In a mere two years, the proportion of teenagers who expect to be financially dependent on their parents until their mid-20s has

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问题     In a mere two years, the proportion of teenagers who expect to be financially dependent on their parents until their mid-20s has doubled. That gives us all another reason to feel sympathy for parents who have teenagers right now.
    A new survey conducted by Junior Achievement, a group that teaches kids about money and jobs, found that 25% of teens think they won’t be able to support themselves until their mid-20s. Two years ago, just 12% of teens surveyed said that they’d have to reach the 25-to 27-year-old age bracket(类别)before being able to pay all of their own bills. Correspondingly, the proportion of teens who expect to achieve financial independence by the ages of 18 to 24 has plummeted, from 75% in 2011 to 59% today.
    Are these kids just unmotivated? Maybe some of them are, but many more are facing increasing college costs and poor job prospects. An alarming number have a poor understanding of budgeting and basic finance as well.
    Today’s teens apparently don’t mind the idea of moving back in with the rents, or they at least understand the necessity of making such a move given the state of the economy and the likelihood of large student loans down the road.
    Providing a place to live isn’t, the only way parents are helping out their adult children. In many families, it’s become the norm for parents to step in and pay bills for smartphones, Internet access, music and TV subscription services.
    About two-thirds of young respondents in the Junior Achievement survey think they’ll be equally or better off financially than their parents. This optimism might be unfounded, though, because today’s young people—like so many young people before them—don’t have a firm grasp of personal finance issues. According to their responses, about a quarter admit they don’t understand budgeting, one in five don’t know how to use credit cards, and roughly a third don’t know how to invest money.
    " Part of the reason teens expect to live with parents longer may be because they are unsure about their ability to budget, use credit cards or invest money," the study suggests.
    It’s overly simplistic, though, to think that parents can give their kids a crash course in budgeting and expect them to fly the nest at 18. "The Great Recession and sluggish(缓慢的)recovery have taken a disproportionate toll on young adults," the Pew study points out.
    The cost of college—and the fact that today’s teens are unprepared for it—is one reason they might be living in their old bedroom into their mid 20s. Only 9% of respondents in the Junior Achievement survey say they’re saving for college, and almost half say they don’t know how much they should be saving, although around two-thirds say their parents have talked about it with them.
After giving their children some simple lessons of budgeting, parents seem naive to expect their children to______.

选项 A、pursue their own careers
B、become independent
C、start their own family
D、become a responsible adult

答案B

解析 由题干关键词lessons of budgeting可以定位到倒数第二段第一句:如果认为父母能够给他们的孩子在规划预算方面提供一些速成课程,并期待他们在18岁的时候获得独立的话,那么这种想法未免太过简单了。这里的fly the nest的意思是“变得独立”,因此选B)。
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