generation

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#1

GenerationX/GenerationY

AfewmonthsagoasIwanderedthroughmyparents’

hou,thesamehouIgrewupin,Ihadasudden,scary

parentsboughtthehou,in1982,

to

imaginemylfintwoyears,readytottledownandbuy

thehouI’dstillbelivinginalmost30yearslater.

cticallevel,there’sno

importantly,Iwouldn’twantto.I’mnotsurewhereI’llbe

livingintwoyears,orwhatkindofjobI’n’t

thinkI’llbereadytottledownandstayinoneplace.

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#2

Sothisisprobablythegenerationgapthatdividesmy

rparentswere

ourage,they’dgottentheireducation,chonacareer,

andwerestartingtottleintoresponsibleadultlives.

MyfriendsandI–“GenerationY”–stillaren’tsure

erweendup

doing,wewanttomakesurewe’’d

rathertakerisksfirst,tryoutdifferentjobs,andmovefrom

’d

ratherspendourmoneyontravelthanputitinasavings

account.

Thiscasualattitudetowardresponsibilityhascaud

somecriticstocallmygeneration“arrogant”,“impatient”,

and“overprotected”.Someofthecomplaintshavea

drenwewereencouragedtosucceedin

school,upinaworldfullof

technologicalinnovation:cellphones,theInternet,instant

messaging,andvideogames.

Ourparentslookedtorivertically(垂直的)--starting

atthebottomoftheladderandslowlymakingtheirwayto

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#3

thetop,onthesametrack,oftenforthesamecompany.

Thatdoesn’tapplytomygeneration.

Becauofthat,itmaytakeuslongerthanour

parentstoarriveatresponsible,

that’esiretofind

satisfaction,wewillworkharder,striveforwaystokeeplife

interesting,andgainabroadertofexperiencesand

knowledgethanourparents’generation

did.

ByArielLewiton

当我们在阅读报刊杂志（尤其有关美国的新闻报道）时，常遇到“X代”

（generationX）或“X代人”（GenX'ers）和“Y代”（generationY）或“Y代人”

（GenY'ers）的称谓。

那么“Y代”源自何处？“Y代人”与“X代人”有何区别？“Y代人”的特点是什

么？

“ThemembersofGenerationYwerebornanywherefrom1979to

1995．”“generationY：peopleborninorafter1980；thegenerationofpeople

bornapproximateinorafter1980inWesterncountries，especiallyinthe

UnitedStates．（informal）”（EncartaDictionaryTools）据上述释意：“Y代人”

为1979—1995（或1980年以后）出生的人。又据“X代人的父母是生育高峰前

或早期出生的人，这就是说要比真正在生育高峰期出生的人（这些人是Y代人

的父母）更略为倾向于守旧和保守”（《英语文摘》2003年第4期，P．8）及“So，

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#4

forwantofabetterlabel，‘GenerationY’wasasimple，unimaginativeextension

of‘X’．”（21stCentury）得知，

美国人常以某一特定称谓泛指某一时

代出生的、有着诸多共性和整体影响的人

群。林肯一代人被称为Blundering

Generation（粗鲁的一代）；

生于19世纪60至80年代初的美国人

因其在国外苦心传播基督教而得

MissionaryGeneration（传教士的一代）

之名；