英语时文泛读 Current News Articles for Extensive Reading

1. 英语时文泛读Current News Articles for Extensive Reading BOOK II

2. “New” Generations

3. I. Overview • The three passages in this unit are about problems concerning different generations in the contemporary world.

4. Structure • In this unit, you will read 3 passages depicting the life of different generations in contemporary world, especially those of the western countries. Try to compare the differing values and demands of these generations, and notice the new features they exhibit in this age of rapid changes.

5. What Gen Y Really Wants It’s an analysis of the factors accounting for Y-generation’s job preference. Text A

6. It’s a Shakespearian problem: how to call millions of people who undergo the Seven Ages of Man, namely infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, shrunk shank and then second childishness. What Will You Call Me when I’m 64? Text B

7. It’s about various psychological problems cropping up with the growth of youngsters. The author believes that the most helpful thing we can do for an angry young person is to listen him/her. Why We Must Listen to Our Angry Teenagers Text C

8. Focus of this session

9. II. Text A What Gen Y Really Wants • Main Idea of the Text • The job preference of Y-generation is attributable to various factors.

10. Author Penelope Trunk the author of the book Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success. She is a career columnist at the Boston Globe. Her syndicated column has run in more than 200 publications. Earlier, she was a software executive, and then she founded three companies. She has been through an IPO, an acquisition and a bankruptcy. Before that she played professional beach volleyball. Background Information

11. Source Time (trademarked in capitals as TIME) is a weekly American newsmagazine, similar to Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report. A European edition (Time Europe, formerly known as Time Atlantic) is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition (Time Asia) is based in Hong Kong. As of 2009, Time no longer publishes a Canadian advertiser edition. The South Pacific edition, covering Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, is based in Sydney. In some advertising campaigns, the magazine has suggested that, through an acronym, the letters T-I-M-E stand for The International Magazine of Events Background Information

12. Gen-Xer is a term (X一代) for the generation of people born in the Western world following the post-World War II baby boom generation. Those born from the 1960s to the early 1980s are generally agreed-upon as possibly members of this group. Their influence over pop culture began in the 1980s and has only grown in the 1990s and 2000s. Cultural Notes

13. Generation Y (Sometimes referred to as “the Millennials”) refers to a specific cohort of individuals born, roughly, between 1980-83 and 1994 (first half) and 1995-2001 (second half). “Generation Y” alludes to a succession from Generation X, a term which was made popular by the Canadian fiction writer Douglas Coupland in 1991. Generation Y are primarily children of the Baby boomers and Generation Jones (US only), though some are children of older Gen X adults. Cultural Notes

14. baby boomers As is often the case, after a major war, a lot more babies will be born. The end of World War II brought a baby boom to many countries, notably those in Europe, Asia, North America, and Australasia. There is some disagreement as to the precise beginning and ending dates of the post-war baby boom, but the range most commonly accepted is 1946 to 1964. Cultural Notes

15. Facebook is a social networking website launched on February 4, 2004. The free-access website is privately owned and operated by Facebook, Inc. Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook while he was a student at Harvard University. Cultural Notes

16. Cultural Notes • Website membership was initially limited to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Ivy League. It later expanded further to include any university student, then high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over. The website currently has more than 110 million active users worldwide.

17. Language Points Key Words & Expressions • 20-something (para. 1): • 指进入了20岁的青年人 • e.g. • Welcome to the 20 something room. （欢迎光临20岁青年之家。） • e.g. • With childhood and teenhood behind you, you’re just starting to find your path in life... Chat with fellow 20 something year olds. （你已经过了儿童和少年时代，你刚刚开始走上生活的道路……跟那些20来岁的青年们聊聊吧。）

18. Language Points • Taking time off (para. 2): • 这个短语并不难懂，但是很有用，抽出点时间做点什么事，如我们可以说 take time off from work意思是 stop working temporarily。或者是说Take time off and enjoy life。 • e.g. • e.g. Do you plan to take time off from work to vote next Tuesday? • （下周二你打算不上班去选举吗？）

19. Language Points • figure out (para. 4): • 是非正式用法： • (1) To discover or decide: Let’s figure out a way to help. • (2) To solve or decipher: Can you figure out this puzzle? • 这个用法通常都是在口语中使用。 • e.g. • Can you figure out what caused it? （你能够捉摸出是什么原因造成的吗？）

20. Language Points • kicked into high gear (para. 5): • 这算是一个习语，原本是说把引擎挂到高速挡上；这里比喻的用法，表示思维或者行动快 • e.g. • His mind was in high gear as he studied for the medical exam. （他的脑子高速运转，准备医学考试。） • e.g. • The political campaign is finally moving into high gear. （政治运动终于进入高速运转阶段。）

21. Language Points Difficult Sentences • This saves the company the $150,000 cost of losing an employee—not to mention the stress for employees of changing jobs. (para.4) • 在这句话中， “not to mention” 是做进一步补充说明，表示 “and also someone or something else” ，比如下面的例子：Gaining weight didn’t help her health, not to mention the high blood pressure that ran in her family. 或者They don’t have any of the players from that championship team anymore, not to mention manager Casey Stengel. • Usage note: used to add emphasis to what you are saying

22. Language Points • Old assumptions about what employees value in the workplace don’t always apply with Gen Y. (para.5) • 在这句话中apply 通常是与to搭配的，而这里确是使用了with，这是罕见的用法，在网上搜索未见到解答；类似的还有belong to和belong with，关系是一样的。我们先把后两者的关系搞清楚：’Belong to’ 所属关系，如The black 2008 Camry belongs to me； ‘Belong with’ 则强调的是相似的关系，它是与……同属于一类的关系，比如Dickens belongs with Hardy and Austen。后两者的关系搞清楚了，我们再回头看apply to 和apply with就比较好理解了。