调查:多数美国人恋旧 宁愿回到过去

Most Americans think the quality of life for adults under 30 years old, or Generation Y, won't be as good as it is for their baby-boomer parents, according to a new poll.

More than 60 percent of people were pessimistic about the future, and 71 percent of young Americans under 30 said they would rather go back in time than leap to the future.

"It's interesting how strongly people feel things are getting worse, and how strongly people are backward looking," said Michael Hogan, 35, executive online editor at Vanity Fair which conducted the survey with CBS News.

"This is a time of high unemployment, people coming out of school with very few job prospects. The past probably seems more comforting," he added.

Although the past may seem appealing for young Americans, only 50 percent of seniors over 65 said they wanted to travel back in time.

The nationwide poll of 1,167 adults, which included questions about culture, lifestyle and politics, also revealed that if given the choice to take anything with them to the afterlife, 25 percent would take a pet, 47 percent would opt for a photo album but only nine percent wanted to take an iPhone or a Blackberry.

Despite romancing the past, people believe in rewarding the forward-minded. Thirty-three percent of those polled believe Internet entrepreneurs are most deserving of their large salaries, followed by 15 percent for sports stars and 12 percent for bankers. Only eight percent felt movie stars should get the dollars they do.

And despite a recent trip to the United States, more than three-quarters of people questioned could not identity David Cameron as the prime minister of Great Britain. Twenty seven percent might have confused him with "Avatar" director James Cameron when they thought he was a movie director.

The full results of the poll, which are published in Vanity Fair, can be found on 60MINUTES.com and VF.com.

一项最新民调显示，多数美国人认为30岁以下的年轻人——也就是所谓的“Y一代”的生活质量将不如他们出生于“婴儿潮”时期的父母。

超过60%的美国人对未来感到悲观，30岁以下的美国人中有71%的人说他们宁愿回到过去，而不是走向未来。

这项调查由美国《名利场》杂志和哥伦比亚广播公司共同开展。《名利场》杂志网站执行主编、35岁的迈克尔．霍根说：“人们强烈地感觉到生活越来越糟糕，并十分希望回到过去，这一现象值得关注。”

他说：“当今社会失业率高居不下，大学毕业生就业前景黯淡。而过去的岁月可没有这么‘惨’。”

尽管多数年轻人留恋过去，但65岁以上的老年人中只有50%的人希望时光倒流。

此外，调查显示，如果能选择一样东西带到来生，25%的人会带上宠物，47%的人会选择相册，只有9%的人选择带iPhone或黑莓手机。这项对1167名成年人开展的全国性调查涉及文化、生活方式和政治等方面。

尽管留恋过去，但人们仍然觉得那些有远见的人应得到相应的报酬。33%的受访者认为互联网创业者最应得到高收入，其次是体育明星（15%），12%的人认为是银行家。

只有8%的人觉得电影明星应得到丰厚的报酬。

尽管英国首相大卫．卡梅伦最近刚前往美国访问，但超过四分之三的美国人不知道他是何许人也。27%的人以为他是电影导演，可能是把他和电影《阿凡达》的导演詹姆斯．卡梅伦混淆了。

该调查的完整结果在《名利场》杂志上刊登，也可登陆60MINUTES.com和VF.com网站查看。

Vocabulary:

Generation Y: the generation of people born in the 1980s and 1990s, also known as the Millennial Generation or Generation Next or Net Generation, describes the demographic cohort following Generation X.（在20世纪80年代和90年代出生的一代人，也称为“新千年一代”或“网络一代”）

baby-boomer: someone who was born during a baby boom, especially during the years after the end of the Second World War 婴儿潮一代，（尤指英国和美国）生育高峰期（1945-1952）出生的人。

romance: to tell stories that are not true or to describe something in a way that makes it seem more exciting or interesting than it really is 虚构（故事）；渲染