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  3. This week, many Americans will be buying into the same dream: winning the unprecedentedly large $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot o

This week, many Americans will be buying into the same dream: winning the unprecedentedly large $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot o

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问题     This week, many Americans will be buying into the same dream: winning the unprecedentedly large $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot on Wednesday night. Since last week, when the jackpot had accrued to over $500 million, Powerball tickets have been reportedly flying off bodega and convenience-store counters. The odds of winning remain 1 in 292 million—that’s why the lottery is sometimes called a "stupidity tax" — but a ticket’s $2 price tag does make it a low-risk impulse buy. (Alex Tabarrok, over at Marginal Revolution, suggests that those who participate should buy tickets early in order to enjoy their real value—the pleasure of anticipation—for longer).
    A reader complains: "The lottery is a scheme acted on the poorest and most gullible." Many people are hoping to acquire this tremendous windfall, but is what they’re after something that will actually make them happy? Anecdotes about how winning the lottery can be bad luck abound—a winning ticket has led some "lucky" winners into bankruptcy, or worse. But there’s also the possibility that all of the lottery winners who are living comfortably don’t make headlines.
    Researchers have tried to figure out which of these narratives is more accurate by looking into two questions whose answers lottery players assume to be in the affirmative; Does winning the lottery make people rich in the long run? And does an influx of tons of cash make people happier? Their results, though, suggests that these answers aren’t so straightforward.
    In the late 1970s and ’80s, the sociologist H. Roy Kaplan performed now-classic research on what became of lottery winners. His most famous study asked lottery winners how happy they had been before and after their big checks arrived. That 1978 study, which had a very small sample size, famously found that lottery winners were not that much happier than the control group—a bunch of people who didn’t win the lottery—after their win. (A 2008 Dutch study concluded the same thing.) Kaplan did a bigger study in 1987 on 576 lottery winners, and found that "popular myths and stereotypes about winners were inaccurate"—by which he meant that American lottery winners did not typically quit their jobs and spend lavishly.
    In the end, while winning can turn out bad, the real bad thing is probably the lottery itself; America, especially its poor households, spends way too much on it, and the odds are worse than at a casino.
Which of the following may be the best title of the text?
选项 A、What becomes of lottery winners?
B、Does lottery promise a work-free life?
C、Are Powerball tickets worth buying?
D、How do winners manage their finances?
答案A
解析 (1)本题需要综合全文内容并比较四个备选选项的恰当性。(2)文章第l段以“强力球大奖”为例说明美国人积极参与购买彩票。第2段介绍了人们对彩票中奖者(winners)的各种说法，并在第3段给出了评论，即事实并非那么简单。第4段顺理成章地使用了科学研究证明人们所持的看法有失偏颇。(3)第5段给出了彩票是坏事的总结。综合这些信息，确定选项[A]正是本文要回答的问题。
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