In the United States, 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 tried to look as rich as his neighbors.

The expression was first used in 1913 by a young American called 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. He got married and moved with his wife to a very wealthy neighborhood. When he saw that rich people rode horses, Momand went horseback 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. The race ended for Momand and his wife when they could no longer pay for their new way of life. They had to move back to an apartment in New York City.

Momand looked around him and noticed that many people do things just to keep up with rich lifestyle of 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 rich lifestyle of the people around you. Momand’s series appeared in different newspapers across the country for over 28 years.

People never seem to get tired of keeping up with the Joneses. 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.

1.Some people want to keep up with the Joneses because they ______.

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

B．want to be as rich as their neighbours

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

D．want to be happy

2.It can be inferred from the story that rich people like to ________.

A．live in New York City                     B．live outside New York City

C．live in apartments                       D．live with many neighbours

3.What’s the author’s attitude to keeping up with the Joneses?

A．Supportive.        B．Objective.         C．Negative.          D．Positive.

 

【答案】

1.A

2.B

3.C

【解析】

試題分析：本文敘述了在美國有些人要模仿有錢人的生活方式，文中提到Momand夫婦就是這樣一種人，他們看見有錢人住在郊外，他們也住在那里，看見富人騎馬就學著騎馬，看見有錢人有傭人，他們也雇傭人。結(jié)果Momand夫婦沒有錢了跟不上富人了，于是又搬回到了紐約市區(qū)。

1.細節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)when one becomes rich, he wants people to know it.故選A。

2.推理判斷題。根據(jù)The race ended for Momand and his wife when they could no longer pay for their new way of life. They had to move back to an apartment in New York City.由此推知富人住在城外，故選B。

3.細節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)綜觀全文可知作者對這種做法是持反對態(tài)度的，故選C。

考點：社會現(xiàn)象類閱讀。

點評：推理判斷題要求在理解表面文字的基礎上做出判斷和推論，從而得到文章的隱含意思和深層意思，也就是通過文章中的文字信息，上下邏輯關系及事物的發(fā)展變化等已知信息，推斷出作者沒有直接表達的態(tài)度和觀點。

 

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