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  3. It’s often hard to see your mistakes as you’re making them. When it comes to living arrangements, a humdinger is being made in t

It’s often hard to see your mistakes as you’re making them. When it comes to living arrangements, a humdinger is being made in t

admin2013-01-28  74
问题     It’s often hard to see your mistakes as you’re making them. When it comes to living arrangements, a humdinger is being made in this country right now and few have noticed it yet.
    "Yikes! The kids are moving back in!" Thus goes the mantra of the baby boom generation, circa 2007. Analysts estimate that some 18 million adults between the ages of 20 and 34 live with their parents. That’s roughly a third of that age group.
    But letting the kids move back in is not the societal error we’re talking about. Instead, the big mistake is the loudly voiced chagrin of the boomers. Most mistakenly decry the notion of the boomerang generation. In order to fully appreciate the depth of the error being made here, we all need to step back a bit and look at the bigger picture. This epidemic of kids moving back home is first, not "unprecedented," and second, it’s not a bad thing. The precedent for this trend can be found among the other 6. 2 billion non-Americans on the planet, many of whom happily live with their adult children, often in three-generation households.
    Then there’s the growing number of non-Anglo Americans, including many recent immigrants, who see no problem in having adult kids contribute to the household. Finally, the agrarian history of this country before World War II allowed kids to live and work around the farm well into adulthood.
    Adult kids moving back home is merely the most noticeable symptom of a larger, fundamental transformation of American society. We are nationally beginning to recognize the costs of the independence the so-called greatest generation foisted on us. We can’t blame them. They did have to grow up fast. Kids in their generation went off to World War II and grew up on the bloody beaches of distant lands.
    After the war, the survivors had factories to build and the wealth to buy their white-picket-fence dream out West. They designed a social and fiscal system that has served their retirement years very well. But their historically unique retirement system mistakenly celebrated independence and ignored the natural state of human beings—that is, interdependence.
    Moreover, their system breaks down with the onslaught of their kids’ retirement. We can already see the pension systems, both private and public, beginning to disintegrate under the weight of the baby boomers.
    We are now just starting to understand the substantial fiscal and psychological costs of separating the generations into so-called single-family homes with the ideal of a mother, father and two kids. But times change and so do cultures.
    Regarding boomerang kids, most demographers focus on the immediate explanations for the changes, such as the growing immigrant population, housing shortages and high prices, and out-of-wedlock childbearing.
    Many psychologists have noted that baby-boomer parents enjoy closer relationships with their fewer children that allow extended cohabitation. A recent survey conducted for Del Webb (a division of Pulte Homes Inc. ) reports that only about one-quarter of baby boomers are happier once the kids move out.
    However, all these explanations are simply symptoms of the larger, more fundamental reuniting of Americans into households that include extended families—adult kids, grandparents, grandchildren and other relatives—rather than just nuclear families.
    The rate at which our American culture is adapting will accelerate as baby boomers begin retiring in waves. Creative housing arrangements are necessitating and allowing three generations to live together again—under one roof or in close proximity. Now some 6 million American grandparents are living under one roof with their grandchildren.
    Whether grandparents live in accessory apartments on the property or houses next door, these flexible housing options provide privacy and companionship at the same time. Grandparents can interact with their grandchildren while the parents work, and all benefit from the new togetherness. These 21st century housing arrangements are a creative way to handle the financial needs of the generation that is retiring and, yes, the adult children who are coming home.
    Such multigenerational households don’t make sense for everyone. Personality conflicts or family characteristics preclude such arrangements for some. Legal constraints such as building and zoning codes are formidable obstacles in most communities across the country.
    Often more room is mandated for parking your car than parking your grandmother. Home builders have been more interested in selling houses that satisfy immediate needs rather than anticipating the needs of the growing numbers of aging Americans.
    The culture itself frequently gets in the way, reinforcing the perception of a stigma attaching to lack of independence—the adult child who just won’t move out (and grow up) or the aging grandparent who eschews "being a burden. "
    Despite these problems, once you begin talking with your friends about three-generation households, you will begin hearing stories about how such obstacles are being overcome. You also will begin hearing stories about the wonderful benefits of thinking about housing and family arrangements in creative ways. And you’ll hear stories about the fundamental satisfaction of living together again.
Which of the statements is NOT true about the greatest generation?
选项 A、They imposed the idea of independence on the successive offspring.
B、They make loud complaints about their children’s prolonged staying at home.
C、Their social and finance scheme for their retirement disregard the interdependence.
D、Their retirement system is collapsing with the overwhelming outpouring of their children’s retirement.
答案B
解析 细节题。根据文中的“But letting the kids move back in is not the societal error we’re talking about．Instead，the big mistake is the loudly voiced chagrin of the boomers．”可知，让孩子搬回来并不是我们所谈论的社会错误，’那些生育高峰时期出生的人的大声抱怨才是大错。所以正确的答案是B项。
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