Most of us Americans have a vague, uneasy sense of wicked wastefulness. We throw out the never-opened pack of food that’s past i

admin2019-04-08  36

问题     Most of us Americans have a vague, uneasy sense of wicked wastefulness. We throw out the never-opened pack of food that’s past its sell-by date before answering a call on the fourth mobile phone we have had in five years. We gaze around our living space groaning at the sheer quantity of little-used clothing, blocking it up like a blood clot in an arterial vein.
    Our despair is genuine at the way we are running out of the earth’ s resources and at the fact that we have so much when two-thirds of the world’s population only just get enough to eat and drink. Yet we feel completely powerless to do anything about it, too busy, irritable and tired to focus on practical steps.
    For the problem goes even deeper than material wastefulness: We know we are wasting our time, our being, our lives. We have compromised in our choice of career, lovers, friends: we put on a face to meet the faces that we meet. Trapped in marketing characters, not only in our office politics but in our intimate relationships, too, we play too many games.
    Deep down, we know that it’s time to "get a life" , to stop being distracted by pointless consumerism, unreal relationships, and "Affluenza-infected" career ambitions.
    The first step to salvation is to understand how much it is not your fault. If you read Vance Packard’s 1958 book about the advertising industry, The Hidden Persuaders, it proves that long ago retailers were devising ways to deliberately deceive us into confusing mixed wants with true needs in order to keep the consumption bandwagon rolling. In recent years, manufacturers have intentionally speeded up the rate at which electronic goods become obsolescent and instead of the proper repair customer services that used to exist, there are merely expensive help-lines, When your toaster or printer or MP3 music device breaks down after only a year, it is no accident that there is no one who will repair them—"it’d cost more than buying a new one, love".
    So this is a selfish capitalist system which is designed to maximize profits through rapid turnover of "newer, better" goods that break down sooner and are designed to be irreparable. It’s not your fault!
    What you can do is withdraw as much as possible from the consumption game. Every time you are about to buy something ask yourself, "do I need this, or do I just want it?"
To make ourselves feel better, we should first

选项 A、figure out whom to blame for our excessive consumption.
B、avoid making unnecessary purchases in our daily life.
C、pick out misleading messages in the advertisement.
D、exercise caution when making a big purchase.

答案A

解析 该题为细节题。由第五段第一句话“The first step to salvation is to understand how much it is not your fault.”可知,实现救赎的第一步是明白有多少过错不在于你。也就是说,缓解我们内心不安的第一步是弄清楚造成我们过度消费、浪费资源的主要原因是什么。该题的题干和选项A的内容是对这句话的变相表达,故选A。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/uICd777K
0

最新回复(0)