Now that members of Generation Z are graduating college this spring—the most commonly-accepted definition says this generation was born after 1995, give or take a year—the attention has been rising steadily in recent weeks. Gen Zs are about to hit the streets looking for work in a labor market that’s tighter than it’s been in decades. And employers are planning on hiring about 17 percent more new graduates for jobs in the U.S. this year than last, according to a survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Everybody wants to know how the people who will soon inhabit those empty office cubicles will differ from those who came before them.

    If “entitled” is the most common adjective, fairly or not, applied to millennials (those born between 1981 and 1995), the catchwords for Generation Z are practical and cautious. According to the career counselors and experts who study them, Generation Zs are clear-eyed, economic pragmatists. Despite graduating into the best economy in the past 50 years, Gen Zs know what an economic train wreck looks like. They were impressionable kids during the crash of 2008, when many of their parents lost their jobs or their life savings or both. They aren’t interested in taking any chances. The booming economy seems to have done little to assuage this underlying generational sense of anxious urgency, especially for those who have college debt. College loan balances in the U.S. now stand at a record $1.5 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve.

    One survey from Accenture found that 88 percent of graduating seniors this year chose their major with a job in mind. In a 2019 survey of University of Georgia students, meanwhile, the career office found the most desirable trait in a future employer was the ability to offer secure employment (followed by professional development and training, and then inspiring purpose). Job security or stability was the second most important career goal (work-life balance was number one), followed by a sense of being dedicated to a cause or to feel good about serving the greater good.

    That’s a big change from the previous generation. “Millennials wanted more flexibility in their lives,” notes Tanya Michelsen, Associate Director of YouthSight, a UK-based brand manager that conducts regular 60-day surveys of British youth, in findings that might just as well apply to American youth. “Generation Zs are looking for more certainty and stability, because of the rise of the gig economy. They have trouble seeing a financial future and they are quite risk averse.”

答案精析：本题为细节题。根据题干内容可直接定位至原文第一段首句。该句提到，Z一代人即将在今年春天大学毕业，近几周来，人们对其关注度一直在稳步上升。该段最后一句话也说到，每个人都想知道，那些即将进入办公室、在小隔间工作的Z一代人与之前的人有什么不同。由此可知，今年春天即将大学毕业的Z一代人引起了公众的广泛关注，故正确答案为D。

错项排除：A项利用原文首句中的commonly-accepted（普遍接受的）进行干扰，对应A项中的recognized（认可的），但原文并没有提到和abilities（能力）相关的信息，故A项错误。B项利用首段最后一句中的office cubicles进行干扰，但原文说的是公众想知道那些即将入职办公室隔间（office cubicles）的Z一代人与之前的人有什么不同，并没有提到Z一代人对办公室工作的倾向，故B项错误。原文首段第三句提到，雇主计划今年在美国招聘的应届毕业生比去年多了17%，但这无法说明Z一代人对劳动力市场持乐观态度，C项属于曲解文意，故排除。

长难句分析：Now that members of Generation Z are graduating college this spring—the most commonly-accepted definition says this generation was born after 1995, give or take a year—the attention has been rising steadily in recent weeks.

本句的主干为…the attention has been rising…，是主谓结构，句末的in recent weeks作主句的时间状语。句首的Now that…this spring为原因状语从句，两个破折号之间的内容为插入语，用于对Generation Z作解释说明。

句意为：由于Z一代人在今年春天即将大学毕业，人们对他们的关注度在最近几周稳步上升。对于Z一代人最普遍认可的定义是：在1995年（或前后一年）出生的人。