阅读理解
Low wages, chronic unemployment and underemployment lead to low income, lack of property ownership, absence of savings, absence of food reserves in the home, and a chronic shortage of cash. These conditions reduce the possibility of effective participation in the larger economic system. And as a response to these conditions we find in the culture of poverty a high incidence of pawning personal goods, borrowing from local money-lenders at usurious rates of interest, spontaneous informal credit devices organized by neighbors, the use of secondhand clothing and furniture, and the pattern of frequent buying of small quantities of food many times a day as the need arises. People with a culture of poverty produce very little wealth and receive very little in return. They have a low level of literacy and education, usually do not belong to labor unions, are not members of political parties, generally do not participate in the national welfare agencies, and make very little use of banks, hospitals, department stores, museums or art galleries. They have a critical attitude toward some of the basic institutions of the dominant classes, hatred of the police, mistrust of government and those in high position, and a cynicism which extends even to the church. This gives the culture of poverty a high potential for protest and for being used in political movements aimed against the existing social order. People with a culture of poverty are aware of middle-class values, talk about them and even claim some of them as their own, but on the whole they do not live by them. Thus it is important to distinguish between what they say and what they do. For example, many will tell you that marriage by law, by the church, or by both is the ideal form of marriage, but few will marry. To men who have no steady jobs or other sources of income, who do not own property, and who want to avoid the expense and legal difficulties involved in formal marriage and divorce, free unions or consensual marriages make a lot of sense. Women will often turn down offers of marriage because they feel it ties them down to men. Women feel that consensual union gives them a better break, it gives them some of the freedom and flexibility that men have. By not giving the fathers of their children legal status as husbands, the women have a stronger claim their children if they decide to leave their men. It also gives women exclusive rights to a house or any other property they may own.
单选题26.According to the text, a characteristic of poverty is that poor people______.