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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 neighbours.
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 his 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 “Joneses” 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.
小题1:Some people want to keep up with the Joneses because they ________.A．want to be as rich as their neighbours
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
小题2:It can be inferred (推断) from the story that rich people like to ________.A．live outside New York CityB．live in New York City
C．live in apartmentsD．have many neighbours
小题3:Arthur Momand used the name “Jones” in his series of short stories because “Jones” is ________.A．an important nameB．a popular name in the United States
C．his neighbour’s nameD．not a good name
小题4:If a person who keeps up with the Joneses, he would _________.A．do as the poor persons around him do
B．do everything he likes to do
C．do as his neighbours do
D．do as the rich people around him do
题型：阅读理解难度：中档来源：不详
答案
小题1:B
小题2:A
小题3:B
小题4:D
试题分析：这篇短文主要描述了在美国一些人总是不顾自己的条件，想要在某些方面赶上别人的脚步的故事。告诉我们，我们永远不可能赶得上被人，因为这个世界上总有比我们超前的人。
小题1:根据第一段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,描述,可知选B
小题2:根据第二段He got married and moved with his wife to a very wealthy neighbourhood outside New York City.描述,可知选A
小题3:根据倒数第二段He called it ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ because ‘Jones’ is a very common name in the United States.’描述,可知选B
小题4:根据“Keeping up with the Joneses” came to mean keeping up with rich lifestyle of the people around you.描述，可知选D.
点评：本文中长句较多，一时很难读懂句子含义，注意多读几遍，不要强求非得理解一词一句的含义，能把握文章大意就行。然后带着问题阅读短文，一般就能顺利找出答题依据。对于不能直接找到根据的问题注意联系上下文，根据短文中心总结出正确答案。
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