阅读理解
Most of us Americans have a vague, uneasy sense of wicked wastefulness. We throw out the never-opened pack of food that's past its sell-by date before answering a call on the fourth mobile phone we have had in five years. We gaze around our living space groaning at the sheer quantity of little-used clothing, blocking it up like a blood clot in an arterial vein.
Our despair is genuine at the way we are running out of the earth's resources and at the fact that we have so much when two-thirds of the world's population only just get enough to eat and drink. Yet we feel completely powerless to do anything about it, too busy, irritable and tired to focus on practical steps.
For the problem goes even deeper than material wastefulness: We know we are wasting our time, our being, our lives. We have compromised in our choice of career, lovers, friends ; we put on a face to meet the faces that we meet. Trapped in marketing characters, not only in our office politics but in our intimate relationships, too, we play too many games.
Deep down, we know that it's time to "get a life", to stop being distracted by pointless consumerism, unreal relationships, and "Affluenza-infected" career ambitions.
The first step to salvation is to understand how much it is not your fault. If you read Vance Packard's 1958 book about the advertising industry, The Hidden Persuaders, it proves that long ago retailers were devising ways to deliberately deceive us into confusing mixed wants with true needs in order to keep the consumption bandwagon rolling. In recent years, manufacturers have intention- ally speeded up the rate at which electronic goods become obsolescent and instead of the proper re- pair customer services that used to exist, there are merely expensive help-lines, When your toaster or printer or MP3 music device breaks down after only a year, it is no accident that there is no one who will repair them--" it'd cost more than buying a new one, love".
So this is a selfish capitalist system which is designed to maximize profits through rapid turn- over of "newer, better" goods that break down sooner and are designed to be irreparable. It's not your fault !
What you can do is withdraw as much as possible from the consumption game. Every time you are about to buy something ask yourself, "do I need this, or do I just want it.'?"
单选题
Most Americans, according to the author, feel uneasy about
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】【精析】该题为细节题。由第一段的第一句“Most of US Americans have a vague．uneasy sense of wicked wastefulness．”以及第二段的第一句“Our despair is genuine at the way we are running out of the earth’s resources and…only just get enough to eat and drink．”都可以得出，大多数美国人因为浪费了太多资源而感到不安，故选D。
单选题
By saying "we play too many games", the author wants to show
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】【精析】该题为推理题。第三段的第一句“For the problem goes even deeper than material wastefulness：We know we are wasting our time，our bein9，our lives．”指出了比物质浪费更为严重的问题：我们在浪费时间、浪费生命、浪费生活。接下来列举了我们浪费生命的表现。所以该段结尾“we play too many game．”应指我们在浪费生命，A项符合题意。选项B和D可以很容易排除，选项C“我们没有认真对待生命”，文章强调的是身不由己的浪费，并不是主观意 义上的浪费，故选A。
单选题
To make ourselves feel better, we should first
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】【精析】该题为细节题。由第五段第一句话“The first step to salvation is to understand how much it is not your fault．”可知，实现救赎的第一步是明白有多少过错不在于你。也就是说，缓解我们内心不安的第一步是弄清楚造成我们过度消费、浪费资源的主要原因是什 么。该题的题干和选项A的内容是对这句话的变，相表达，故选A。
【答案解析】【精析】该题为推理题。由文章最后一段的最后一句话 “Every time you are about to buy something ask yourself，‘do I need this, or do I just want it?…可知，作者将购物的动机分为两种：需要的和想要的。而作者所赞成的消费观念是买自己真正需要的，故选D。