单选题 Millions of Americans run to the bank or visit automated teller machines when they need cash. They use credit cards when they want to buy clothes, VCRs, or television sets.
But there is an underclass — people with low incomes and no credit history — who visit their neighborhood pawnshops when they need cash or a loan.
An estimated 20 percent of the US population has no bank account, more than half of this group don't have credit cards and cannot get bank loans.
"These people are borrowing an average of $50," said John P. Caskey of Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. "If you add up in terms of how much dollar value pawnshops provide, they don't look very important. If you add up how much of the population they serve or the number of loans they make, they are important."
Because they make loans, pawnshops are a type of bank, often calling themselves "the bank of the little people".
Caskey and Swarthmore student Brian Zidmund in 1989 looked at the importance of pawnshops in the US economy — the first serious study of the subject since the 1930s.
Their conclusion: Pawnshops are the consumer's lender of last resort.
Pawnshop customers typically cannot get credit at mainstream financial institutions. They have poor credit records, excessive debt in relation to their incomes, low and unstable incomes, or cannot maintain positive bank account balance.
Typically, pawnshop customers borrow relatively small amounts that traditional lenders are unwilling or unable to provide on a secured basis.
"If you look at total consumer credit, the amounts provided by pawnshops remain small," Caskey said. "They are lending primarily to low-income people. In terms of the population they serve, they're really important."
In 1988, about 6,900 pawnshops operated in the United States — one for every two commercial banks. Data suggest these pawnshops made about 35 million loans, providing what Caskey and Zidmund estimate as 1 percent of the nation's consumer credit.

单选题 The best title for the passage would be
A. Credit Cards for the Poor.
B. Banks for the Poor.
C. Pawnshops Vs, Banks.
D. Commercial Banks.

单选题 The percentage of the population in the United States that doesn't get bank loans is
A. roughly 20 percent.
B. more than 10 percent.
C. less than 10 percent.
D. not mentioned in the passage.

单选题 What do the underclass people do when they need cash?
A. They go to local banks for help.
B. They apply for credit cards.
C. They ask for a loan from large banks.
D. They apply for a loan in pawnshops.

单选题 What can we learn about pawnshops?
A. Poor people come to pawnshops as their last resort.
B. Most people prefer pawnshops for their need of cash.
C. Pawnshops are an important part of the state economy.
D. Pawnshops are not important because they constitute only I percent of the nation's consumer credit.

单选题 According to John P. Caskey, pawnshops are important because
A. they provide great dollar value to the poor
B. they make big loans to a lot of people.
C. they are serving the majority of the population.
D. they make a large number of loans to the poor.