单选题 Almost every day, a new study points to gaps between people—in income, education, debt, values, even brain size. The latest report by the Pew Charitable Trusts, for example, finds a third of Americans have moved up in income class over four decades while 16 percent have dropped.
The most commonly cited "gap" is the rising disparity of income between the wealthy and poor. It helped spawn the "Occupy" movement last year with a focus on "the 99 percent." Today"s politics revolves around campaign talk of "the wealth gap."
Researchers both left and right are writing books that explore such differences between people. Conservative political scientist Charles Murray"s work Coming Apart: The State of White America , 1960-2010 tries to define a new kind of class system based on what the wealthy must do. Peter Edelman at Georgetown University has written So Rich, So Poor: Why It"s So Hard to End Poverty in America. And Harvard economist Edward Glaeser argues in a new paper that the gap between affluent suburbanites and the urban poor is driven in part by the government granting a tax deduction for home mortgage interest.
This trend toward focusing on what divides us comes with a cost. It polarizes politics, such as the current clash over whether to cut spending or raise taxes. And gap studies are also constantly changing as researchers find new gaps or redefine old ones, causing confusion over how to bridge them.
Harvard academic Robert Putnam, for example, tried to persuade an audience at the Aspen Ideas Festival last week that Americans must focus less on gaps in race and wealth and more on differences between "classes" and the need for social mobility. "The class gap over the last 20 years in unmarried births, controlling for race, has doubled, and the racial gap, controlling for class, has been cut in half," he said. "Twenty years ago the racial gap was the dominant gap in unmarried births—and now the class gap is by far."
What is easily forgotten in such data is that many people measure themselves less against one another and more against the absolutes of life, such as virtues. Am I being truthful with myself and others? How can I learn to love others by helping those in need? Where can I express life, using the talents I have?
The tendency to make relative comparisons to others may be useful, especially if they evoke empathy to help the needy or inspire people to achieve more. But they can obscure a primary human need to be grounded in ideas that create a person"s identity without being assigned to a class, group, or category. Accepting stereotypes of one"s self—and others—can create a limiting effect on the ability to choose a new path.
Studies of "gaps" can guide social action and government policies, but they can be taken too far—or taken too seriously by individuals who may feel trapped by labels of comparison.

单选题 According to the Pew Charitable Trusts" report, during the past 40 years ______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 事实细节题。根据题干关键词Pew Charitable Trusts" report，定位于第一段。该段第二句说a third of Americans have moved up in income class over four decades while 16 percent have dropped，“收入层次升级的人数占到1/3，而降级的只有16%”。由此看出，B选项是对原文的同义转述，为本题答案。“1/3”还不能算作the majority“大部分”，所以A选项不正确。C选项与B选项含义相反，故排除。16%也不能算作a very small number“极少数”，所以D项也错误。

单选题 The "Occupy" movement last year was rooted in ______.

单选题 The continuous focus on various gaps resulted in ______.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 事实细节题。根据题干信息，定位至第四段。该段前两句指出，这种趋势倾向于……它使政治变得两极分化，如当前有关到底应该缩减开支还是增加税收的冲突。由此看出，C选项是对原文的同义转述，为本题答案。A选项是利用第四段的redefine和第五段的gaps in race and wealth拼凑出的选项。B选项是利用第四段最后一句中的find new gaps设置的干扰项，该选项内容并非题干问及的结果。D选项属于无中生有。

单选题 What Robert Putnam implies is that ______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 推理判断题。由题干关键词Robert Putnam，定位于第五段。从该段第一句得知，此人曾试图说服一位听众focus less on gaps in race and wealth and more on differences between "classes"(不应将过多的精力放在种族和财富的差距上，而应该更加关注“各阶级之间”的差别)。由此可见，A选项与此处的事实不符，而B选项是对此处信息的正确推断，因此B项为正确答案。由该段第二句可知，在过去20年中，增长的是“不同阶级在未婚生子、种族控制方面的差异”，而并非“未婚生子的数量”，排除C项。该段最后一句说“20年前，未婚生子的差别中，起决定作用的是种族差别，而现在，起决定作用的是阶级的差别”，选项D“贫富差距如今在美国成了起决定作用的差距”正是利用此处设置的干扰项。