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。根据题干中的Generation Zs和keenly aware可定位至原文第二段第三句，Gen Zs know对应题干关键词。该句说到，尽管Z一代人毕业时是过去50年中最好的经济时期，他们却仍知道经济列车在受到重创后是什么样子。第四句接着强调，在2008年经济危机期间，他们可能正是受影响最大的孩子，当时许多父母失去了工作或毕生的积蓄，或两者兼而有之。由此可见，Z一代人非常清楚地知道严峻的经济形势是什么样的，A项中的tough economic situation对应原文中的 economic train wreck，故正确答案为A。

错项排除：B项利用原文第四句的parents进行干扰，但原文说的是许多父母在经济危机时期失去了工作和积蓄，并没有说明父母对Z一代人有何期望，B项关键词expect在原文中没有依据，故错误。C项利用首段最后一句的differ from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的Z一代人与之前的人有什么不同，C项偷换概念，故错误。D项利用原文第二段第二句中的counselors进行干扰，但原文提到职业咨询师只是为了引用其对Z一代人的看法，并没有说明Z一代人认为咨询师的建议非常宝贵，故D项错误。