A few years ago it was (36) ________ to speak of a generation gap, a division between young people and their elders. Parents (37) ________ that children did not show them proper respect and (38) ________, while children complained that their parents did not understand them at all. What had gone wrong? Why had the generation gap suddenly appeared? (39) ________, the generation gap has been around for a long time. Many (40) ________ argue that it is built into the fabric of our society.

　　One important cause of the generation gap is the (41) ________ that young people have to choose their own life styles. In more (42) ________ societies, when children grow up, they are expected to live in the same area as their parents, to marry people that their parents know and (43) ________ of, and often to continue the family occupation. In our society, young people often travel great distances for their education, move out of the family home at an early age, marry or live with (44) ________________________.

　　In our upwardly mobile society, parents often expect their children to do better than they did: to make more money, and to do all the things that they were unable to do. Often, however, (45) ________________________. Often, they discover that they have very little in common with each other.

　　Finally, the speed at which changes take place in our society is another cause of the gap between the generations. In a traditional culture, (46) ________________________. The young and the old seem to live in two very different worlds, separated by different skills and abilities.