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  3. Millions of Americans run to the bank or visit automated teller machines when they need cash. They use credit cards when they wa

Millions of Americans run to the bank or visit automated teller machines when they need cash. They use credit cards when they wa

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问题    Millions of Americans run to the bank or visit automated teller machines when they need cash. They use credit cards when they want to buy clothes, VCRs, or television sets.
   But there is an underclass--people with low incomes and no credit history--who visit their neighbourhood pawnshops when they need cash or a loan.
   An estimated 20 percent of the US population has no bank account, more than half of this group don’t have credit cards and cannot get bank loans.
   "These people are borrowing an average of $ 50," said John P. Caskey of Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. "If you add up in terms of how much dollar value pawnshops provide they don’t look very important. If you add up how much of the population they serve or the number of loans they make, they are important."
   Because they make loans, pawnshops are a type of bank, often calling themselves "the bank of the little people".
   Caskey and Swarthmore student Brain Zikmund in 1989’ looked at the importance of pawnshops in the US economy--the first serious study of the subject since the 1930s.
   Their conclusion: pawnshops are the consumer’s lender of last resort.
   Pawnshop customers typically cannot get credit at mainstream financial institutions. They have poor credit records, excessive debt in relation to their incomes, low and unstable incomes, or cannot maintain positive bank account balances.
   Typically, pawnshop customers borrow relatively small amounts that traditional lenders are unwilling or unable to provide on a secured basis.
   "If you look at total consumer credit, the amounts provided by pawnshops remain small," Caskey said. "They are lending primarily to low-income people. In terms of the population they serve, they’re really important."
   In 1988, about 6,900 pawnshops operated in the United States--one for every two banks. Data suggest these pawnshops made about 35 million loans, providing that Caskey and Zimund estimate as 1 percent of the nation’s consumer credit.
According to John P. Caskey, pawnshops are important because
选项 A、they provide great dollar value to the poor
B、they make big loans
C、they are serving the majority of the population
D、they make a, large number of loans to the poor
答案D
解析 细节理解题。由文章最后一段可知，“当铺为穷人提供了大量的借款”，因此，D选项为正确答案。A、B选项与文意不符。C选项与事实相反，由文章第三段第一句可知，大约只有10%的人(即穷人)才使用当铺，而不是大部分人。
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