单选题
According to a recent Gallup World Poll, 1.1 billion people, or one-quarter of the earth"s adults, want to move temporarily to another country in the hope of finding more profitable work. An additional 630 million people would like to move abroad permanently.
The global desire to leave home arises from poverty and necessity, but it also grows out of a conviction that such mobility is possible. People who embrace this cosmopolitan outlook assume that individuals can and should be at home anywhere in the world, that they need not be tied to any particular place. This outlook was once a strange and threatening product of the Enlightenment but is now accepted as central to a globalized economy.
It leads to opportunity and profits, but it also has high psychological costs. In nearly a decade"s research into the emotions and experiences of immigrants and migrants, I"ve discovered that many people who leave home in search of better prospects end up feeling displaced and depressed. But today, explicit discussions of homesickness are rare, for the emotion is typically regarded as an embarrassing
impediment
to individual progress and prosperity. This silence makes mobility appear deceptively easy.
Technology also seduces us into thinking that migration is painless. Ads from Skype suggest that "free video calling makes it easy to be together, even when you"re not." The comforting illusion of connection offered by technology makes moving seem less consequential, since one is always just a mouse click or a phone call away.
Today"s technologies have failed to defeat homesickness even though studies by the Carnegie Corporation of New York show that immigrants are in closer touch with their families than before. A wealth of studies have documented that other newcomers to America also suffer from high rates of depression, despite constant contact with family.
It is possible that these new technologies actually heighten feelings of displacement. Maria Elena Rivera, a psychologist in Tepic, Mexico, believes technology may magnify homesickness. Her sister, Carmen, had been living in San Diego for 25 years. With the rise of inexpensive long-distance calling, Carmen was able to phone home with greater frequency. Every Sunday she called Mexico and talked with her family, who routinely gathered for a large meal. Carmen always asked what the family was eating, who was there. Technology increased her contact with her family but also brought a regular reminder that she was not there with them.
The persistence of homesickness points to the limitations of the cosmopolitan philosophy that undergirds so much of our market and society. The idea that we can and should feel at home anyplace on the globe is based on a worldview that celebrates the solitary, mobile individual and envisions men and women as easily separated from family, from home and from the past. But this vision doesn"t square with our emotions, for our ties to home, although often underestimated, are strong and enduring.
单选题
Homesickness is a feeling ______.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】细节事实题
[解析] 文章并未就引发乡愁的因素进行讨论，虽然根据常识我们知道，乡愁往往和对于不同文化的不适应有关，但是基于本文，我们无法得出这样的结论，因此A错误。B正确，文章第三段明确指出，很多出国的人最后都感觉到非常思念家乡，但是现在人们却很少公开讨论这个问题(explicit discussions of homesickness are rare)。C错误，文章第三段提到出国淘金能够给个人带来机遇和财富，但是也会导致严重的心理后果。但是并没有提到思乡的情绪对个人进步和财富的影响，因此这个答案是利用原文中的内容设置的干扰。D错误，第二段提到了people who embrace this cosmopolitan outlook，也就是“持四海为家的观点的人”，这样的人鼓励人们出国，认为人不应该被困在一个地方，而应该为了改变自己的境遇寻找最适合自己生存的土地。我们可以把很多最初出国的人归为cosmopolitan people，但是这样的人是否就不会思乡呢?很明显，文章给出的答案是否定的。
单选题
The cosmopolitan outlook ______.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】细节事实题
[解析] 文章第二段集中论述了cosmopolitan outlook。持四海为家观念的人认为，一个人能够并且应该去漫游世界，这是对人追求自由权利的肯定，因此A正确。他们认为人不应该被束缚在一块土地上，而应该去追寻最适合自己生存的土地。他们有这种观点，其实也就是承认了环境对于人有影响，正是有影响，才需要挣脱，需要寻找其他的生存之地，因此D错误。B和C主要是对于第二段最后一句话的理解。四海为家的观念一度被看做启蒙运动孕育的怪异而危险的产物，然而如今它已成为经济全球化的核心理念，被人们广为接受(This outlook was once a strange and threatening product of the Enlightenment but is now accepted as central to a globalized economy)。因此B说四海为家的人生观是经济全球化的产物是错误的，它起源于启蒙运动，是启蒙运动宣扬的观点之一。C也错误。
单选题
The word "impediment" (Para. 3) is closest in meaning to ______.