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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

admin2010-01-10  58
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.  
It can be inferred from the undertone of the writer that America, as a classless society, should ______.
选项 A、perfect its self-image as a land of opportunity
B、have a higher level of upward mobility than Britain
C、enable African-Americans to have exclusive access to well-paid employment
D、encourage the current generation to work as hard as the previous generation
答案B
解析 这是道逻辑推理题。注意提干中should的意思是指“应该如何如何”，也就是和美国的现状相反。解题句为“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．”(值得注意的是，即使在英国——一个众人眼中墨守成规的阶级社会——他们的后代竟然更有向上攀升的机会。)句中的better显然是和美国在进行比较，因此选B，B选项中的upward mobility指的就是向社会上层爬升的流动性。
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