在美国，有些父母因为要过自己的生活，害怕连累子女，会排斥子女要求一起同住的好意。的确，美国人民生活的自由习惯会促进这一现象的生成。今天就同托福小编一起来阅读今天的托福阅读材料吧!
在进行托福阅读之前，一起学习一下文章中的疑难词：
install vt. 安装；任命
euphemistic: 委婉的
relish: 喜爱，享受
stereotype n. 陈腔滥调，老套
fly in the face of: 悍然不顾，公然违抗
holdover: 剩余物；从前一时代过来的人(或物)
retrospectively: 回顾地，怀旧地
stubborn adj. 顽固的；顽强的
nuclear family独生子女家庭
Government Issue美国兵
多数美国父母不愿与子女同住
In a spirit of gratitude and giving back to the parents who raised them, Bill and Jackie Merz's daughters have extended a generous invitation.
"They both live in Chicago now," said Bill Merz, 75, a retired Sacramento State psychology professor. "One was willing to put an extra floor on her house and install an elevator for us so we could live there. The other wanted to convert her basement for us.
"I told them we'd have somebody shoot us before we did that."
The Merzes, who live in their own home at Eskaton Village Roseville, adore their extended, close-knit family, which also includes two sons in California and 11 grandchildren. But the idea of living with the kids in their older age leaves them cold.
"My first reaction was, 'I don't want you telling me what to do,'" said Jackie Merz, who is also 75 and a retired teacher and counselor.
Most older adults tend to be a bit more euphemistic about it: Typically, they say that they don't want to be a burden to their kids, or that they don't want to impose. But statistics show a plainer truth. In huge numbers, seniors relish their freedom, and they want to live on their own as long as they can.
In the Sacramento region, US census figures show that almost three-fourths of people 65 and older live in same-generation (as opposed to multigenerational) households. National figures are even higher, with nearly 80 percent of older adults living in their own households – more than triple the number from the 1940s.
A recent survey from the research firm Gallup & Robinson highlights that sense of independence. While 53 percent of people below age 65 said they would take in an aging parent who needed their help, only a quarter of people older than 65 said they would accept an invitation to live with their grown children.
Those attitudes fly in the face of a stubborn cultural cliché, in which the grandparents, kids and grandkids grow older together under one roof – a holdover from the days when there was no choice but for the generations to live together, like it or not.
"I think the stereotype exists because we continually look retrospectively," said Bill Merz. "It becomes a museum piece. Look at TV shows and movies about Christmas, the nuclear family they show.
"It hasn't been that way since World War II. GIs didn't come back from the war and move to Mom and Dad's neighborhood. They moved to the suburbs or across the country."
文章大意：
比尔•默茨和杰基•默茨夫妇的女儿们一心想要感谢和回报父母的养育之恩，对他们慷慨相邀。但是他们并不想这么做。
现默茨夫妇住在自己的家中，非常热爱他们紧密团结的大家庭，除了两个女儿，他们还有两个儿子和11个孙子和孙女。但想到要和孩子们住在一起，他们感到很不快。
多数老人对此的态度会委婉一些。通常，他们会说他们不愿成为孩子的负担，或他们不想强行要求孩子接纳他们。但数据却更直白地反应了真相。有相当多的老人很享受他们当下的自由状态，想尽可能地自己生活。
这种态度公然挑战了顽固的传统文化观念。在旧观念里，祖父母，子女，孙子和孙女应该在同一屋檐下生活，成长，老去，这是从远古时代遗留下来的传统——那时，无论喜欢还是不喜欢，人们没有选择，只能多代同堂。
而比尔·默茨觉得现在应该有现代的生活方式。
文章架构：
第1，2，3，4，5段：作者通过关于默茨夫妇与子女的例子，说明一种当代美国生活中的一种现象：父母不愿与子女生活在一起。
第6，7，8段：通过更多父母的反应及数据来论证相当多的老人很享受他们当下的自由状态，想尽可能地自己生活。
第9， 10段：这种态度公然挑战了顽固的传统文化观念。
长难句：
1.In a spirit of gratitude and giving back to the parents (who raised them), Bill and Jackie Merz's daughters have extended a generous invitation.
句子类型：介词短语表原因+定语从句
句子拆分：
主干：Bill and Jackie Merz's daughters have extended a generous invitation.
介词短语表原因：In a spirit of gratitude and giving back to the parents
定语从句：the parents (who raised them)
翻译：比尔•默茨和杰基•默茨夫妇的女儿们一心想要感谢和回报父母的养育之恩，对他们慷慨相邀。
2.National figures are even higher, with nearly 80 percent of older adults living in their own households – more than triple the number from the 1940s.
句子类型：with doing做状语
句子拆分：
主干：National figures are even higher
状语：with nearly 80 percent of older adults living in their own households
“后是对数目的进一步解释。
翻译：全国范围内这一比例甚至更高，将近80%的老人住在自己的房子里——比上世纪40年代这一数据的三倍还要高。
3.Those attitudes fly in the face of a stubborn cultural cliché,【( in which the grandparents, kids and grandkids grow older together under one roof )– a holdover from the days( when there was no choice but for the generations to live together, like it or not).】
句子类型：定语从句
句子拆分：
主干：Those attitudes fly in the face of a stubborn cultural cliché
定语从句in which the grandparents, kids and grandkids grow older together under one roof
when there was no choice but for the generations to live together, like it or not
翻译：这种态度公然挑战了顽固的传统文化观念。在旧观念里，祖父母，子女，孙子和孙女应该在同一屋檐下生活，成长，老去，这是从远古时代遗留下来的传统——那时，无论喜欢还是不喜欢，人们没有选择，只能多代同堂。
好了，以上就是我们今天的托福阅读文章，希望大家可以学习到相关的美国文化背景知识，前程百利祝大家都能取得理想的托福考试成绩。
您还可能关注：
