首页
登录
职称英语
Historians have only recently begun to note the increase in demand for luxur
Historians have only recently begun to note the increase in demand for luxur
游客
2025-04-07
27
管理
问题
Historians have only recently begun to note the increase in demand for luxury goods and services that took place in eighteenth-century England. McKendrick has explored the Wedgwood firm’s remarkable success in marketing luxury pottery; Plumb has written about the proliferation of provincial theater, musical festivals, and children’s toys and books. While the fact of this consumer revolution is hardly in doubt, three key questions remain: Who were the consumers? What were their motives? And what were the effects of the new demand for luxuries?
An answer to the first of these has been difficult to obtain. Although it has been possible to infer from the goods and services actually produced what manufacturers and servicing trades thought their customers wanted, only a study of relevant personal documents written by actual consumers will provide a precise picture of who wanted what. We still need to know how large this consumer market was and how far down the social scale the consumer demand for luxury goods penetrated. With regard to this last question, we might note in passing that Thompson, while rightly restoring laboring people to the stage of eighteenth-century English history, has probably exaggerated the opposition of these people to the inroads of capitalist consumerism in general; for example, laboring people in eighteenth-century England readily shifted from home-brewed beer to standardized beer produced by huge, heavily capitalized urban breweries.
To answer the question of why consumers became so eager to buy, some historians have pointed to the ability of manufacturers to advertise in a relatively uncensored press. This, however, hardly seems a sufficient answer. Mckendrick favors a veblem model of conspicuous consumption stimulated by competition for status. The "middling sort" bought goods and services because they wanted to follow fashions set by the rich. Again, we may wonder whether this explanation is sufficient. Do not people enjoy buying things as a form of self-gratification? If so, consumerism could be seen as a product of the rise of new concepts of individualism and materialism, but not necessarily of the frenzy for conspicuous competition.
Finally, what were the consequences of this consumer demand for luxuries? McKendrick claims that it goes a long way toward explaining the coming of the Industrial Revolution. But does it? What, for example, does the production of high-quality pottery and toys have to do with the development of iron manufacture or textile mills? It is perfectly possible to have the psychology and reality of a consumer society without a heavy industrial sector.
That future exploration of these key questions is undoubtedly necessary should not, however, diminish the force of the conclusion of recent studies: The insatiable demand in eighteenth-century England for frivolous as well as useful goods and services foreshadows our own world. [br] In the third paragraph, the author is primarily concerned with______.
选项
A、contrasting two theses and offering a compromise
B、questioning two explanations and proposing a possible alternative to them
C、paraphrasing the work of two historians and questioning their assumptions
D、examining two theories and endorsing one over the other
答案
B
解析
段落主旨题。原文第三段的首句和第二句是对某一个question的一种解释。原文第三段的第三、四、五句是对同一个问题的另一种解释。原文作者对这两种解释提出了质疑。原文第三段的第六句和尾句是作者针对前面两个解释所提出的本人的解释。可见本题的正确选项是B。
转载请注明原文地址:http://tihaiku.com/zcyy/4029822.html
相关试题推荐
Historianshaveonlyrecentlybeguntonotetheincreaseindemandforluxur
Historianshaveonlyrecentlybeguntonotetheincreaseindemandforluxur
Historianshaveonlyrecentlybeguntonotetheincreaseindemandforluxur
China’s______culturalheritageshouldbebetterprotectedthroughincreasedeff
Historianshaveonlyrecentlybeguntonotetheincreaseindemandforluxur
Historianshaveonlyrecentlybeguntonotetheincreaseindemandforluxur
Historianshaveonlyrecentlybeguntonotetheincreaseindemandforluxur
Historianshaveonlyrecentlybeguntonotetheincreaseindemandforluxur
HistorianssuchasLeRoyLadurichaveusedthedocumentstoextractcasehistor
Thepriceincreasehashadno______effectonsales.A、susceptibleB、invisibleC、p
随机试题
Whichattitudeisassociatedwiththefollowingpeopleduringtheconversation?
Today,thepooraren’tjustmorelikelytogetdivorced.They’remorelikely
按工作原理超声诊断仪的探头可分为A.线阵探头和环阵探头 B.扇形探头和凸阵探头
根据学生的身心发展水平,美术课程将义务教育阶段的美术学习分成几个学段()。A.
团队绩效奖励计划的分类中,能够对跳槽形成一定约束的是()。A:递延式滚存制 B
某单位组织100名员工进行体检,员工可自愿选择甲、乙、丙三个体检项目。结果发现
以下是一个4×4的图形,共有16个小方格,每个小方格中均可填入一个字,要求图
男性,34岁,因急性阑尾炎穿孔伴局限性腹膜炎,行阑尾切除术后5天,仍有腹痛,腹胀
结核性与癌性胸腔积液鉴别要点是A.胸水颜色 B.胸水比重 C.胸水蛋白质含量
蛛网膜下腔出血最常见的病因是 A.动静脉畸形 B.肿瘤破坏血管 C.先天性
最新回复
(
0
)