Early in the age of affluence（富裕）that followed World War Ⅱ, an American retailing analyst named Victor Lebow proclaimed, "Our enormously productive economy...demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption... We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever increasing rate."
Americans have responded to Lebow's call, and much of the world has followed.
Consumption has become a central pillar of life in industrial lands and is even embedded in social values. Opinion surveys in the world's two largest economies—Japan and the United States—show consumerist definitions of success becoming ever more prevalent.
Overconsumption by the world's fortune is an environmental problem unmatched in severity by anything but perhaps population growth. Their surging exploitation of resources threatens to exhaust or unalterably spoil forests, soils, water, air and climate.
Ironically, high consumption may be a mixed blessing in human terms, too. The time-honored values of integrity of character, good work, friendship, family and community have often been sacrificed in the rush to riches.
Thus many in the industrial lands have a sense that their world of plenty is somehow hollow—that, misled by a consumerism culture, they have been fruitlessly attempting to satisfy what are essentially social, psychological and spiritual needs with material things.
Of course, the opposite of overconsumption—poverty—is no solution to either environmental or human problems. It is infinitely worse for people and bad for the natural world too. Dispossessed（被剥夺得一无所有的）peasants slash-and-burn their way into the rain forests of Latin America, and hungry nomads（游牧民族）turn their herds out onto fragile African grassland, reducing it to desert.
If environmental destruction results when people have either too little or too much, we are left to wonder how much is enough. What level of consumption can the earth support? When does having more cease to add noticeably to human satisfaction?
1.The emergence of the affluent society after World WarⅡ_______.
A.led to the reform of the retailing system
B.resulted in the worship of consumerism
C.gave rise to the dominance of the new egoism
D.gave birth to a new generation of upper class consumers
2.Apart from enormous productivity, another important impetus to high consumption is _______.
A.the people's desire for a rise in their living standards
B.the concept that one's success is measured by how much they consume
C.the imbalance that has existed between production and consumption
D.the conversion of the sale of goods into rituals
3.Why does the author say high consumption is a mixed blessing?
A.Because poverty still exists in an affluent society.
B.Because over consumption won't last long due to unrestricted population growth.
C.Because traditional rituals are often neglected in the process of modernization.
D.Because moral values are sacrificed in pursuit of material satisfaction.
4.According to the passage, consumerist culture _______.
A.will not alleviate poverty in wealthy countries
B.will not aggravate environmental problems
C.cannot thrive on a fragile economy
D.cannot satisfy human spiritual needs
5.It can be inferred from the passage that _______.
A.human spiritual needs should match material affluence
B.whether high consumption should be encouraged is still an issue
C.it remains a problem to keep consumption at a reasonable level
D.there is never an end to satisfying people's material needs
4
1.【答案】B。
【解析】推论题。B项是前三段的中心思想。Lebow's call的实质即B项所说的the worship of consumerism，也即第三段的consumption has become a central pillar of life and is even embedded in social values及consumerist definitions of success。A项中的retailing出现在文章的第一句话中，而该句话没有A项的意思，故A不对。C项的egoism是根据文章第一段的our ego satisfaction而来，据此也可排除C。
2.【答案】B。
【解析】细节辨认题。选择依据为第三段最后一句话。B项中的concept 是原文中的definition的同义改写。C项具有很大的迷惑性，因为C项的确是一个important impetus to high consumption，但C项其实就是题干中的enormous productivity。好比问“除了西红柿还有什么菜?”你不能回答“番茄”，因为番茄就是西红柿。
3.【答案】D。
【解析】题干出处是第五段第一句话。一般来说，段落首句后面的内容是对首句的发展或解释、进一步说明，所以答案应该到第五段首句后的内容中去寻找。据此不难看出D项正确。
4.【答案】D。
【解析】事实理解题。D项是第五、第六段的主旨。从文中找不到A、C项的意思，它们属于“无中生有”的选项，B项与文章意思相反，属“颠倒黑白”的干扰项。
5.【答案】C。
【解析】推论题。本文通过提出几个供读者思考的问题揭示文章主旨并结束文章。C项正是对文章末尾三个问题的概括。
