填空题 In the years after World War Ⅱ, Americans typically assumed the full responsibilities of adulthood by their late teens or early 20s. Most young men had 1 school and were working fulltime, and most young women were 2 and raising children. People who grew 3 in this era of growing affluence were economically self-sufficient and able to take care of others by the time they had weathered adolescence. Today, adulthood no longer 4 when adolescence ends.
Social scientists are beginning to recognize a new phase of life: early adulthood. Some features of this stage resemble coming of age 5 the late 19th and early 20th centuries, 6 youth lingered in a state of semi-autonomy, waiting 7 they were sufficiently well-off to marry, have children and establish an independent 8 . However, there are important differences 9 how young people today define and achieve adulthood from those of both the recent and the more distant past.
This new stage is not merely an extension of adolescence, 10 has been maintained in the mass media. Young adults are physically mature and often 11 impressive intellectual, social and psychological skills. Nor are young people today reluctant to accept adult responsibilities. Instead, they are busy 12 up their educational credentials and practical skills in an ever more demanding labor market. Yet, many have not become fully adult, 13 they are not ready, or perhaps not permitted, to do 14 . For a growing number, this will not happen until their late 20s or even early 30s. In 15 , American society will have to revise upward the "normal" age of full adulthood, and develop ways to assist young people through the ever-lengthening transition.