some critics to call my generation “arrogant”, “impatient”, and “overprotected”. Some of these complaints have a point. As children we were encouraged to succeed in school, but also to have fun. We grew up in a world full of technological innovation: cellphones, the Internet, instant messaging, and video games.

Our parents looked to rise vertically(垂直的)--starting at the bottom of the ladder and slowly making their way to the top, on the same track, often for the same company. That doesn’t apply to my generation.

Because of that, it may take us longer than our parents to arrive at responsible, stable adulthood. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In our desire to find satisfaction, we will work harder, strive for ways to keep life interesting, and gain a broader set of experiences and knowledge than our parents’ generation did.                                                                              

By Ariel Lewiton

1.When the author walked through her parents’ house, she _______.

2.What is the main “generation gap” between the author and her friends and their parents according to the article?

3.Which of the following might the author agree with?

4.What can we conclude from the article?

5.What is the main theme of the article?

A few months ago as I wandered through my parents’ house, the same house I grew up in, I had a sudden, scary realization. When my parents bought the house, in 1982, they were only two years older than I am now. I tried to imagine myself in two years, ready to settle down and buy the house I’d still be living in almost 30 years later.

??? It seemed ridiculous. On a practical level, there’s no way I could afford to buy a house anytime soon. More importantly, I wouldn’t want to. I’m not sure where I’ll be living in two years, or what kind of job I’ll have. And I don’t think I’ll be ready to settle down and stay in one place.

??? So this is probably the generation gap that divides my friends and me from our parents. When our parents were our age, they’d gotten their education, chosen a career, and were starting to settle into responsible adult lives.

??? My friends and I – “Generation Y” – still aren’t sure what we want to do with our lives. Whatever we end up doing, we want to make sure we’re happy doing it. We’d rather take risks first, try out different jobs, and move from one city to another until we find our favorite place. We’d rather spend our money on travel than put it in a savings account.

??? This casual attitude towards responsibility has caused some critics to call my generation “arrogant”, “impatient”, and “overprotected”. Some of these complaints have a point. As children we were encouraged to succeed in school, but also to have fun. We grew up in a world full of technological innovation: cellphones, the Internet, instant messaging, and video games.

??? Our parents looked to rise vertically（垂直的）– starting at the bottom of the ladder and slowly making their way to the top, on the same track, often for the same company. That doesn’t apply to my generation.

??? Because of that, it may take us longer than our parents to arrive at responsible, stable adulthood. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In our desire to find satisfaction, we will work harder, struggle for ways to keep life interesting, and gain a broader set of experiences and knowledge than our parents’ generation did.??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

1.What is the main “generation gap” between the author and her friends and their parents according to the article?

A. Their ways of gaining experience.

B. Their attitude towards responsibility.
C. Their attitude toward high technology.
D. Their ways of making their way to the top.

2.Which of the following might the author agree with?

A. It involves too much effort to rise vertically.
B. It’s better to take adult responsibility earlier.
C. It’s all right to try more before settling down.
D. It’s ridiculous to call her generation “arrogant”.

3. What can we conclude from the article?

A. The author is envious of her parents enjoying a big house at her age.

B. “Generation Y” people don’t want to grow up and rush into adulthood.

C. Growing up in a hi-tech world makes “Generation Y” feel insecure about relationships.

D. The author wrote this article so that others would be able to understand her generation better.

4.What is the main theme of the article?
A. Criticisms of the young generation.
B. The sudden realization of growing up.
C. A comparison between lifestyles of generations.
D. The factors that have changed the young generation.

A few months ago as I wandered through my parents’ house, the same house I grew up in, I had a sudden, scary realization. When my parents bought the house, in 1982, they were only two years older than I am now. I tried to imagine myself in two years, ready to settle down and buy the house I’d still be living in almost 30 years later.

It seemed ridiculous. On a practical level, there’s no way I could afford to buy a house anytime soon. More importantly, I wouldn’t want to. I’m not sure where I’ll be living in two years, or what kind of job I’ll have. And I don’t think I’ll be ready to settle down and stay in one place.

So this is probably the generation gap that divides my friends and me from our parents. When our parents were our age, they’d gotten their education, chosen a career, and were starting to settle into responsible adult lives.

My friends and I – “Generation Y” – still aren’t sure what we want to do with our lives. Whatever we end up doing, we want to make sure we’re happy doing it. We’d rather take risks first, try out different jobs, and move from one city to another until we find our favorite place. We’d rather spend our money on travel than put it in a savings account.

This casual attitude toward responsibility has caused some critics to call my generation “arrogant”, “impatient”, and “overprotected”. Some of these complaints have a point. As children we were encouraged to succeed in school, but also to have fun. We grew up in a world full of technological innovation: cellphones, the Internet, instant messaging, and video games.

Our parents looked to rise vertically(垂直的)--starting at the bottom of the ladder and slowly making their way to the top, on the same track, often for the same company. That doesn’t apply to my generation.

Because of that, it may take us longer than our parents to arrive at responsible, stable adulthood. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In our desire to find satisfaction, we will work harder, strive for ways to keep life interesting, and gain a broader set of experiences and knowledge than our parents’ generation did.

1.When the author walked through her parents’ house, she _______.

2.What is the main “generation gap” between the author and her friends and their                      parents according to the article?

3.Which of the following might the author agree with?

4.What can we conclude from the article?

5.What is the main theme of the article?

A few months ago as I wandered through my parents’ house, the same house I grew up in, I had a sudden, scary realization. When my parents bought the house, in 1982, they were only two years older than I am now. I tried to imagine myself in two years, ready to settle down and buy the house I’d still be living in almost 30 years later.
It seemed ridiculous. On a practical level, there’s no way I could afford to buy a house anytime soon. More importantly, I wouldn’t want to. I’m not sure where I’ll be living in two years, or what kind of job I’ll have. And I don’t think I’ll be ready to settle down and stay in one place.
So this is probably the generation gap that divides my friends and me from our parents. When our parents were our age, they’d gotten their education, chosen a career, and were starting to settle into responsible adult lives.
My friends and I – “Generation Y” – still aren’t sure what we want to do with our lives. Whatever we end up doing, we want to make sure we’re happy doing it. We’d rather take risks first, try out different jobs, and move from one city to another until we find our favorite place. We’d rather spend our money on travel than put it in a savings account.
This casual attitude toward responsibility has caused some critics to call my generation “arrogant”, “impatient”, and “overprotected”. Some of these complaints have a point. As children we were encouraged to succeed in school, but also to have fun. We grew up in a world full of technological innovation: cellphones, the Internet, instant messaging, and video games.
Our parents looked to rise vertically(垂直的)--starting at the bottom of the ladder and slowly making their way to the top, on the same track, often for the same company. That doesn’t apply to my generation.
Because of that, it may take us longer than our parents to arrive at responsible, stable adulthood. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In our desire to find satisfaction, we will work harder, strive for ways to keep life interesting, and gain a broader set of experiences and knowledge than our parents’ generation did.
【小题1】When the author walked through her parents’ house, she _______.

　　Cheats have taken large amount of money out of trusting Japanese in 2003 by phoning and pretending to be relatives in trouble, Japanese police said. In what media are calling the“Hi, it's me”trick, victims（受害者）receive calls from cheats who call themselves only as“me”and say they are in great need of money to cover anything from an uninsured traffic accident to an unexpected trouble. Victims think the person on the telephone must be a close relative and often agree to send the money to bank account specified by the cheat straight away. There had been 3 807 reported cases till November 2003, with victims paying out a total of almost 2.3 billion yen ($ 21.1 million), according to police figures. Many of the victims were women over 40, according to domestic newspapers. Police said they were recommending that people check the identity of people asking for money on the telephone. In a more shocking development, some telephone cheats now force money by pretending they have kidnapped a victim's child, with 76 such cases in October alone.

(1) Why did the victims send money to the cheats?

[　　]

A．Because they recognized their close relatives in trouble.

B．Because they thought the person on the phone was close relative though they didn't recognized who it was.

C．Because the cheats pretended to be their close friends.

D．Because the cheats called themselves their close relatives.

(2) Who were more easily cheated in the trick?

[　　]

(3) According to the passage, the more worrying tend is ________.

[　　]

A．there will be more and more cases in Japan

B．a larger amount of money will be paid out by victims

C．Japanese take no notice of the warning by the police

D．cheats pretended they have taken more dangerous actions when they asked for money

(4) The best title of this passage might be“________”

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