[originaltext] A few years ago it was fashionable to speak of a generation g

A few years ago it was fashionable to speak of a generation gap, a division between young people and their elders. Parents complained that their children did not show them proper respect and obedience, while children complained that their parents did not understand them at all.(l)One important cause of the generation gap is the opportunity that young people have to choose their own life styles. In more traditional 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 approve of and often to continue the family occupation.(2)In our society, young people often travel great distances for their education, move out of the family home at an early age, and choose occupations different from those of their parents. In our modern society, parents often expect their children to do better than they did; to find better jobs, to make more money, and to do all the things that they were unable to do. But 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 generations. In a traditional culture, elderly people are valued for their wisdom, but in our society the knowledge of a lifetime may become obsolete overnight.(3)The best way to narrow the gap is that parents and children should be mutually respected.