Section B
Directions：In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by making the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.
Poverty Is a Story About Us, Not Them
A) Too often still, we think we know what poverty looks like. It’s the way we’ve been taught, the images we’ve been force-fed for decades. The chronically homeless. The undocumented immigrant. The urban poor, usually personified as a woman of color, the“ welfare queen” politicians still too often reference.
B)But as income inequality rises to record levels in the United States, even in the midst of a record economic expansion, those familiar images are outdated,hurtful, and counterproductive to focusing attention on solutions and building ladders of opportunity.
C) Today’s faces of income inequality and lack of opportunity look like all of us. Its Anna Landre, a disabled Georgetown university student fighting to keep health benefits that allow her the freedom to live her life.It’s Tiffanie Standard, a counselor for young women of color in Philadelphia who want to be tech entrepreneurs—but who must work multiple jobs to stay afloat. It’s Ken Outlaw, a welder in rural North Carolina whose dream of going back to school at a local community college was dashed by Hurricane Florence—just one of the extreme weather events that have tipped the balance for struggling Americans across the nation.
D) If these are the central characters of our story about poverty, what layers of perceptions, myths,and realities must we unearth to find meaningful solutions and support? In pursuit of revealing this complicated reality, Mothering Justice, led by women of color, went last year to the state capital in Lansing, Michigan, to lobby on issues that affect working mothers.One of the Mothering Justice organizers went to the office of a state representative to talk about the lack of affordable childcare—the vestiges(痕迹) of a system that expected mothers to stay home with their children while their husbands worked. A legislative staffer dismissed the activists concerns, telling her“my husband took care of that—l stayed home.”
E) That comment, says Mothering Justice director Danielle Atkinson,“was meant to shame” and relied on the familiar notion that a woman of color concerned about income inequality and programs that promote mobility must by definition be a single mom, probably with multiple kids. In this case,the Mothering Justice activist happened to be married. And in most cases in the America of 2019, the images that come to mind when we hear the words poverty or income inequality fail miserably in reflecting a complicated reality: poverty touches virtually all of us. The face of income inequality, for all but a very few of us, is the one we each see in the mirror.
F) How many of us are poor in the U.S.? It depends on who you ask. according to the Census Bureau, 38 million people in the U.S. are living below the official poverty thresholds. Taking into account economic need beyond that absolute measure,the Institute for policy Studies found that140 million people are poor or low-income. That’s almost half the U.S. population.
G) Whatever the measure,within that massive group, poverty is extremely diverse. We know that some people are more affected than others, like children, the elderly, people with disabilities, and people of color.
H) But the fact that 4 in 10 Americans cant come up with $ 400 in an emergency is a commonly cited statistic for good reason: economic instability stretches across race, gender,and geography. It even reaches into the middle classes, as real wages have stagnated (不增长)for all but the very wealthy and temporary spells of financial instability are not uncommon.
I) negative images remain of who is living in poverty as well as what is needed to move out of it. The big American myth is that you can pull yourself up by your own efforts and change a bad situation into a good one.The reality is that finding opportunity without help from families, friends, schools, and community is virtually impossible. And the playing field is nothing close to level.
J) The FrameWorks Institute, a research group that focuses on public framing of issues, has studied what sustains stereotypes and narratives of poverty in the United Kingdom.“People view economic success and wellbeing in life as a product of choice,willpower and drive,”says Nat Kendall-Taylor, CEO of FrameWorks. “When we see people who are struggling,” he says, those assumptions “lead us to the perception that people in poverty are lazy, they don’t care, and they haven’t made the right decisions.”
K) Does this sound familiar?Similar ideas surround poverty in the U.S. And these assumptions give a false picture of reality. “When people enter into that pattfern of thinking,”says Kendall-Taylor, “it’s cognitively comfortable to make sense of issues of poverty in that way. It creates a kind of cognitive blindness—all of the factors external to a person’s drive and choices that they’ve made become invisible and fade from view.”
L) Those extemal factors include the difficulties accompanying low-wage work or structural discrimination based on race,gender, or ability.Assumptions get worse when people who are poor use government benefits to help them survive. There is a great tension between “the poor” and those who are receiving what has become a dirty word: “welfare.”
M) According to the general Social Survey,71 percent of respondents believe the country is spending too little on “assistance to the poor”.On the other hand, 22 percent think we are spending too little on “welfare” : 37 percent believe we are spending too much.
N)“Poverty has been interchangeable with people of color—specifically black women and black mothers,”says Atkinson of Mothering Justice. It’s true that black mothers are more affected by poverty than many other groups, yet they are disproportionately the face of poverty.For example, Americans routinely overestimate the share of black recipients of public assistance programs.
O) In reality, most people will experience some form of financial hardship at some point in their lives. Indeed, people tend to dip in and out of poverty, perhaps due to unexpected obstacles like losing a job, or when hours of a low-wage job fluctuate.
P) Something each of us can do is to treat each other with the dignity and sympathy that is deserved and to understand deeply that the issue of poverty touches all of us.
36.One legislative staffer assumed that a woman of color who advocated affordable childcare must be a single mother.
37.People from different races, genders and regions all suffer from a lack of financial security.
38.According to a survey, while the majority believe too little assistance is given to the poor, more than a third believe too much is spent on welfare.,
39.A research group has found that Americans who are struggling are thought to be lazy and to have made the wrong decisions.
40.Under the old system in America, a mother was supposed to stay home and take care of her children.
41. It was found that nearly 50% of Americans are poor or receive low pay.
42.Americans usually overestimate the number of blacks receiving welfare benefits.
43. It is impossible for Americans to lift themselves out of poverty entirely on their own.
44.Nowadays, it seems none of us can get away from income inequality.
45.Assumptions about poor people become even more negative when they live on welfare.
答案解析：
36. 根据题干中的关键信息“legislative staffer”(立法助理)、“woman of color”(有色人种女性)、“affordable childcare”(平价托儿服务)和“single mother”(单身母亲)，我们可以定位到原文D段和E段。D段描述了一位立法助理对活动人士的评论，而E段则明确解释了该评论背后的错误假设，即“a woman of color concerned about income inequality... must by definition be a single mom”。E段的内容完美解释了题干中的“assumed”(假设)，所以选 E。
37. 题干的核心意思是“不同种族、性别和地区的人都缺乏经济保障”。原文H段中提到“economic instability stretches across race, gender, and geography”，其中“stretches across”与题干中的“people from... all suffer from”意思高度对应，“economic instability”是“lack of financial security”的同义替换。所以选 H。
38. 题干提到了“a survey”(一项调查)，并包含两个对比数据：“majority believe too little assistance... to the poor”(大多数人认为给穷人的援助太少)和“more than a third believe too much is spent on welfare”(超过三分之一的人认为福利开支过多)。原文M段明确引用了“General Social Survey”的调查结果，并给出了“71 percent”和“37 percent”这两个具体数据，与题干描述完全吻合。所以选 M。
39. 题干中的关键信息是“a research group”(一个研究小组)和“thought to be lazy and... made the wrong decisions”(被认为是懒惰的且做出了错误决定)。原文J段提到了“FrameWorks Institute, a research group”，并在段末引用其CEO的话说，那些 assumptions “lead us to the perception that people in poverty are lazy, they don’t care, and they haven’t made the right decisions”。这与题干内容完全一致。所以选 J。
40. 题干描述的是“旧制度”下对母亲的期望。原文D段在描述托儿服务问题时，提到了“the vestiges of a system that expected mothers to stay home with their children while their husbands worked”。“Vestiges”意为“遗迹、残余”，正好对应题干中的“the old system”(旧制度)，而“expected mothers to stay home”也与题干意思相符。所以选 D。
41. 题干的关键数字是“nearly 50%”(近50%)。原文F段末尾提到，根据政策研究所的数据，“140 million people are poor or low-income. That’s almost half the U.S. population.” “Almost half”(几乎一半)正是“nearly 50%”的同义表达。所以选 F。
42. 题干的核心是“overestimate the number of blacks receiving welfare benefits”(高估了领取福利的黑人数量)。原文N段明确指出：“Americans routinely overestimate the share of black recipients of public assistance programs.” “Routinely overestimate”与题干中的“usually overestimate”意思相同，“public assistance programs”是“welfare benefits”的同义替换。所以选 N。
43. 题干的意思是“美国人完全靠自己摆脱贫困是不可能的”。原文I段对此有直接论述：“The reality is that finding opportunity without help from families, friends, schools, and community is virtually impossible.” “Virtually impossible”(几乎不可能)与题干中的“impossible”意思一致，并且强调了需要外界帮助，不能“entirely on their own”(完全靠自己)。所以选 I。
44. 题干表达了“,似乎没有人能摆脱收入不平等”的观点。而C段 首 句Today’s faces of income inequality and lack of opportunity look like all of us 提 到,如 今收入不 平 等 和 机 会 的 缺 失 是 我 们 都 面 临 的 问 题，与题干主旨完全契合。所以选 C。
45. 题干的意思是“当穷人依靠福利生活时，人们对他们的假设会变得更加负面”。原文L段开头就明确指出：“Assumptions get worse when people who are poor use government benefits to help them survive.” “Get worse”(变得更糟)与题干中的“become even more negative”(变得更加负面)是同义替换，“government benefits”即“welfare”。所以选 L。
