a few years ago it was fashionable to speak of a generation gap. parents complained that children didn't show them proper respect and obedience, while children complained that their parents didn't understand them at all. many critics argue that it is built into the fabric of our society.

one cause of the generation gap is the opportunity that young people have to choose their own life. in traditional socieries, children live in the same area as their parents, marry people their parents know and approve of, and often continue the family occupation. in our society, people often move out of the home at an early age, marry or live with people their parents have never met, and choose occupations that are rather different.

in our upwardly mobile society, parents often expect their children to be better than them. however, these ambitions for their children are another cause of the division between them. often they discover that they have very little in common.

finally, the speed of change in our society is another cause of it. in a traditional culture, people are valued for their wisdom, but in our society the knowledge of a lifetime may become out of date. the young and the old seem to live in two very different worlds, separated by different skills and abilities.

no doubt, the generation gap will continue to be a feature of our life for some time to come. its causes are rooted in the freedoms and opportunities of our society, and in the rapid pace at which society changes.

代溝

幾年前，代溝是一個(gè)非常流行的詞。父母抱怨孩子對(duì)他們沒(méi)有應(yīng)有的尊重和服從；而孩子們卻抱怨父母根本不理解他們。很多批評(píng)家指出，這成為了我們社會(huì)結(jié)構(gòu)的組

成部分。

造成代溝的原因之一，是現(xiàn)在年輕人對(duì)自己的生活有了更多的機(jī)會(huì)進(jìn)行選擇。傳統(tǒng)的社會(huì)里，孩子和他們的父母生活在同一個(gè)地方，與父母認(rèn)識(shí)并認(rèn)可的人結(jié)婚，常常幾代人做著同樣的工作。而在現(xiàn)代的社會(huì)中，人們年輕時(shí)就離開(kāi)家，他們的結(jié)婚對(duì)象可能父母從來(lái)沒(méi)見(jiàn)過(guò)，他們選擇的職業(yè)也與祖輩大相徑庭。

在這個(gè)人往高處發(fā)展的社會(huì)，父母總是盼望著孩子能比自己過(guò)得好。然而這種對(duì)孩子的期望也是造成他們之間分歧的另一個(gè)原因。其結(jié)果常常是發(fā)現(xiàn)父母和孩子之間共

同之處很少。

最后，現(xiàn)代社會(huì)的飛速變化也是形成代溝的一個(gè)原因。傳統(tǒng)社會(huì)里，人們往往以智慧來(lái)衡量一個(gè)人。而現(xiàn)在，一種知識(shí)用一生的觀點(diǎn)已經(jīng)過(guò)時(shí)了。不同的技術(shù)，不同的能力，將年輕人和年長(zhǎng)的人劃入兩個(gè)完全不同的世界。

毫無(wú)疑問(wèn)，在今后相當(dāng)一段時(shí)間里，代溝將會(huì)繼續(xù)成為我們生活的一個(gè)特征。它產(chǎn)生的原因源于社會(huì)的自由和選擇，源于社會(huì)日新月異的快速發(fā)展。

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