65.
The article mainly tells us about __________.
A. the great inventors in the world
B. the important inventions in the world
C. the short history of household machines
D. the importance of the machines used in the
home
C
Abby
Subark is a mother of two from Boston.
“For my kids, I’m nervous. I don’t know if they’ll be able to achieve their
American dream.” She may be right. More than hard work or education, the best
way to get rich in America
is to be born rich.
It is
the case that somebody who is in the upper class of income, poor scores, in the
bottom on tests when they are in eighth grade, is more likely to go to college
and finish college than a poor kid with the top scores. That’s what the working
person’s children are up against.
The
Economic Policy Institute finds it would take a poor couple with 2 children 9
or 10 generations to achieve middle class status. That’s about 200 years. The
hallmark(特征)of American opportunity has
always been the ability to do better than your parents. But compared with
similar developed countries, the United States ranks fifth out of six for
so-called intergenerational mobility(变动).
If you
look at the mechanisms(机制)for upward mobility that were
so readily available 50 years ago, they are becoming out of reach, like
plentiful factory jobs with good wages and affordable education and health
care.
White
families are twice as likely as blacks to be upwardly mobile. For most people
in America
today, where you end up depends on where you start.
If you
started in the middle-income class, about 40 to 45 percent of what you are
making right now is due to the fact that your parents were in the middle-income
class. The rest is up to you.
But
for the millions of people who find themselves below the poverty line(贫困线)and
the millions more who are the working poor, their starting point for the
American dream leaves them painfully far away from the middle class.