首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Historians have only recently begun to note the increase in demand for luxury goods and services that took place in eighteenth-c
Historians have only recently begun to note the increase in demand for luxury goods and services that took place in eighteenth-c
admin
2015-04-24
42
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.
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:https://jikaoti.com/ti/CwJYFFFM
0
考博英语
相关试题推荐
Whenaninventionismade,theinventorhasthreepossible【C1】______ofactionopentohim;hecangivetheinventiontotheworl
Doctorshavelongknownthatlungcancer,whichkills160,000Americanseachyear,takesaheaviertollamongblackAmericans,part
BeforehighschoolteacherKimberlyRughgotdowntobusinessatthestartofarecentschoolweek,shejokedwithherstudents
Thetownplanningcommissionsaidthattheirfinancial______forthenextfiscalyearwasoptimistic;theyexpectincreasedtax
Themostexcitingkindofeducationisalsothemost.Nothingcan【61】thejoyofdiscoveringforyourselfsomethingthatisimpor
Investmentinthepublicsector,suchaselectricity,irrigation,quarrying,publicservicesandtransport(excludingvehicles,
InMicrosoft’slatestattempttoreachouttobloggers,thecompanyrecentlygaveawayexpensivelaptopsloaded【C1】_____itsnew
WiththeUSeconomyslowingdown,layoffsareeverywhere.Noindustryisspared.Ifyouenduphavingtostartover,inaddition
Lookatthismess!IfonlyI______youradvice.(南京大学2007年试题)
爱因斯坦生于德国南部的一个犹太中产阶级家庭。母亲非常喜欢音乐。爱因斯坦受她的影响很大。她鼓励小爱因斯坦对小提琴和古典音乐的爱好。他的父亲,一名工程师,对爱因斯坦的影响甚微。不过,是他送给他五岁儿子那个著名的玩具指南针,促发了小爱因斯坦的第一次“思想实验”:
随机试题
抢救新生儿窒息的首要措施是
只需摄仰卧腹部正位的疾病是
根据《企业职工伤亡事故分类标准》(GB6441--1986),下列事故分类的说法中,正确的有()
与城市规划管理相关的行政处罚主要有()。
水利工程质量事故分类中,经处理后,对工程使用寿命有影响的事故是()。
炊事员上岗必须穿戴工作服帽,持有效的( )。
背景资料某城市市区主要路段的地下两层结构工程,地下水位在坑底以下2.0m。基坑平面尺寸为145m×20m,基坑挖深为12m,围护结构为600mm厚地下连续墙,采用四道Φ609mm钢管支撑,竖向间距分别为3.5m、3.5m和3m。基坑周边环境为:西侧距地下
读下面两幅图,回答下列问题。据各自然带在左上图中的位置,能得出的正确结论是()。
23OakAvenueManchesterDearSirorMadam,
______markedtheturningpointofAmericanCivilWar.
最新回复
(
0
)