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  3. We are not who we think we are. The American self-image is suffused with the golden glow of opportunity. We think of the Uni

We are not who we think we are. The American self-image is suffused with the golden glow of opportunity. We think of the Uni

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问题     We are not who we think we are.
    The American self-image is suffused with the golden glow of opportunity. We think of the United States as a land of unlimited possibility, not so much a classless society but as a place where class is mutable — a place where brains, energy and ambition are what counts, not the circumstances of one’s birth.
    The Economic Mobility Project, an ambitious research initiative led by Pew Charitable Trusts, looked at the economic fortunes of a large group of families over time, comparing the income of parents in the late 1960s with the income of their children in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Here is the finding: The "rags to riches" story is much more common in Hollywood than on Main Street. Only 6 percent of children born to parents with family in come at the very bottom move to the top.
    That is right, just 6 percent of children born to parents who ranked in the bottom fifth of the study sample, in terms of income, were able to bootstrap their way into the top fifth. Meanwhile, an incredible 42 percent of children born into that lowest quintile are still stuck at the bottom, having been unable to climb a single rung of the income ladder.
    It is noted that even in Britain -- a nation we think of as burdened with a hidebound class system — children who are born poor have a better chance of moving up. When the three studies were released, most reporters focused on the finding that African-Americans born to middleclass or upper middle-class families are earning slightly less, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than did their parents.
    One of the studies indicates, in fact, that most of the financial gains white families have made in the past three decades can be attributed to the entry of white women into the labor force. This is much less true for African-Americans.
    The picture that emerges from all the quintiles, correlations and percentages is of a nation in which, overall, "the current generation of adults is better off than the previous one", as one of the studies notes.
    The median income of the families in the sample group was $ 55,600 in the late 1960s; their children’s median family income was measured at $ 71,900. However, this rising tide has not lifted all boats equally. The rich have seen far greater income gains than have the poor.
    Even more troubling is that our notion of America as the land of opportunity gets little support from the data. Americans move fairly easily up and down the middle rungs of the ladder, but there is "stickiness at the ends" -- four out of ten children who are born poor will remain poor, and four out of ten who are born rich will stay rich.  
The word "quintile" (Para. 4) refers to ______ in the passage.
选项 A、the bottom fifth
B、the study data
C、the sample group
D、the lowest family income
答案A
解析 这是道词义理解题，做题时先要定位该词，然后从上下文推断其含义。解题句为第四段整段“That is right，just 6 percent of children born to parents who ranked in the bottom fifth of the study sample，in terms of income，were able to bootstrap their way into the top fifth． Meanwhile，an incredible 42 percentOf children born into that lowest quintile are still stuck at the bottom，having been unable to climb asingle rung of the income ladder．”(是的，从收入角度而言，研究对象中排在最底层的1/5人群中，仅有6％的子女最终冲到了排在最前面的1/5；而该quintile中高达42％的子女仍然挣扎在社会最底层，在收入的社会阶梯上难进一步。)注意 meanwhile在这里起的作用，从这个词可以看出，前后两句讨论的对象属于同一个组别。D选项虽然也提到了最低家庭收入，但不是一个研究对象组，因此选C。(quintile：五分之一)
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