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  3. Americans are supposed to be mobile and even pushy. Saul Bellow’s Augie March declares, " I am an American ,.. first to knock, f

Americans are supposed to be mobile and even pushy. Saul Bellow’s Augie March declares, " I am an American ,.. first to knock, f

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问题     Americans are supposed to be mobile and even pushy. Saul Bellow’s Augie March declares, " I am an American ,.. first to knock, first admitted. " In "The Grapes of Wrath," young Tom Joad loads up his car with pork snacks and relatives, and the family flees the Oklahoma for California. Along the way, Granma dies, but the Joads keep going.
    But sometime in the past 30 years, someone has hit the brakes and Americans—particularly young Americans—have become risk-averse and sedentary. The likelihood of 20-somethings moving to another state has dropped well over 40 percent since the 1980s, according to calculations based on Census Bureau data. The stuck-at-home mentality hits college-educated Americans as well as those without high school degrees. Even bicycle sales are lower now than they were in 2000. Today’s generation is literally going nowhere.
    An increasing number of teenagers are not even bothering to get their driver’s licenses. Back in the early 1980s, 80 percent of 18-year-olds proudly strutted out of the D. M. V. with new licenses, according to a study by researchers at the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute. By 2008—even before the Great Recession—that number had dropped to 65 percent. Though it’s easy to blame the high cost of cars or gasoline, Comerica Bank’s Automobile Affordability Index shows that it takes fewer weeks of work income to buy a car today than in the early 1980s, and inflation-adjusted gasoline prices didn’t get out of line until a few years ago.
    Perhaps young people are too happy at home checking Facebook. In a study of 15 countries, Michael Sivak, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute, found that when young people spent more time on the Internet, they delayed getting their driver’s licenses. "More time on Facebook probably means less time on the road," he said. That may mean safer roads, but it also means
    Generation Y has become Generation Why Bother. The Great Recession and the still weak economy make the trend toward risk aversion worse. Children raised during recessions ultimately take fewer risks with their investments and their jobs. Even when the recession passes, they don’t strive as hard to find new jobs, and they hang on to lousy jobs longer. Research by the economist Lisa B. Kahn of the Yale School of Management shows that those who graduated from college during a poor economy experienced a relative wage loss even 15 years after entering the work force.
    In the mid-70s, back when every high school kid longed for his driver’s license and a chance to hit the road and find freedom, Bruce Springsteen wrote his brilliant, exciting album "Born to Run. " A generation later, as kids began to hunker down, Mr. Springsteen wrote his depressing "The Ghost of Tom Joad. " We need to reward and encourage forward movement, not slouching. That may sound harsh, but do we really want to turn into a country where young Americans can’t even recognize the courage of Tom Joad?
Which of the following spirit is not characteristic of Americans in the 1980s?
选项 A、adventurous
B、reflective
C、pioneering
D、entrepreneurial
答案B
解析 文中多次将现在的年轻人与上世纪80年代的年轻人进行对比。作者第一段就提到典型的美国人的形象是“爱东奔西走，有些鲁莽”(mobile and pushy)。第二段提到，和上世纪80年代相比，现在的美国年轻人迁到另外一个州的数量大幅降低。第三段提到，20世纪踟年代的年轻人，80％在18岁的时候都拿到了驾照。通过这几段的内容，我们可以推断20世纪80年代的美国人和现在的年轻人相比，更有闯劲，更爱冒险，[A]、[C]、[D]说的都是同一个意思，只有[B]reflective“深思熟虑”不是20世纪80年代美国年轻人的典型的特征。
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