单选题 The New Generation Since his first appearance 13 years ago, Harry Potter Has loomed over a generation. In 1997, he was 11 years old—and so were legions of his devotees. The boy wizard, whose final adventures hit the screen next week in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, is still a teenager, but is there a sense in which his fans, now 24, are also finding it hard to grow up? With many young adults still living at home or remaining in education, sociologists have argued that the age of maturity is changing fast; that the current crop of twentysomethings is stuck. Any attempt to define a generation will fail. But how much do we know about the people who made Harry Potter a superstar? Are they the iiber-confident, sex-savvy go-getters of advertising fantasy, or a cuckoo generation destined to remain in the family nest, devoid of career prospects or financial stability, sold out by the grownups who frittered away their future? We can surely take it for granted that this group of people are more technologically literate and enthusiastic than any that has preceded them; recent data from the Office for National Statistics suggests that only 1 per cent of 16-to 24-year-olds has never accessed the Internet. But it"s also common sense to assume that, while young people might revel in how easy it is to communicate with one another, they are likely to feel less confident in the current economic climate about their ability to access and afford education, to enter the job market, to get a foothold on the property ladder and to rely on the State to provide a safety net in times of trouble. In short, young people are both more connected and more alone than ever. On one side they are awash in a sea of celebrity culture, in which young people such as Wayne Rooney can be materially rewarded beyond anybody"s wildest dreams for the possession of a single skill, and the less gifted are briefly lauded on a television talent show before a long descent into obscurity. On the other, economic, environmental and geopolitical convulsions creajte a sense of collective catastrophe that seems to deflate the very idea of individual aspiration. So how does that make them feel? Mel Smith, who works for the Youth Support Service as part of the Transition to Adulthood(T2 A)Alliance, which was established to provide support for young adults in the criminal justice system, explains how some of the people she works with find that their age makes them even more vulnerable. " It"s a very difficult time, the very early twenties, because of the way that a lot of the support is set up, " she says. " As they reach age milestones, they move from youth to adult services; they may find themselves moved to a different service just because they"ve had a birthday. " When Thomas Viney, a 27-year-old graduate living in London, read a lengthy article in The New York Times arguing that the delayed adulthood experienced by many twentysomethings constituted a new developmental life stage, he felt the need to respond. He wrote that by the time his parents were his age, they had established a household, had children, got proper jobs, started savings schemes and pension plans and, more generally, had learnt to look after themselves. By contrast, he had amassed little of any tangible value and his life, punctuated by amusing but random interactions with his mates, seemed more defined by aimlessness than purpose. When a girlfriend said she thought she was pregnant(she wasn"t), the cold wave of responsibility was enough to sweep him completely off his feet. Viney believes that his experience is not simply a typical twentysomething scenario but indicative of a far more damaging malaise. "A lot of people in my generation, " he tells me, "were brought up to think that they were very special and that they had something to contribute to the world—not through hard work, but through the arts. I think we"re lost; that we no longer think it"s OK to knuckle down and apply ourselves, because that isn"t the life that we were promised. " His upbringing was middle class, rather than wealthy, but he feels that it took place against the backdrop of what he calls a time of "biblical" plenty and abundance. He also says that his generation has been "encouraged to enjoy ourselves" , that there"s something wrong with you if you don"t and that there will be few consequences to a life of hedonism. As a result, he and his friends, with a couple of exceptions, have barely a serious job or stable domestic environment among them. Viney himself, though, is taking a few tentative steps towards serious adulthood, working in publishing and writing in his spare time. What he has learnt, he says, is that for all that his parents had to sacrifice, they gained far more than they lost. Facebook, as everyone but a Martian knows, was founded by a bunch of precocious youths. Apart from all the online games, groups, jokes and pokes, probably the most recognisable feature of Facebook is the "status update". But what might the status update of this disparate bunch be? How would they encapsulate all the exuberance, anxiety, yearning and joyfulness that being twentysomething brings? Perhaps something like: "Status pending. Update to follow. Don"t wait up. "

单选题 What is true according to Paragraph 1?

单选题 The author finds it difficult to define the present generation because______.

单选题 How does the present economic situation affect this generation?

单选题 The phrase "knuckle down and apply ourselves" probably means______.

单选题 Which of the following statements correctly reflects Thomas Viney"s view?