Passage 50
学霸导读 二十几岁的年华是成年期的重要准备阶段。你对自己二十几岁的生活有着怎样的憧憬呢？
For the longest time， adulthood—and the responsibilities that come with it—was thought to begin in your 20s. After f inishing school， 20-something-year-olds were expected to be independent， s 1 careers， and raise families. Many of today’s youth， however， are now delaying marriage， careers， children， and other milestones of adulthood. They p 2 off commitments （ 义务 ） and live with their parents. In the last few years， the media has romanticized （ 使浪漫化 ） this phenomena， coining phrases like “30 is the new 20” and “kidulthood”. Many “kidults” are l 3 serious decisions about work， marriage， and family until later， when they’re in their 30s.
Psychologist and TED speaker Meg Jay felt this way about her 20s， too， u 4 she had what she calls an “aha” moment. What changed her mind？ A 26-year-old woman named Alex. A 20-something herself， Jay was just starting her career as a counselor when Alex came to see her. Alex wanted a 5 on how to deal with her “knucklehead （ 笨蛋 ）” boyfriend. Jay didn’t consider Alex’s problem to be serious， however， her supervisor （ 指导者 ） points out that maybe Alex had a more complex problem. Perhaps Alex wasn’t taking her relationships s 6 enough. In other words， even though Alex knew she was with a person who wasn’t good enough for her， she might still end up marrying him or someone similar. “The best time to work on Alex’s marriage，” the supervisor said， “is b 7 she has one.”
Jay realized at that moment that the 20s aren’t a time for coasting, but rather, the best time to be making serious c 8 about the future and preparing for adulthood. She points out that 80 percent of life’s most def ining moments take p 9 by age 35. This means that eight out of ten of life’s important decisions and experiences will have happened by your mid-30s. Jay refers to research that backs this up:
· Female fertility （ 生育能力 ） peaks at age 28.
· More than half of Americans are married to or dating （ 约 会 ） their future partners by the age of 30.
· About 70 percent of lifetime wage growth happens in the f irst ten years of a career.
· The brain ends its f inal growth spurts （ 突然加速 ） in the 20s as it begins to rewire （ 重新配线 ） itself for adulthood. This means that if you want to change something about yourself， your 20s is a g 10 time to do it.
1.__________2.__________3.__________4.__________5.__________
6.__________7.__________8.__________9.__________10.__________
高频词汇
milestone /'maɪlstəʊn/ n. 里程碑；重大事件；转折点
coin /kɔɪn/ v. 创造（新词或新的表达）
acceptable /ək'septəbl/ adj. 可以接受的；可容许的
coast /kəʊst/ v. （通常指下山时凭借惯性） 滑行
peak /piːk/ v. 达到顶峰，达到最大值