Millions of Americans survive (生产) in low-paying jobs. The Working Poor (319 pages), by David Shipler, a Pulitzer-winning former

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问题 Millions of Americans survive (生产) in low-paying jobs. The Working Poor (319 pages), by David Shipler, a Pulitzer-winning former reporter, shows just how barely they get by.
   In his tour around the world of low-paying jobs, Shipler describes a kind of domino model of a downward cycle." Poor housing can worsen a child’s illness, which leads to a call for a doctor, which results in a medical bill that cannot by paid, which ruins a credit record, which raises the interest rate on an auto loan (贷款), which results in the buying of a used car, which causes a mother to be late for work, which limits her pay raise and earning ability,  which keeps her to poor housing, which worsens the illness, and so on."
   What Shipler aims to do in the book is to produce a picture of all of those dominoes at once, the problems that keep the working poor on the edge of household disaster (灾难). As the conditions for the lowest-paid workers keep worsening, he writes," the low-paid employees have been testing the American belief in hard work."
   To those who don’t quite make it from paycheck to paycheck, convenience stores in poor neighborhoods lend money at interest rates of about of 20% for a two-week loan. If that can’t be repaid, it’s gladly rolled over—for another 20%. In the space of a few months, he or she owes twice as much in interest as he borrowed.
   Shipler doesn’t place all the blame on society. The people he meets often lack the soft skills that employers require, like showing up on time, following directions, even knowing how to comb their hair. To be sure, they need better schools and medical care, but they also need to know better than to use their hard-earned checks to get drunk and disorderly, or go in for ill-advised sex and foolish spending.

选项 A、show how the poor can improve their living conditions
B、discuss the reasons why many Americans are poor
C、introduce David Shipler’ s book about the poor
D、describe how a reporter has become a writer

答案C

解析 主旨题。文章整体都在讲希普勒写的这本书的内容,揭示了穷人如何在贫穷这个多米诺模式里一直贫穷的过程和原因,并提到了希普勒提出的改变穷人贫穷现状的建议措施。
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