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  3. "Layers of Social Class" Taken together, income, occupation, and education are good measures of people’s social standing. U

"Layers of Social Class" Taken together, income, occupation, and education are good measures of people’s social standing. U

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问题                     "Layers of Social Class"
    Taken together, income, occupation, and education are good measures of people’s social standing. Using a layered model of stratification, most sociologists describe the class system in the United States as divided into several classes: upper, upper middle, middle, lower middle, and lower class. Each class is defined by characteristics such as income, occupational prestige, and educational attainment. The different groups are arrayed along a continuum with those with the most money, education, and prestige at the top and those with the least at the bottom.
    In the United States, the upper class owns the major share of corporate and personal wealth; it includes those who have held wealth for generations as well as those who have recently become rich. Only a very small proportion of people actually constitute the upper class, but they control vast amounts of wealth and power in the United States. They exercise enormous control throughout society. Most of their wealth is inherited.
    → Despite social myths to the contrary, the best predictor of future wealth is the family into which you are born. Each year, the business magazine Forbes publishes a list of the "Forbes 400"—the four hundred wealthiest families and individuals in the country. Of all the wealth represented on the Forbes 400 list, more than half is inherited. Those on the list who could be called "self-made" were not typically of modest origins; most inherited significant assets (Forbes, 1997; Sklar and Collins,1997). Those in the upper class with newly acquired wealth are known as the nouveau riche. Although they may have vast amounts of money, they are often not accepted into "old rich" circles.
    → The upper middle class includes those with high incomes and high social prestige. They tend to be well-educated professionals or business executives. Their earnings can be quite high indeed--successful business executives can earn millions of dollars a year. It is difficult to estimate exactly how many people fall into this group because of the difficulty of drawing lines between the upper, upper middle, and middle class. Indeed, the upper middle class is often thought of as "middle class" because their lifestyle sets the standard to which many aspire, but this lifestyle is simply beyond the means of a majority of people in the United States.
    → The middle class is hard to define; in part, being "middle class" is more than just economic position. By far the majority of Americans identify themselves as middle class even though they vary widely in lifestyle and in resources at their disposal. But the idea that the United States is an open-class system leads many to think that the majority have a middle-class lifestyle because, in general, people tend not to want to recognize class distinctions in the United States. Thus, the middle class becomes the ubiquitous norm even though many who call themselves middle class have a tenuous hold on this class position.
    In the hierarchy of social class, the lower middle class includes workers in the skilled trades and low-income bureaucratic workers, many of whom may actually define themselves as middle class. Examples are blue-collar workers (those in skilled trades who do manual labor) and many service workers, such as secretaries, hairdressers, waitresses, police, and firefighters. Medium to low income, education, and occupational prestige define the lower middle class relative to the class groups above it. The term "lower" in this class designation refers to the relative position of the group in the stratification system, but it has a pejorative sound to many people, especially to people who are members of this class.
    → The lower class is composed primarity of the displaced and poor. People in this class have little formal education and are often unemployed or working in minimum-wage jobs.A Forty percent of the poor work; 10 percent work year- round and full time—a proportion that has generally increased over time. Recently, the concept of the underclass has been added to the lower class.B The underclass includes those who have been left behind by Contemporary economic developments.C Rejected from the economic system, those in the underclass may become dependent on public assistance or illegal activities.D
According to paragraph 5, why do most people identify themselves as middle class in the United States?
选项 A、They have about the same lifestyle as everyone else in the country.
B、They prefer not to admit that there are class distinctions in the United States.
C、They don’t really know how to define their status because it is unclear.
D、They identify themselves with the majority who have normal lifestyles.
答案B
解析 ... an open-class system leads many to think that the majority have a middle-class lifestyle because...people tend not to want to recognize class distinctions in the United States." Choice A is not correct because they vary widely in lifestyle and in resources. Choice C is not correct because, although the status may be unclear, people do not have a problem defining themselves as middle class. Choice D is not correct because "norm" refers to average, not normal.
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