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It seems like Americans use credit cards for everything. It's a lot easier to spend money

that you don't see, isn't it? Many Americans spend money that isn't even there and get deeper and deeper in debt. Why do so many people spend more than they have? "Buy now, pay later" has become an American way of life. Recently, American households spent nearly 11 billion dollars more than they earned, creating a negative saving rate.

There are two ideas—one, living within your means, and the idea that living on debt is a great equalizer(平衡装置). They both have validity because it is important that someone live within their means over their lifetime. When people are young and they are earning money, but they have very little savings, they almost have to borrow in order to own a house or own a car. But as they grow older, they should develop the habit of saving, so that by the time they reach the end of their earning life, they have savings to live on in retirement, and live within their means.

"Buy now, pay later" worked very well for us in the 1990s, but one suspects it won't work forever. The only thing that concerns me is that Americans are so contented, so optimistic, so unconcerned about any bumps in the road that many American households, not all of them, but many American households are very heavily extended in personal credit, a lot of credit card debt. People are paying very high prices for houses and borrowing heavily against those prices; and if we do run into a bump in the road, a recession, there are going to be a lot of households, not all of them, but many households that Ml be severely squeezed. That means we're more vulnerable to serious financial distress than Japan is. Japan has been in financial distress for ten years, but one reason it's been able to weather that is that the households had been very conservative, had a lot of savings, were very liquid, and were able to weather difficult times. And many American households would now be less able to do that because they are so heavily in debt.

We know from the passage that credit cards

A.make Americans get deeper and deeper in debt

B.are likely to be abandoned by more Americans

C.will soon become a symbol of American life

D.will help solve potential financial problems

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更多“It seems like Americans use cr…”相关的问题
第1题
听力原文:All right! Enough cookies, cola, and chips! It seems that junk food is all that t

听力原文: All right! Enough cookies, cola, and chips! It seems that junk food is all that the children want to eat these days.Television controls their tastes. The kids see well-known personalities eating potato chips, candy, and other processed food, and they want to be like their heroes. How do they do it? They eat the same food. I wish there were more characters like old Popeye the sailor, who ate spinach and not French fries.

Just because I like brown rice, beans, and fresh vegetables, I don't expect my children to cat this "health food." I'm glad to cook traditional meals of meat and potato for them. I really can't be too upset with the kids because most adults aren't careful about what they eat. The other night, my wife and I went to a party where there was plenty to drink but very little for us to eat. They served hot dogs and hamburgers. I can't eat hot dogs, with all those preservatives, and hamburgers are filled with chemicals so that they look good. Besides the meat, they had sugar filled cookies and cake, and, of course, chips. Terrible! I don't want the world to change because of me, but I think that people should realize that there are alternatives to eating meat. They always tell me that I probably don't get my essential proteins. But I feel better than ever and I'm sure that it's because I'm vegetarian. I would really like to see more television advertisements which show the benefits of good, healthy, natural food.

(26)

A.Beans.

B.Cookies.

C.French fries.

D.Potato chips.

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第2题
An interesting theory in economics is demonstrated by the Head Man of a small mountain tri
be. It seems that this tribe was very good at making straw mats that had great sales potential in the【C1】______market. The representative of an American company【C2】______to visit the tribe and【C3】______to make a good business deal. He【C4】______to the Head Man and【C5】______that his company would like to【C6】______several thousand pieces. Undoubtedly, he said, the business【C7】______would be profitable to the【C8】______. After some thought the Head Man【C9】______, but announced that the price per【C10】______would be higher on such a【C11】______order than it would be if【C12】______a small order were placed. The representative was【C13】______than a little shocked【C14】______the business sense of the Head Man【C15】______insisted that the price should be【C16】______because of the large volume, and【C17】______not higher. "No, "replied the Head of the tribe【C18】______. "But why not?" asked the American. "Because【C19】______is so tiresome to make the【C20】______article over and over, "answered the Head Man.

【C1】

A.world

B.global

C.worldly

D.globe

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第3题
LTC AUSTRALIA 618 823777 25 Apr. 1999 P. 02Dear Mr. Lin Thank you for your fax, which we received on 21 April. However, I have been away at a conference for a few days and I have only just had the (19) to read it. I apologize for the consequent delay in (20) to you. It appears that you were not completely (21) with the training videos that we sent you. However, there seems to be some confusion, and I would just like to (22) a couple of points. First of all, I would like to (23) what I said in my original letter: if you (24) the videos unusable we will be quite prepared to (25) all your money. However, it was not clear from your fax whether you had (26) all the videos, or just one or two. We have received favorable (27) about the videos from a number of our customers. In particular, the "Safety at Work" and First Aid "videos are extremely" (28) I would be grateful, therefore, if you could (29) that all ten videos are checked. Please (30) out the ones that you find most (31) or your needs, and return the (32) cassettes. I will then be able to (33) the amount payable to you.I look forward to hearing from you.Yours sincerely, (Signature )John Peters(Customer Services)

A.suitable

B.close

C.right

D.convenient

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第4题
To say that the child learns by imitation and that the way to teach is to set a good examp
le is a bit oversimplified. No child imitates every action he sees. Sometimes, the example the parent wants him to follow is ignored while he takes over contrary patterns from some other ' example. Therefore we must turn to a more subtle theory than "Monkey see, monkey do".

Look at it from the child's point of view. Here he is in a new situation, lacking a ready response. He is seeking a response which will gain certain ends. If he lacks a ready response for the situation, and cannot reason out what to do, he observes a model who seems able to get the right result. The child looks for an authority or expert who can show what to do.

There is a second element at work in this situation. The child may be able to attain his immediate goal only to find that his method brings criticism from people who observe him. When shouting across the house achieves his immediate end of delivering a message, he is told emphatically that such a racket is unpleasant, that he should walk into the next room and say his say quietly. Thus, the desire to solve any objective situation is overlaid with the desire to solve it properly. One of the early things the child learns is that he gets more affection and approval when his parents like his response. Then other adults reward some actions and criticize others. If one is to maintain the support of others and his own self-respect, he must adopt responses his social group approves.

In finding trial responses, the learner does not choose models at random. He imitates the person who seems a good person to be like, rather than a person whose social status he wished to avoid. If the pupil wants to be a good violinist, he will observe and try to copy the techniques of capable players; while some other person may most influence his approach to books.

Admiration of one quality often leads us to admire a person as a whole, and he becomes an identifying figure. We use some people as models over a wide range of situations, imitating much that they do. We learn that they are dependable and rewarding models because imitating them leads to success.

The statement that children learn by imitation is incomplete because ______.

A.they only imitate authorities and experts

B.they are not willing to copy their parents

C.the process of identification has been ignored

D.the nature of their imitation as a form. of behavior. has been neglected

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第5题
Do you ever feel like the weather is out to get you? All week long, it seems, you sit insi
de at school while the sun shines outside. Then, as soon as the weekend comes, the sky turns gray. There's rain in the forecast.

In some ways, you may be right. Weekend weather differs from weekday weather in certain places, say researchers who studied more than 40 years of weather data from around the world. They focused on temperature differences between daytime highs and nighttime lows. This difference measurement is called the daily temperature range, or DTR.

Part of the study involved 660 weather stations in the continental United States. At more than 230 of these sites, the average DTR for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday was different from the average DTR for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, the researchers found. The difference was small only several tenths of a Celsius degree-but the pattern was striking enough to make the scientists take notice.

In the southwestern U. S., temperature ranges were typically broader on weekends. In the Midwest, weekdays saw larger daily temperature variations.

This sort of weekly rise and fall doesn't line up with any natural cycles, the researchers say. Instead, they blame human activities, possibly air pollution from those activities, for these weather effects. For example, tiny particles in the air could affect the amount of cloud cover, which would in turn affect daily temperatures.

So, tiny windborne particles from California, generated on weekdays, might first affect weather close to home in the southwest, then later influence midwestern weather.

It looks like your weekend weather has a lot to do with which way the wind blows and where it comes from.

It can be concluded that ______.

A.the sky always turns gray only on weekends.

B.in the Midwest, weekdays saw larger daily temperature variations sometimes.

C.this difference measurement is called DTR, meaning the daytime temperature range.

D.part of the study involved 660 weather stations only in the United Nation.

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第6题
请根据短文的内容,回答题。 Some Unusual CelebrationsSome holidays are well-known all around

请根据短文的内容,回答题。

Some Unusual Celebrations

Some holidays are well-known all around the world. Among them are New Year&39;s Eve celebrations.<br>

Also common are days in honor of love and friendship, like Valentine&39;s Day. Each country has its own special holidays, too, often to mark important events in its history. Schools, banks, and government offices all close on days like these. __________ (46) A few of them are really very strange.<br>

Of course, they are not strange to the people who celebrate them. Perhaps that is because the celebrations have long traditions. Consider April Fool&39;s Day, for example. No one knows when or why it began. Today it is celebrated in many countries- France, England, and Australia, among others. On this day, people play practical jokes. __________ (47) The ones who laugh are the ones playing the jokes. The people they fool often get angry. Does celebrating this day make sense to you?<br>

Day in Poland seems strange, too. On this day, it is traditional for boys to pour water over the heads of girls. Here is the strangest part: They do it to girls they like. Other unusual celebrations take place in a single city or town. A holiday called La Tomatina is celebrated in Bunol, Spain. Every year, in late August, big trucks carry more than 200,000 pounds of tomatoes into this little town. __________ (48)<br>

For two hours, people in the streets throw tomatoes at each other. Everyone ends up red from head to toe.<br>

August 10 marks the start of the Puck Fair, an Irish festival with a very unusual tradition. People from the town of Killorglin go up into the mountains and catch a wild goat. __________ (49)<br>

There are also some celebrations that are really strange. In the United States, sometimes one person gets an idea for a new holiday and tries to get others to accept it. Whose idea was Public Sleeping Day? That one is on February 28. It may seem strange, but it sounds like more fun than the one on February 9. __________ (50)<br>

Do you like the idea of inventing a new holiday? If you do, then you will want to mark March 26 on your calendar. That is Make Up Your Own Holiday Day.

第46题__________ 查看材料

A.They bring him back to town, put a crown on his head, and make him king for three days.

B.Some of the days people celebrate, however, are less serious.

C.That is supposed to be Toothache Day.

D.Then begins the world"s biggest food fight.

E.Some people have fun imagining new holidays.

F.Jokes are supposed to be funny, but these jokes do not make everyone laugh.

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第7题
It can be temptingto make a hasty decision when a killer opportunity comes along orthethou

It can be tempting to make a hasty decision when a killer opportunity comes along or the thought of spending another day on the job seems painful.【C1】______, Career coach Piotrowski recommends taking baby【C2】______to execute a new career strategy.

"Plan a timeline of one to two years to【C3】______your career change. Gather information for four to six months, and then get moving on activities that will【C4】______into your new specialty over the next few months. Remember, you can make the【C5】______over time. You don't need to do it all at【C6】______."

"Spend time looking【C7】______industry categories and a variety of jobs to get ideas about new career areas that may【C8】______to you. This can open your eyes to a multitude of【C9】______you hadn't considered before."

Informational interviews--the best-kept career-change secret, according to Piotrowski--will also help career changers come to a(n)【C10】______. The key is to seek people already lost in a【C11】______career and pick their brain with questions such as, "【C12】______training do I need to do well in this job, what kind of money will I【C13】______, and what's a day on the job really like?"

Finally, people should try a few career experiments to【C14】______their abilities and build experience to help them move into a new career more【C15】______."A career experiment can be one of thousands of activities that【C16】______you to learn more about a new type of work【C17】______you commit to choosing it." Career experiments【C18】______shadowing a specialist, volunteering,【C19】______field trips, and designing projects to【C20】______your knowledge and skills.

【C1】

A.Furthermore

B.Nevertheless

C.Accordingly

D.Therefore

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第8题
In the United States many have been told that anyone can become rich and successful if he works hard and has some good luck.

Yet, when one becomes rich, he wants people to know it. And even if he does not become very rich, he wants people to think that he is. That is what “keeping up with the Joneses” is about. It is the story of someone who tries to look as rich and as successful as his neighbors.

The expression was first used in 1913 by a young American by the name of Arthur Momand. He told this story about himself: he began earning $125 a week at the age of 23. That was a lot of money in those days. Young Momand was very proud of his riches. He got married and moved with his wife to a very wealthy neighborhood outside New York City. But just moving there was not enough. When he saw that rich people rode horses, Momand went horse riding every day. When he saw that rich people had servants, Momand and his wife also hired a servant and gave big parties for their new neighbors.

It was like a race, but one could never finish this race because one was always trying to keep up. Momand and his wife could not do that.

The race ended for them when they could no longer pay for their new way of life. They left their wealthy neighborhood and moved back to an apartment in New York City.

Momand looked around him and noticed that many people do things just to keep up with their neighbors. He saw the funny side of it and started to write a series of short stories. He called it “keeping up with the Joneses”, because “Jones” is a very common name in the United States. “Keeping up with the Joneses” came to mean keeping up with the people around you. Momand’s series appeared in different newspapers across the country for over 28 years.

Every city has an area where people want to live because others will think better of them if they do. And there are “Joneses” in every city of the world. But one must get tired of trying to keep up with the Joneses, because no matter what one does, Mr. Jones always seems to be ahead.

6. The writer of the selection believes().

A. many people in the United States think anyone can become rich if he works hard and has some good luck

B. anyone in the United Sates can become rich if he works hard and has some good luck

C. he can become rich in the future

D. anyone in the United States can become rich

7. Some people want to keep up with the Joneses because().

A. they want to be as rich as their neighbors

B. they want others to know or to think that they are rich

C. they don’t want others to know they are rich

D. they want to be happy

8. It can be inferred from the story that rich people().

A. like to live in apartments

B. like to live in New York City

C. like to live outside New York City

D. like to have many neighbors

9. Arthur Momand used the name “Jones” in his series of short stories because Jones is().

A,. an important name

B. a popular name in the United States

C. his neighbor’s name

D. not a good name

10. According to the writer, it is().

A. correct to keep up with the Joneses

B. impossible to keep up with the Joneses

C. interesting to keep up with the Joneses

D. good to keep up with the Joneses

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第9题
Everybody loves a fat pay rise. Yet pleasure at your own can vanish if you learn that a co
lleague has been given a bigger one. Indeed, if he has a reputation for slacking, you might even be outraged. Such behaviour is regarded as "all too human", with the underlying assumption that other animals would not be capable of this finely developed sense of grievance. But a study by Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, which has just been published in Nature, suggests that it all too monkey, as well

The researchers studied the behaviour of female brown capuchin monkeys. They look cute. They are good-natured, co-operative creatures, and they share their food tardily. Above all, like their female human counterparts, they tend to pay much closer attention to the value of "goods and services" than males. Such characteristics make them perfect candidates for Dr. Brosnan's and Dr. Dewaal's study. The researchers spent two years teaching their monkeys to exchange tokens for food. Normally, the monkeys were happy enough to exchange pieces of rock for slices of eucumber. However, when two monkeys were placed in sepa rate but adjoining chambers, so that each could observe what the other was getting in return for its rock, their became markedly different.

In the world of capuchins grapes are luxury goods (and much preferable to cucumbers). So when one monkey was handed a grape in exchange for her token, the second was reluctant to hand hers over for a mere piece of cucumber. And if one received a grape without having to provide her token in exchange at all, the other either tossed her own token at the researcher or out of the chamber, or refused to; accept the slice of cu cumber indeed, the mere presence of a grape in the other chamber (without an actual monkey to eat it) was enough to reduce resentment in a female capuchin.

The researches suggest that capuchin monkeys, like humans, are guided by social emotions. In the wild, they are a co-operative, groupliving species. Such co-operation is likely to be stable only when each animal feels it is not being cheated. Feelings of righteous indignation, it seems, are not the preserve of people alone. Refusing a lesser reward completely makes these feelings abundantly clear to other members of the group. However, whether such a sense of fairness evolved independently in capuchins and humans, or whether it stems form. the common ancestor that the species had 35 million years ago, is, as yet, an unanswered question.

In the opening paragraph, the author introduces his topic by______

A.posing a contrast.

B.justifying an assumption.

C.making a comparison.

D.explaining a phenomenon.

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第10题
Questions are based on the following passage.Today, the poor aren "t just more likely to g

Questions are based on the following passage.

Today, the poor aren "t just more likely to get divorced. They"re more likely to avoidmarriage entirely.

Earlier today, my colleague Derek Thompson argued that; it"s misleading to thinkof marriage as a "luxury good". Why? Because luxury goods are something the rich buyand the poor can"t afford. But in the case of marriage the trend is more complex. The vastmajority of Americans tie the knot at some point in their lives, he argues. It"s just thatthose without a college education are far, far more likely to get divorced. Marriage is foreveryone; failed marriages are for the poor.

Bleak stuff. But it"s getting bleaker.

Derek"s post is based on a long-term study of young Baby Boomers, who were atleast 46 years old by 2010. But among younger Americans, marriage really is lookingmore and more like something you"d have to buy at Tiffany"s. According to 2012 CensusBureau report, which shows the percentage of men who have never married by age andincome, the less a guy earns nowadays, the less likely they are to have ever gotten married.

Well, that"s not 100 percent true. Among twenty-somethings there seems to be arich bachelor effect going on (or an overworked young professional effect, if you prefer).

Those making $75,000 or more are somewhat less likely to have been married than thosemaking between $40,000 and $75,000.

This particular set of Census data unfortunately tells us much less about women andmarriage. The problem: Stay-at-home morns.

The key to remember, though, is that many educated, high-earuing women, the sortswho are likely to meet and marry educated and high-earning men, leave the workforce orgo part time once they have children. So a publicist who once made over $70,000 a yearmight only earn $20,000 if she decided to work fewer hours while caring for her childrenat home.

Here"s why this trend——not just the move towards divorce like Derek talked about,but the move from nuptials (婚礼 ) entirely——is so gloomy. Getting married, and stayingmarried, is one of the surest ways of securing a middle class life. By choosing not to wedin the first place, the poor are abandoning that chance at stability.

Why doesn‘t Derek Thompson think that marriage is a luxury good? 查看材料

A.Because not everyone will get married eventually.

B.Because only rich people can afford to get married.

C.Because most people will get married regardless of their financial state.

D.Because lots of people can"t afford an expensive nuptial.

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第11题
These days lots of young Japanese do omiai, literally, "meet and look. " Many of them do s
o willingly. In today's prosperous and increasingly conservative Japan, the traditional omiai kekkon , or arranged marriage, is thriving.

But there is a difference. In the original omiai, the young Japanese couldn't reject the partner chosen by his parents and their middlernan. After World War II, many Japanese abandoned the arranged marriage as part of their rush to adopt the more democratic ways of their American conquerors. The Western ren'ai kekkon , or love marriage, became popular; Japanese began picking their own mates by dating and falling in love.

But the Western way was often found wanting in an important respect: it didn't necessarily produce a partner of the right economic, social, and educational qualifications. "Today's young people are quite calculating," says Chieko Akiyama, a social commentator.

What seems to be happening now is a repetition of a familiar process in the country's history, the "Japanization" of an adopted foreign practice. The Western ideal of marrying for love is accommodated in a new orniai in which both parties are free to reject the match. "Omiai is evolving into a sort of stylized introduction," Mrs. Akiyama says.

Many young Japanese now date in their early twenties, but with no thought of marriage. When they reach the age—in the middle twenties for women, the late twenties for men—they increasingly turn to omiai. Some studies suggest that as many as 40% of marriages each year are omiai kekkon. It's hard to be sure, say those who study the matter, because many Japanese couples, when polled, describe their marriage as a love match even if it was arranged.

These days, doing omiai often means going to a computer matching service rather than to a nakodo. The nakodo of tradition was an old woman who knew all the kids in the neighborhood and went around trying to pair them off by speaking to their parents; a successful match would bring her a wedding invitation and a gift of money. But Japanese today find it's less awkward to reject a proposed partner if the nakodo is a computer.

Japan has about five hundred computer matching services. Some big companies, including Mitsubishi, run one for their employees. At a typical commercial service, an applicant pays $80 to $ 125 to have his or her personal data stored in the computer for two years and $ 200 or so more if a marriage results. The stored information includes some obvious items, like education and hobbies, and some not-so-obvious ones, like whether a person is the oldest child. (First sons, and to some extent first daughthers, face an obligation of caring for elderly parents. )

According to the passage, today's young Japanese prefer______.

A.a traditional arranged marriage

B.a new type of arranged marriage

C.a Western love marriage

D.a more Westernized love marriage

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