单选题 Researchers have studied the poor as individuals, as families and households, as members of poor communities, neighborhoods and regions, as products of larger poverty-creating structures. They have been analyzed as victims of crime and criminals, as members of minority cultures, as passive consumers of mass culture and active producers of a "counterculture", as an economic burden and as a reserve army of labor——to mention just some of the preoccupations of poverty research.
The elites, who occupy the small upper stratum within the category of the non-poor, and their functions in the emergence and reproduction of poverty are as interesting and important an object for poverty research as the poor themselves. The elites have images of the poor and of' poverty which shape their decisions and actions. So far, little is known about those images, except as they are sketchily portrayed in popular stereotypes. The elites may well ignore or deny the external effects of their own actions(and omissions) upon the living conditions of the poor. Many social scientists may take a very different view. As poverty emerged and was reproduced, legal frameworks were created to contain the problems it caused with profound, and largely unknown, consequences for the poor themselves. In general, political, educational and social institutions tend to ignore or even damage the interests of the poor. In constructing a physical infrastructure for transport, industry, trade and tourism, the settlements of the poor are often the first to suffer or to be left standing and exposed to pollution, noise and crowding.
Most important are the economic functions of poverty, as for lack of other options the poor are forced to perform activities considered degrading or unclean. The poor are more likely to buy second-hand goods and leftover foodstuffs, thus prolonging their economic utility. They are likely to use the services of low-quality doctors, teachers and lawyers whom the non-poor shy away from. Poverty and the poor serve an important symbolic function, in reminding citizens of the lot that may befall those who do not heed the values of thrift, diligence and cleanliness, and of the constant threat that the rough, the immoral and the violent represent for the rest of society.
Physically, the poor and the non-poor are kept apart, through differential land use and ghettoization. Socially, they are separated through differential participation in the labor market, the consumption economy, and in political, social and cultural institutions. Conceptually, they are divided through stereo- typing and media cliche. This separation is even more pronounced between the elites and the poor.

单选题 According to the author, studying the elites also sheds light on poverty research because ______.
A. they are also members of the same society as the poor
B. they play an important role in creating and reproducing poverty
C. solution of the poverty problem is at their mercy
D. they know the living conditions of the poor better than other groups

单选题 While social scientists are devoting much of their effort to poverty research, ______.
A. not enough legal frameworks have been created to relieve the condition of the poor
B. they have done little to actually provide relief programs for the poor
C. they ignore the role of the elites as an object for poverty research
D. the poor people themselves do not much appreciate such effort

单选题 In the eyes of the society, ______.
A. the poor tend to symbolize what lazy and evil people mm out to be
B. the poor are not worthy of the sympathy the society shows them
C. economic prejudice is more of an obstacle to the solution of poverty
D. the non-poor should show more sympathy for the poor

单选题 The word "pronounced" in the last sentence of the passage probably means ______.
A. sympathetic B. conspicuous
C. identifiable D. unbridgeable

单选题 In the passage, the author is mainly concerned with ______.
A. analyzing a problem B. providing a solution
C. defining a situation D. outlining a proposal