题目内容
They’ve us, 150,000 for the house, shall we take it?
A.provided B.supped C.shown D.offered
D
Rain was falling as my sister Jill and I ran out of the church, eager to get home and play with the 1 that Santa had left for us. Across the street was a gas station where the bus stopped. It was 2 for Christmas, but I noticed a family standing close to the locked door in an attempt to keep 3 .
We were on the way to our grandparents’ house for the Christmas dinner. We were approaching our destination(目的地) 4 my father U-turned in the middle of the road and said, “I can’t 5 it! They are standing in the rain. They’ve got children. It’s Christmas. ”
When my father 6 the gas station, he rolled down his window. “Merry Christmas. You are waiting for the 7 ?” Father asked.
The man said that they were. They were going to Birmingham, where he had a brother and 8 of a job.
“Why don’t you all get in the car and I’ll 9 you up there. ”
After they settled in, Father looked back over his 0 and asked the children if Santa had found them yet. Their sad faces gave him the 11 .
“Well, I didn’t think so,” my father said, “ 12 when I saw Santa this morning, he told me that he was having 13 finding all, and he asked me if he could leave your toys in my 14 . We’ll just 15 them first before I take you to your destination. ” All at once, the three children’s faces shone with 16 .
When we got out of the car at our house, the children 17 the front door and straight to the Christmas tree. One of the girls picked up Jill’s doll and 18 hugged it to her breast, and the other girl seized(抓住)something of mine.
All this happened many years ago, but the memory of it remains 19 . That was the Christmas when my sister and I learned the 20 of making others happy.
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You hear the comment all the time: the U.S. economy looks good by figures, but it doesn’t feel good. Why doesn’t ever-greater wealth promote ever-greater happiness? It is a question that dates at least to the appearance in 1958 of The Wealthy Society by John Kenneth Galbraith, who died recently at 97.
The Wealthy Society is a modern classic because it helped describe a new moment in the human condition. For most of history, “hunger, sickness, and cold” threatened nearly everyone, Galbraith wrote. “Poverty (贫穷) was found everywhere in that world. Obviously it is not of ours.” After World War II, the fear of another Great Depression gave way to an economic growth. In the 1930s unemployment had averaged 18.2 percent; in the 1950s it was 4.5 percent.
To Galbraith, materialism (物质主义) had gone mad and would cause discontent. Through advertising, companies conditioned consumers to buy things they didn’t really want or need. Because so much spending was artificial, it would be unsatisfying. Meanwhile, government spending that would make everyone better off was being cut down because people wrongly considered government only as “a necessary bad.”
It’s often said that only the rich are getting ahead; everyone else is standing still or falling behind. Well, there are many undeserving rich — overpaid chief managers, for instance. But over any meaningful period, most people’s incomes are increasing. From 1995 to 2004, people feel “squeezed” because their rising incomes often don’t satisfy their rising wants — for bigger homes, more health care, more education, and faster Internet connections.
The other great disappointment is that it has not got rid of insecurity. People regard job stability as part of their standard of living. As company unemployment increased, that part has gradually become weaker. More workers fear they’ve become “the disposable American,” as Louis Uchitelle puts it in his book by the same name.
Because so much previous suffering and social conflict resulted from poverty, the arrival of widespread wealth suggested utopian (乌托邦式的) possibilities. Up to a point, wealth succeeds. There is much less physical suffering than before. People are better off. Unfortunately, wealth also creates new complaints.
Advanced societies need economic growth to satisfy the multiplying wants of their citizens. But the search for growth cause new anxieties and economic conflicts that disturb the social order. Wealth sets free the individual, promising that everyone can choose a unique way to self-accomplishment. But the promise is so unreasonable that it leads to many disappointments and sometimes inspires choices that have anti-social consequences, including family breakdown. Figures indicate that happiness has not risen with incomes.
Should we be surprised? Not really. We’ve simply confirmed an old truth: the seeking of wealth does not always end with happiness.
【小题1】The Wealthy Society is a book ________.
A.about poverty in the past |
B.written by Louis Uchitelle |
C.indicating that people are becoming worse off |
D.about why happiness does not rise with wealth |
A.materialism has run wild in modern society |
B.they are in fear of another Great Depression |
C.public spending hasn’t been cut down as expected |
D.the government has proved to be necessary but ugly |
A.They think there are too many overpaid rich. |
B.There is more unemployment in modern society. |
C.Their material demands go faster than their earnings. |
D.Health care and educational cost have somehow gone out of control. |
A.People with a stable job. |
B.Workers who no longer have secure jobs. |
C.Those who see job stability as part of their living standard. |
D.People who have a sense of security because of their rising incomes. |
A.Stability and security. |
B.Materialism and content. |
C.A sense of self-accomplishment. |
D.New anxiety, conflicts and complaints. |