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  3. A curious phenomenon occurs during every economic crisis—the rich whine that they are the ones who are suffering most. In curren

A curious phenomenon occurs during every economic crisis—the rich whine that they are the ones who are suffering most. In curren

admin2014-09-05  21
问题     A curious phenomenon occurs during every economic crisis—the rich whine that they are the ones who are suffering most. In current context, the wealthy even demands more tax cuts and more cuts in spending for programs aiding the poor, as every Republican presidential candidate promises.
    I first noticed this woe-is-me attitude among the rich in 1974 when Alan Greenspan had just been named chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. One of his first tasks was to address a conference with emphasis on cutting programs to aid the poor, which brought demonstrators to the event. In an effort to show that everyone was suffering from inflation, Mr. Greenspan said, " If you really wanted to examine percentage-wise who was hurt the most on their income, it was Wall Street brokers. "
    The urge to find ways to pity the well-off is still alive and well. Last week, Bloomberg News reported that declining bonuses are creating severe hardship for many in the top 1 percent of income distribution. One of them, Andrew Schiff, complained that his $350,000 salary barely covers his expenses. Others lamented that they could no longer go to Aspen to ski and must buy discount salmon.
    I have to admit that everyone’s suffering is subjective. But there does seem to be a widespread view that the poor don’t suffer as much from economic downturns because they are used to being at the bottom. As Bob Dylan put it, " When you got, nothing, you got nothing to lose. " Those with expectations of staying on top, who have grown used to living the good life, no doubt do suffer meaningfully when those expectations are shattered and they must learn to get by on incomes only five or 10 times the poverty-level income rather than 20 or 30 times.
    Admittedly, there doesn’t yet seem to be much downside for Republican candidates pandering to the rich. For one thing, they all have billionaires and other ultrarich people funding super political action committees for them. But one of these days, the Republican nominee will be chosen and will have to compete in the general election against President Obama. And it is unlikely that the Republican nominee can win with only conservative Republican votes; he will have to reach out to those who don’t necessarily believe that cutting taxes for the rich is the one and only policy that will stimulate growth.
    As a January poll from the Pew Research Center shows, two-thirds of Americans see strong conflict between the rich and the poor, up from 47 percent in 2009. And a number of polls show that Americans support higher tax rates on millionaires by a ratio of 2-to-1 or more. I think the Republican nominee is going to have a hard time responding if all he has to say is the rich need more tax cuts to compensate them for all their suffering during the economic crisis.
In the author’s opinion, "When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose" is______.
选项 A、a prevailing misconception about the poor’s condition in economic recession
B、a famous saying illustrative of the rich’s huge loss in economic recession
C、descriptive of the mainstream view that the poor should be given more aid
D、indicative of the huge wealth gap between the rich and the poor in America
答案A
解析 题干中的这句话出现在文章的第四段。作者在第四段的第二句话中谈到，But theredoes seem to be a widespread view that the poor don’t suffer as much from economicdownturns because they are used to being at the bottom，“确实有一种广为流传的观点认为经济低迷时期穷人要比富人好过，因为他们已经习惯了社会底层的生活”。接着作者就引出了鲍勃·迪伦的这句名言，“When you got nothing，you got nothing to lose”。因此作者引用这句话的目的是为了再次强调社会上对于穷人在经济危机中的处境的一种普遍看法，人们认为穷人在经济危机中不可能遭到什么惨痛损失，因为本来也就一无所有。如果认同了这种观点，自然而然地也就会认同富人们在经济危机中损失惨重的观点。因此，在作者看来鲍勃·迪伦的这句名言，代表了人们的一种普遍心理，但这种心理是有失公允的。正确答案应该选[A]。这里的选项都比较长，考生做题时需要十分耐心，将选项看完整，然后再解题。
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