59.
One day the writer took ________________________ to get to the
theatre by bus.
A.forty-five minutes B.fifteen minutes
C.exactly twenty minutes D.exactly twelve minutes
B
In the United States many have been told that
anyone can become rich and successful if he works hard and has some good luck.Yet, when one becomes rich, he wants people to know it.And even if he does not become very rich, he wants people to think
that he is.That is what
"Keeping up with the Joneses" is about.It is the story of someone who tries to look as rich as successful
and as his neighbors.
The expression was first used in 1913 by a
young American by the name of Arthur Momand.He told this story about himself: He began earning $ 125 a week at the age of 23.That was a lot of money in those days.Young Momand was very proud of his riches.He got married and moved with his wife to a very wealthy
neighborhood outside New York City.But just moving there was not enough.When he saw that rich people rode horses.Momand went horseback riding every day.When he saw that rich people had servants, Momand and his wife
also hired a servant and gave big parties for their new neighbors.
|
Momand looked around him and noticed that
many people do things just to keep up with their neighbors.He saw the funny side of it and started to write a series of short
stories.He called it
"Keeping up with the Joneses", because "Jones" is a very
common name in the United States."Keeping up with the Joneses" came to mean keeping up
with the people around you.Momand's series appeared in different newspapers across the
country for over 28 years.
People never seem to get tired of keeping up
with the Joneses.That is one
reason why they read the "right" books, go to the "right"
universities and eat in the "right" restaurants.
Every city has an area where people want to
live because others will think better of them if they do.And there are "Joneses" in every city of the world.But one must get tired of trying to keep up with the Joneses,
because no matter what one does, Mr Jones seems always to be ahead.