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.
Why does the author say many teenagers are unreasonably optimistic?

选项 A、Because many of them don’t know much about finances and budgeting.
B、Because they are too young to know the hard reality.
C、Because they depend too much on their parents to know how to live independently.
D、Because they know only a little about how to handle their finances and budgeting.

答案A

解析 由题干关键词unreasonably optimistic可以定位到第六段第二句。该句指出:然而,这种乐观态度也许会毫无根据,因为当代的年轻人——正如他们之前的许多年轻人一样——并不十分了解他们的个人财务问题。因此A)“他们许多人不甚了解理财和制定预算”符合文意,故为正确答案。
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