Question

In the United States, when one becomes rich, he wants people to know it. And even if he does not become very rich, he wants people to think that he is. That is what ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ is about. It is the story of someone who tried to look as rich as his neighbors.

The expression was first used in 1913 by a young American called Arthur Momand. He told this story about himself. He began earning $ 125 a week at the age of 23. That was a lot of money in those days. He got married and moved with his wife to a very wealthy neighbourhood outside New York City. When he saw that rich people rode horses, Momand went horseback riding every day. When he saw that rich people had servants, Momand and his wife also hired a servant and gave big parties for their new neighbours.

It was like a race, but one could never finish this race because one was always trying to keep up. The race ended for Momand and his wife when they could no longer pay for their new way of life. They moved back to an apartment in New York City.

Momand looked around him and noticed that many people do things just to keep up with rich lifestyle of their neighbours. He saw the funny side of it and started to write a series of short stories. He called it ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ because ‘Jones’ is a very common name in the United States. ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ came to mean keeping up with rich lifestyle of the people around you. Momand’s series appeared in different newspapers across the country for over 28 years.

People never seem to get tired of keeping up with the Joneses. And there are ‘Jonses’ in every city of the world. But one must get tired of trying to keep up with the Joneses because no matter what one does, Mr. Jones always seems to be ahead.

1.Some people want to keep up with the Joneses because they _____.

A. want to be as rich as their neighbors

B. want others to know or to think that they are rich

C. don’t want others to know they are rich

D. want to be happy

2.It can be inferred (推断) from the story that rich people like to _____.

A. live outside New York City    B. live in New York city

C. live in apartments    D. have many neighbors

3.Arthur Momand used the name “Jones” in his series of short stories because “Jones” is _____.

A. an important name    B. a popular name in the United States

C. his neighbor’s name    D. not a good name

4.According to the writer, it is _____ to keep up with the Joneses.

A. correct    B. interesting

C. impossible    D. good

Answer

1. B

2. A

3. B

4. C

【解析】

试题本文叙述了一个习语“Keeping up with the Joneses”的意思及来历。在美国人们希望人们认为他是富有的，富人做什么，他们就做什么。这个习语是有美国人Arthur Momand.在1913年首次使用的。他当时就学富人一样去生活，结果从繁华的富人区搬到了纽约市区一个公寓里。一个人一定会厌倦了试图赶上别人,因为无论他做了什么，似乎总是领先，因此赶上富人是不可能的。

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