宜昌一中，龙泉中学2016届期中考试英语试题及答案(3)

    But dreams easily turn into nightmares. Every American who hopes to “make it” also knows the fear of failure, because the myth of success inevitably implies comparison between the haves and the have-nots, the stars and the anonymous crowd. Under pressure of the myth, we become indulged in status symbols: we try to live in the “right” neighborhoods, wear the “right” clothes, eat the “right” foods. These symbols of distinction assure us and others that we believe strongly in the fundamental equality of all, yet work as hard as we can to separate ourselves from our fellow citizens.
28. What is the essence of the American Dream according to Crevecoeur?
   A. People can fully enjoy individual freedom.  
   B. People who are honest and work hard can succeed.
   C. People are free from exploitation and oppression.
   D. People are free to develop their power of imagination.
29. By saying “the rewards of a man’s industry follow with equal steps the progress of his labor” (Para. 1), the author means _____.
   A. laborious work ensures the growth of an industry  
   B. a company’s success depends on its employees’ effort
   C. the more hard-working one is, the bigger his returns
   D. a man’s business should be developed step by stepgkstkCom
30. The characters described in Horatio Alger’s novels are people who _______.
   A. succeed in real estate investment
   B. became wealthy after starting life very poor
   C. earned enormous fortunes by chance
   D. became famous despite their modest origins
31. What is the contradiction of American culture according to the author?
   A. The American road to success is full of nightmares.
   B. Status symbols are not a real indicator of a person’s wealth.
   C. What Americans chase is not often consistent with their beliefs.
   D. The American Dream is nothing but an empty dream.
D
While residents of wealthy nations tend to have greater life satisfaction, new research shows
that those living in poorer nations report having greater meaning in life.
These findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological science, suggest that meaning in life may be higher in poorer nations as a result of greater religiosity (笃信宗教). As countries become richer, religion becomes less central to people’s lives and they lose a sense of meaning in life.
“Thus far, the wealth of nations has been almost always associated with longevity, health, happiness or life satisfaction,” explains psychological scientist Shigehiro Oishi of the University of Virginia. “Given that meaning in life is an important aspect of overall well-being, we wanted to look more carefully at differential patterns, correlates (相关物), and predictors for meaning in life.”
Oishi and colleague Ed Diener of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign investigated life satisfaction, meaning, and well-being by examining data from the 2007 Gallup World Poll, a large-scale survey of over 140,000 participants from 132 countries. In addition to answering a basic life satisfaction question, participants were asked: “Do you feel your life has an important purpose or meaning?” and “Is religion an important part of your daily life?”
The data revealed some unexpected trends:
“Among Americans, those who are high in life satisfaction are also high in meaning in life,” says Oishi. “But when we looked at the societal level of analysis, we found a completely different pattern of the association between meaning in life and life satisfaction.”
When looking across many countries, Oishi and Diener found that people in wealthier nations were more educated, had fewer children, and expressed more individualistic attitudes compared to those in poorer countries — all factors that were associated with higher life satisfaction but a significantly lower sense of meaning in life.”
The data suggest that religiosity may play an important role: Residents of wealthier nations, where religiosity is lower, reported less meaning in life and had higher suicide rates than poorer countries.
According to the researchers, religion may provide meaning to life to the extent that it helps people to overcome personal difficulty and cope with the struggles of working to survive in poor economic conditions:
“Religion plays a critical role in constructing meaning out of extreme hardship,” the researchers write.
Oishi and Diener hope to reproduce these findings using more comprehensive measures of meaning and religiosity, and are interested in following countries over time to track whether economic prosperity gives rise to less religiosity and less meaning in life.
32. Which of the following questions couldn’t the participants have answered?
   A. Does your life have a purpose or meaning?
   B. Do you have relatives living abroad?
   C. Are you satisfied with your everyday life?
D. Is religion involved in your daily life?
33. Which of the following statements is true?
   A. Religion may provide meaning to life because people can get support from it.
   B. People in wealthier nations often express less individualistic attitudes.
   C. People with higher life satisfaction usually have lower sense of meaning in life.
   D. Wealthy people are more likely to commit suicide than poor people.
34. What can be inferred from the passage?
   A. The poorer a country is, the more religious its people are.