单选题 The country's biggest challenge now is the plight of lower-income Americans, who are under severe and sustained economic pressure. Today, America resembles a tale of two cities. Those who own homes or stocks have benefited from the recovery in these asset classes and are moving up again. But 40% of working-age families earn $40,000 a year or less. Generally they live within 250% of the official poverty level, which is the eligibility threshold for food stamps. Indeed, judging from current trends, half of today's 20-year-olds will receive food stamps during their adult lives. More broadly, median household income is still 8% below the precrisis level, and those who have not completed college are seeing declines in anticipated lifetime earnings compared with their peers with college degrees.
This is the primary economic challenge. If a third of the population has little purchasing power, it will be hard to achieve the desired rate of long-term growth. The U.S. needs to improve the work skills of this group, strengthen the social safety net and increase the number of young Americans receiving a full college education.
Although doing more to relieve the financial burdens of working Americans is good economics, it is also, and perhaps more important, a matter of values. For much of the 20th century Americans strove, with much success, to build a fairer and more inclusive society. But today, too many working families are {{U}}living paycheck to paycheck{{/U}} or even in outright poverty, while the toeholds (客服困难的方法) to economic stability become fewer and farther between.
With the economy's near and medium term economic outlook strong, now is the time to remove the barriers that are keeping hardworking Americans walking a far too thin financial line.

单选题 The biggest challenge that America faces is ______.

A.financial crisis
B.high divorce rate
C.economic pressure
D.lower-income group

单选题 We know from the opening paragraph that ______.

A.half of Americans receive food stamps during their adult lives
B.most Americans are under severe and sustained economic pressure
C.those who haven't finished their college earn more than their peers
D.before the economic crisis, median family income is higher than today's

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 推理题。选项与原文对比。A原文：Indeed, judging from current trends, haft of today's 20-year-olds will receive food stamps during their adult lives.原文说的是按照当前趋势预计未来会怎么样，但本身这件事并未发生，故A是错误的。A用的是receive而原文说的是will receive。B原文：The country's biggest challenge now is the plight of lower-income Americans, who are under severe and sustained economic pressure.文章说的是低收入的美国人长期面临经济压力，而非most Americans大多数美国人，故B错误。因为文章并未说低收入的美国人有多少。即使后文提到了40%，也未达到大多数。C原文：...those who have not completed college are seeing declines in anticipated lifetime earnings compared with their peers with college degrees.文章说的是未完成学业的群体收入更低，其中decline和C项的earn more完全相反，故C错误。D原文：median household income is still 8% below the precrisis level.原文说：中等家庭收入比经济危机前水平要低，而该项说：在经济危机前，中等家庭收入比今天的要高。该项是对原文这句话的改写，是正话反说，故D选项是正确的。

单选题 In order to achieve long-term growth, the U.S. needs to do all except ______.

A.bettering its people's work skills
B.strengthening the social safety net
C.providing more work opportunities
D.encouraging more students to finish their college

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。选项与原文对比。根据long-term growth定位到第二段第二句，答案出现在第三句：The U.S. needs to improve the work skills of this group, strengthen the social safety net and increase the number of young Americans receiving a full college education.其中improve the work skills=A．strengthen the social safety net=B；increase the number of young Americans receiving a full college education=D。所以答案为C。

单选题 The last two paragraphs tell us that ______.

A.A great number of working families in America are poor today.
B.America's economy situation has been sustained and stable so far.
C.America has a fairer and more inclusive society than other countries.
D.Many Americans are living under poverty line and the economic outlook is bad.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 推理题。选项与原文对比。答案出现在第三段but之后：But today, too many working families are living paycheck to paycheck or even in outright poverty.(许多工作家庭面临贫困)，故A是正确的。B对应原文：...while the toeholds(克服困难的办法)to economic stability become fewer and farther between.(使经济稳定的办法越来越少)，可见B所说的“美国经济情况如今已经持续稳定”是错误的。C原文：For much of the 20th century Americans strove, with much success, to build a fairer and more inclusive society.(美国致力于建设平等包容的社会)，并没有与其他社会进行对比，因此该项的than other countries是错误的。D项中的the economic outlook is bad与原文最后一段首句的economic outlook strong截然相反，故错误。

单选题 The underlined phrase "living paycheck to paycheck" (Para. 3) probably means ______.

A.leading a well-off life
B.living under great economic pressures
C.getting too much paycheck
D.living far better than poverty line

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 语义题。选项与原文对比。语义题要从上下文寻找同义替换，原文说：But today, too many working families are living paycheck to paycheck or even in outright poverty，其中or一词提示并列，后面出现poverty(贫困)一词，故我们知道living paycheck to paycheck是接近贫困的意思。而A过着富裕的生活，明显错误。C获得太多的工资，也明显与之不符。D过着远远超过贫困线的生活，也是在强调不贫困，只有B生活在巨大的经济压力下，是正确的。