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

单选题 One cross-generation mark of a successful life is ______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 事实细节题。根据题干中的关键词cross-generation mark of a successful life可以定位到原文第二段首句。该句提到Across generational lines, Americans continue to prize many of the same traditional milestones of a successful life，including geeing married, having children, owning a home, and retiring in their sixties，由此可知，历代美国人眼中的成功人生标志中包括了结婚、生子、成家和在60多岁的时候退休。B选项与原文相符，故为答案。

单选题 It can be learned from Paragraph 3 that young people tend to ______.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 事实细节题。根据题干直接定位到原文第三段。该段提到老年人和人生刚刚起步的年轻人在认识上的一些差异，其中提到Young people who are still getting started in life were more likely… to agree that couples should be financially secure before getting married or having children，指出年轻人更倾向于赞同情侣在结婚和生孩子之前要有经济保证，四个选项中只有选项C符合此处描述，为答案。

单选题 The priorities and expectations defined by the young will ______.

单选题 Both young and old agree that ______.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 事实细节题。根据题干中的关键词Both young and old agree可以定位到原文第五段首句。该句提到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，指出大多数年轻人和老年人在一个关键点上是一致的，即他们认为现在年轻人的人生起步要比前几代人更难。由此可知，D项表述与原文相符，故为答案。