[originaltext] We often hear people say that America is a land of opportunit

游客2024-04-01  24

问题  
We often hear people say that America is a land of opportunity, a country built on hope to aspire to greatness on the American dream. But as the dream as we once knew is dying, [22] today’ s demographics show that the middle class is disappearing. And now the richest one percent of the population has amassed more wealth than the bottom ninety percent.
     [23] Once upon a time, Americans thought that if they worked hard enough, even in the face of adversity, they would be rewarded with success. These days, though, the divide between rich and poor is greater than it has ever been. The question is, what is it going to take to change things? Maybe one day soon, real change will actually be made in our nation, and the gap will be eradicated. But what happens in the meantime? Is there something that we can do to help close the gap? Is there something that we can do to prove that a little compassion goes a long way?
    If we want to fix the problem of the income gap, first, we have to understand it. It is a grim reality that you can have one person who only makes around thirteen thousand dollars a year, while across town another is making millions. For me, it is kind of astonishing. [24] And if you ask low-income people what’ s the one thing that would change their life, they’ll say a full-time job. That’ s all they aspire to.
    So why is it so difficult for so many people to find employment? It partly comes down to profit-driven business models that are built around low wage work and part-time jobs that don’ t provide benefits. [25] Businesses, in order to bolster profits, hire employees as part-time workers only. This means they are paid the lowest legal wage and receive no health care or other benefits provided to full-time employees. Simultaneously, technological advancement and a global economy has reduced the demand for well paying blue collar jobs here in the United States. The cumulative effect of these two factors is that many Americans are forced to take two or more part- time jobs just to make ends meet. What has become obvious to me when it comes to the income gap is that there needs to be an opportunity for the people at the bottom to push them back up and push them into the middle class to give them hope in their lives.
Questions 22 to 25 are based on the recording you have just heard.
22. What do the surveys show about America, according to the speaker?
23. What did Americans use to believe?
24. What do low-income people aspire to?
25. What do businesses do to increase their revenues?

选项 A、Its middle-class is disappearing.
B、Its wealth is rationally distributed.
C、Its population is rapidly growing.
D、Its cherished dream is coming true.

答案 A

解析 题干问的是根据演讲者所说,调查显示了美国的什么情况。讲座中提到,今天的人口统计显示中产阶级正在消失,故答案为A(中产阶级正在消失)。B项(财富分配合理)与讲座内容不符,讲座中提到最富有的1%的人比底层的90%的人积累的财富更多,故排除。C项(人口正在快速增长)在讲座中并未提及,故排除。D项(梦想即将实现)与讲座内容不符,讲座中提到的是美国人曾经的梦想正在破灭,故排除。
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