In the United States, when one becomes rich, he wants people to know it. And eve

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

Theexpression was first used in 1913 by a young American called Arthur Momand. Hetold 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 wifeto a very wealthy neighborhood. 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 newneighbors.

It was likea race, but one could never finish this race because one was always trying tokeep up. The race ended for Momand and his wife when they could no longer payfor their new way of life. They had to move back to an apartment in New YorkCity. Momand looked around him and noticed that many people do things just tokeep up with rich lifestyle of their neighbors. He saw the funny side of it andstarted to write a series of short stories. He called it "Keeping up withthe Joneses” because "Jones" is a very common name in the UnitedStates. "Keeping up with the Joneses" came to mean keeping up withrich lifestyle of the people around you. Momand's series appeared in differentnewspapers across the country for over 28 years.

People neverseem to get tired of keeping up with the Joneses. And there are"Joneses" in every city of the world. But one must get tired oftrying to keep up with the Joneses because no matter what one does, Mr. Jonesalways seems to be ahead.

1.Some people want to keep up with the Joneses becausethey ______.

A．want to be asrich as their neighbors

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

C．don't wantothers to know they are rich

D．want to behappy

2.It can be inferred from the story that rich peoplelike to ________.

A．live outsideNew York City

B．live in NewYork City

C．live inapartments

D．live withmany neighbors

3.What's the author's attitude to keeping up with theJoneses?

A．Negative.          B．Positive.           C．Supportive.        D．Objective.

试题答案

【答案】

1.B

2.A

3.A

【解析】

试题