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  3. It is widely believed that our never-ending quest for material goods is part of the basic character of human beings. According t

It is widely believed that our never-ending quest for material goods is part of the basic character of human beings. According t

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问题     It is widely believed that our never-ending quest for material goods is part of the basic character of human beings. According to the popular belief, we may not like it, but there’s little we can do about it.
    Despite its popularity, this view of human nature is wrong. While human beings may have a basic desire to strive towards something, there is nothing inevitable about material goods. There are numerous examples of societies in which things have played a highly restricted rule. In medieval Europe, the acquisition of goods was relatively unimportant. The common people, whose lives were surely poor by modern standards, showed strong preferences for leisure rather than money. In the nineteenth-and early twentieth-century United States, there is also considerable evidence that many working people also exhibited a restricted appetite for material goods.
    Materialism is not a basic trait of human nature, but a specific product of capitalism. With the development of the market system, materialism "spilled over", for the first time, beyond the circles of the rich. The growth of the middle class created a large group of potential buyers and the possibility that mass culture could be oriented around material goods. This process can be seen not only in historical experiences but is now going on in some parts of the developing world, where the growth of a large middle class has contributed to extensive materialism and the breakdown of traditional values.
    In the United States, the turning point was the 1920s—the point at which the "psychology of shortage" gave way to the "psychology of abundance". This was a crucial period for the development of modern materialism. Economy and discipline were out; waste and excess were in. Materialism flourished—both as a social ideology and in terms of high rates of real spending. In the midst of all this buying, we can detect the origins of modern consumer discontent.
    This was the decade during which the American dream, or what was then called "the American standard of living", captured the nation’s imagination. But it was always something of an illusion. Americans complained about items they could not afford—despite the fact that in the 1920s most families had telephones, virtually all had purchased life insurance, two-thirds owned their own homes and took vacations, and over half had motor cars.
    The discontent expressed by many Americans was promoted—and to a certain extent even created—by manufacturers. The explosion of consumer credit made the task easier, as automobiles, radios, electric refrigerators, washing machines—even jewelry and foreign travel—could be paid for in installments. By the end of the 1920s, 60 percent of cars, radios, and furniture were being purchased this way. The ability to buy without actually having money helped encourage a climate of instant satisfaction, expanding expectations, and ultimately, materialism.
选项 A、the quest for material goods is the basic character of human beings
B、there’s little we can do about the quest for material goods
C、in many cases, the function of material goods is very limited in the society
D、the common people tend to prefer leisure to money
答案C
解析 本题是细节题，参见文章第1、2段，其大意是：人们想当然地认为物质至上主义必然带来难以满足的物欲，并且普遍认为，对物质的追求永不停止是人的本性。尽管上述观点十分流行，但却是对人性的误解。人类可能会有索取某物的驱动力，但是，该物的需要并非是绝对不可替换的。社会生活中有许多案例，说明物质的作用是非常有限的。
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