Will the next generation do better than the one that came before? To young people in wealthier nations, that dream of upward mobility seems more like a story about the past than modern-day reality, according to a large new survey taken in 21 countries. In poorer countries, though, there is still hope that young people’s lives will be better than those of their parents, and that the world is becoming a better place.
“In a lot of the developing world, there is a bit more optimism that with each generation our living standards are improving,” said Laurence Chandy, director of the office of global insight and policy at UNICEF, which conducted the survey with Gallup. “But there’s a recognition in the West that that’s stopped happening.” In the United States,56 percent of young people and 64 percent of older people said that children today would be worse off, economically, than their parents.
The survey was of 21,000 people in two age groups — 15 to 24, and 40 and up — and included nationally representative samples from all regions of the world. The younger group said that children today were better off in basic ways, like education, health care and physical safety.
And the best part of being a young person today? Technology, according to respondents in follow up interviews.
But young people also have significant concerns. In the survey, about nine in ten said they sometimes or often have anxiety. Six in ten said children today have more pressure from adults to succeed than their parents did.
In the six richest countries in the survey, about one-third of young people said they thought today’s children would be economically better off than their parents. They were particularly pessimistic (悲观的) in Japan, France, Britain and Spain.
In low-income countries, though, about two-thirds of young people said they thought today’s children would do better financially than their parents, especially in Africa and South Asia. They were also more likely than those in high-or middle-income countries to say the world was becoming a better place with each generation
12. How does the author develop the first paragraph?
A.By listing figure y giving examples | B.By giving examples |
C.By following the time order | D.By making a comparison |
13. What’s the best part of being a young person today?
A.Education | B.Health care | C.Technology | D.Physical safety |
14. What percentage of young people have anxiety in the survey?
15. What’s the best title of the text?
A.How to make the world a better place? |
B.Where are young people most optimistic? |
C.What are the concerns of young people about economy? |
D.Will children be much healthier than their parents? |