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The Best of Friends
The evidence for harmony may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young
people now get on with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly held image (印象) of unhappy
teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.
An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious
than it has ever been in the past. "We were surprised by just how positive today's young people seem to be
about their families," said one member of the research team."They're expected to be rebellious (叛逆的) and
selfish but actually they have other things on their minds; they want a car and material goods, and they worry
about whether school is serving them well. There's more negotiation (商议) and discussion between parents
and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. They don't want to rock
the boat."
So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their
children as friends."My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me," says
17-years-old Daniel Lazall."I always tell them when I'm going out clubbing. As long as they know what I'm
doing, they're fine with it." Susan Crome, who is now 21, agrees. "Looking back on the last 10 years, there
was a lot of what you could call negotiation. For example, as long as I'd done all my homework, I could go
out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that."
Maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. It is possible that the idea of teenage
rebellion is not rooted in real facts. A researcher comments,"Our surprise that teenagers say they get along
well with their parents comes because of a brief period in our social history when teenagers were regarded as
different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during
that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. The normal situation throughout history has been a smooth
change from helping out with the family business to taking it over."
1. What is the popular image of teenagers today?
A. They worry about school.
B. They dislike living with their parents.
C. They have to be locked in to avoid troubles.
D. They quarrel a lot with other family members.
2. The study shows that teenagers don't want to ______.
A. share family responsibility
B. cause trouble in their families
C. go boating with their family
D. make family decisions
3. Compared with parents of 30 years ago, today's parents ______.
A. go to clubs more often with their children
B. are much stricter with their children
C. care less about their children's life
D. give their children more freedom
4. According to the author, teenage rebellion ______.
A. may be a false belief
B. is common nowadays
C. existed only in the 1960s
D. resulted from changes in families
5. What is the passage mainly about?
A. Negotiation in family.
B. Education in family.
C. Harmony in family.
D. Teenage trouble in family.
