2016年考研英语二阅读 Text 4 原文翻译及答案解析

Against a backdrop of drastic changes in economy and population structure, younger Americans are drawing a new 21st-century road map to success, a latest poll has found.

在经济和人口结构发生剧变的背景下，年轻的美国人正在绘制一张新的21世纪成功路线图，一项最新民调发现。

Across generational lines, Americans continue to prize many of the same traditional milestones of a successful life, including getting married, having children, owning a home, and retiring in their sixties. But while young and old mostly agree on what constitutes the finish line of a fulfilling life, they offer strikingly different paths for reaching it.

跨越代际界限，美国人继续珍视许多相同的人生成功传统里程碑，包括结婚、生子、拥有住房和在六十多岁时退休。但尽管年轻人和老年人大多认同什么构成了充实人生的终点，他们为达到这一目标提供了截然不同的路径。

Young people who are still getting started in life were more likely than older adults to prioritize personal fulfillment in their work, to believe they will advance their careers most by regularly changing jobs, to favor communities with more public services and a faster pace of life, to agree that couples should be financially secure before getting married or having children, and to maintain that children are best served by two parents working outside the home, the survey found.

调查发现，与年长成年人相比，那些刚刚起步的年轻人更可能在工作中优先考虑个人成就感，更相信通过频繁换工作能最好地推进职业生涯，更青睐拥有更多公共服务和更快生活节奏的社区，认同情侣在结婚或生育前应具备经济保障，并坚持认为双职工父母最有利于孩子成长。

From career to community and family, these contrasts suggest that in the aftermath of the searing Great Recession, those just starting out in life are defining priorities and expectations that will increasingly spread through virtually all aspects of American life, from consumer preferences to housing patterns to politics.

从职业到社区和家庭，这些对比表明，在惨烈的大衰退之后，那些刚刚开始人生旅程的人正在定义优先事项和期望，这些将日益渗透到美国人生活的几乎所有方面，从消费偏好到住房模式再到政治。

Young and old converge on one key point: Overwhelming majorities of both groups said they believe it is harder for young people today to get started in life than it was for earlier generations. While younger people are somewhat more optimistic than their elders about the prospects for those starting out today, big majorities in both groups believe those "just getting started in life" face a tougher climb than earlier generations in reaching such signpost achievements as securing a good-paying job, starting a family, managing debt, and finding affordable housing.

年轻人和老年人在一个关键点上达成一致：两组中绝大多数人都表示，他们认为今天的年轻人比前几代更难开始人生。尽管年轻人对于今天起步者的前景比长辈稍显乐观，但两组中大多数人认为，那些“刚刚开始人生”的人在达到诸如找到高薪工作、组建家庭、管理债务和找到负担得起的住房等标志性成就时，面临着比前几代更艰难的攀登。

Pete Schneider considers the climb tougher today. Schneider, a 27-year-old auto technician from the Chicago suburbs, says he struggled to find a job after graduating from college. Even now that he is working steadily, he said, "I can't afford to pay my monthly mortgage payments on my own, so I have to rent rooms out to people to make that happen." Looking back, he is struck that his parents could provide a comfortable life for their children even though neither had completed college when he was young. "I still grew up in an upper middle-class home with parents who didn't have college degrees," Schneider said. "I don't think people are capable of that anymore."

皮特·施耐德认为今天的攀登更加艰难。施耐德，一位来自芝加哥郊区的27岁汽车技师，说他大学毕业后很难找到工作。即使现在工作稳定了，他说：“我独自负担不起每月的抵押贷款，所以我不得不把房间租给别人来做到这一点。” 回顾过去，他感慨于尽管他年轻时父母都没有完成大学学业，他们仍能为孩子提供舒适的生活。“我仍然在一个上层中产阶级家庭长大，父母都没有大学学位，”施耐德说。“我认为人们现在再也做不到了。”