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  3. A curious phenomenon occurs during every economic crisis—the rich whine that they are the ones who are suffering most. In curren

A curious phenomenon occurs during every economic crisis—the rich whine that they are the ones who are suffering most. In curren

admin2014-09-05  21
问题     A curious phenomenon occurs during every economic crisis—the rich whine that they are the ones who are suffering most. In current context, the wealthy even demands more tax cuts and more cuts in spending for programs aiding the poor, as every Republican presidential candidate promises.
    I first noticed this woe-is-me attitude among the rich in 1974 when Alan Greenspan had just been named chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. One of his first tasks was to address a conference with emphasis on cutting programs to aid the poor, which brought demonstrators to the event. In an effort to show that everyone was suffering from inflation, Mr. Greenspan said, " If you really wanted to examine percentage-wise who was hurt the most on their income, it was Wall Street brokers. "
    The urge to find ways to pity the well-off is still alive and well. Last week, Bloomberg News reported that declining bonuses are creating severe hardship for many in the top 1 percent of income distribution. One of them, Andrew Schiff, complained that his $350,000 salary barely covers his expenses. Others lamented that they could no longer go to Aspen to ski and must buy discount salmon.
    I have to admit that everyone’s suffering is subjective. But there does seem to be a widespread view that the poor don’t suffer as much from economic downturns because they are used to being at the bottom. As Bob Dylan put it, " When you got, nothing, you got nothing to lose. " Those with expectations of staying on top, who have grown used to living the good life, no doubt do suffer meaningfully when those expectations are shattered and they must learn to get by on incomes only five or 10 times the poverty-level income rather than 20 or 30 times.
    Admittedly, there doesn’t yet seem to be much downside for Republican candidates pandering to the rich. For one thing, they all have billionaires and other ultrarich people funding super political action committees for them. But one of these days, the Republican nominee will be chosen and will have to compete in the general election against President Obama. And it is unlikely that the Republican nominee can win with only conservative Republican votes; he will have to reach out to those who don’t necessarily believe that cutting taxes for the rich is the one and only policy that will stimulate growth.
    As a January poll from the Pew Research Center shows, two-thirds of Americans see strong conflict between the rich and the poor, up from 47 percent in 2009. And a number of polls show that Americans support higher tax rates on millionaires by a ratio of 2-to-1 or more. I think the Republican nominee is going to have a hard time responding if all he has to say is the rich need more tax cuts to compensate them for all their suffering during the economic crisis.
The tone the author adopts in describing the sufferings of the rich in Paragraph 3 is______.
选项 A、painful
B、satirical
C、suspicious
D、sympathetic
答案B
解析 作者在第三段中提到了富人们对自己受到的苦难的描述。Andrew Schiff，complained that his $：350，000 salary barely covers his expenses． Others lamented that theycould no longer go to Aspen to ski and must buy discount salmon．安德鲁·希夫就是抱怨自己35万美元的年薪几乎入不敷出。其他人则唉声叹气说自己再也不能去阿斯彭滑雪了，还得买打折的鲑鱼才行。滑雪、鲑鱼这些本身都不是生活中的必需品，弃之也无甚要紧，但是富人却在这里为了不能享受奢华的生活而怨声载道，作者这里的态度明显是反讽的态度。
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