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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

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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.
From the passage, we know that Allan Greenspan______.
选项 A、is a successful economic advisor that wins unparallel popularity
B、identifies with the Republicans in tax cut for the rich and aid cut for the poor
C、backs up the rich’s claim that they are hardest hit in economic crisis
D、sympathizes more with the have-nots than with the haves
答案C
解析 文中第二段中提到了格林斯潘的名字。第二段提到格林斯潘在1974年的时候就任美国经济顾问委员会主席职位。虽然了解美国历史的同学都知道，格林斯潘是一位非常受人爱戴的经济顾问，最后成为了美国美联储的主席，但是文中并没有提到这个信息，因此我们应该将[A]排除。[B]也是错误的，第二段提到了格林斯潘新官上任，做的第一件事情就是召开会议，讨论减少穷人救济项目，但是他并没有提到给富人减税的问题。而在第一段中，作者提到共和党人承诺给富人减税，同时削减穷人救济项目，因此在这一点上格林斯潘和共和党人并不是完全一致的。[C]正确，第二段引用了格林斯潘的一段话，他说，“If you really wanted to examinepercentage—wise who was hurt the most on their income，it was Wall Street brokers．”“如果你想看看按照同样的百分比来算谁的收入损失最大，那得说是华尔街的经纪人。”因此，格林斯潘认同所谓的富人在经济危机中承受最大损失的言论。[C]正确，同时[D]错误。
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