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  3. This week, many Americans will be buying into the same dream: winning the unprecedentedly large $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot o

This week, many Americans will be buying into the same dream: winning the unprecedentedly large $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot o

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问题     This week, many Americans will be buying into the same dream: winning the unprecedentedly large $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot on Wednesday night. Since last week, when the jackpot had accrued to over $500 million, Powerball tickets have been reportedly flying off bodega and convenience-store counters. The odds of winning remain 1 in 292 million—that’s why the lottery is sometimes called a "stupidity tax" — but a ticket’s $2 price tag does make it a low-risk impulse buy. (Alex Tabarrok, over at Marginal Revolution, suggests that those who participate should buy tickets early in order to enjoy their real value—the pleasure of anticipation—for longer).
    A reader complains: "The lottery is a scheme acted on the poorest and most gullible." Many people are hoping to acquire this tremendous windfall, but is what they’re after something that will actually make them happy? Anecdotes about how winning the lottery can be bad luck abound—a winning ticket has led some "lucky" winners into bankruptcy, or worse. But there’s also the possibility that all of the lottery winners who are living comfortably don’t make headlines.
    Researchers have tried to figure out which of these narratives is more accurate by looking into two questions whose answers lottery players assume to be in the affirmative; Does winning the lottery make people rich in the long run? And does an influx of tons of cash make people happier? Their results, though, suggests that these answers aren’t so straightforward.
    In the late 1970s and ’80s, the sociologist H. Roy Kaplan performed now-classic research on what became of lottery winners. His most famous study asked lottery winners how happy they had been before and after their big checks arrived. That 1978 study, which had a very small sample size, famously found that lottery winners were not that much happier than the control group—a bunch of people who didn’t win the lottery—after their win. (A 2008 Dutch study concluded the same thing.) Kaplan did a bigger study in 1987 on 576 lottery winners, and found that "popular myths and stereotypes about winners were inaccurate"—by which he meant that American lottery winners did not typically quit their jobs and spend lavishly.
    In the end, while winning can turn out bad, the real bad thing is probably the lottery itself; America, especially its poor households, spends way too much on it, and the odds are worse than at a casino.
Which of the following is true of the Powerball lottery?
选项 A、The lasting feelings of fulfilment.
B、The players’ active participation.
C、The stupid marketing tricks.
D、The room for increasing value.
答案B
解析 (1)根据题目顺序，本题出处可定位在第1段。(2)根据文章，“‘强力球’彩票史无前例”(第1段：unprecedentedly)，“酒吧间和便利店都在出售彩票”(第l段：flying)，“它是低风险的投资”(第1段：low-risk)。据此，确定选项[B]为正确答案。
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