It is normal for parents to question their children's hairstyle or the clothes they wear. But today teenagers and their parents argue over something else: money.
Children are spending lots of it. Parents used to say to their children, "You're wearing that?" Now they say, "You paid how much for that?"
Children in the US today spend five times more money than their parents did when they were young.
So what are all these children buying? The list is long: ipods trainers(训练鞋), cellphones and jeans are typical items that children "have to" buy. And they will do anything to get them. They ask their parents over and over until they buy them.
But parents also need to take the blame for spending so much money. They want their children to have the best stuff. They end up competing with other parents over what their children have.
So no wonder children find it hard to learn the importance of saving money rather than spending it all the time.
And it's hard to save when companies use advertising and clever slogans to encourage young people to buy their products. They even encourage children to keep asking their parents for something until they get it.
Today, you don't even need to have money in order to buy something. Banks give out credit cards and loans all the time so people are saving less and less. We are used to there being lots of money around. And if you don't have much you can always borrow some.
But this hasn't always been the case. When our grandparents were young there was very little money and everyone had to save hard for things they bought. They only bought things they needed, not things they just wanted.
The older generation made the wise expression, "Money doesn’t grow on trees." This is as true now as it was 50 years ago. They give money a great deal of value. And we all have a lot to learn from them.
小题1:The text mainly tells us ________.
A．divisions between teenagers and their parents
B．children's high consumption (消费) of products
C．what is popular among children at the moment
D．how to spend money wisely小题2:Parents are to blame for children's spending a lot of money because ________.
A．they encourage children to care about the latest fashion
B．their consumption habits set a bad example for children
C．they always give children too much pocket money
D．they do nothing to help children establish healthy consumption habits小题3:Nowadays people find it hard to save money because of all of the following reasons EXCEPT that ________.
A．banks provide credit cards and loans
B．advertisements draw people’s attention to new products
C．people have more money than in the past and saving is out of date
D．people's living standard has improved and they can buy what they want小题4:The saying "Money doesn't grow on trees." in the last paragraph is intended to tell us that ________.
A．the older generation understood how to teach children to save
B．in the past, people attached more importance to saving money
C．money has a great deal of value
D．money is not easily earned and people should be careful spending it
