Passage One

Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.

Why are we so worried about our careers? Partly it's to do with money, but there's a psychological aspect to our fears as well. We worry because we suspect-not wrongly-that the world is full of a frightening sort of person ready to judge us ruthlessly and swiftly: a person we can call a snob.

A snob is anyone who takes a relatively small part of us and uses it to come to a rigid conclusion about how much of their attention we deserve. In the past, that might be your ancestry and royal connections. Nowadays, the snob cares about one thing only: what you do for a living.

This explains why the first question we will be asked in any new social context is 'What do you do?' and according to how we answer, snobs will either welcome us with broad smiles, or leave us in the cold. And that is why we are fired up by such a desperate urge to achieve and impress.

Sometimes our behavior is mistaken for greed and vanity, but it is more than this. A lot of our interest in fancy cars, jobs and houses has nothing to do with materialism. It has to do with a hunger for the respect and esteem that is only available in our societies through the acquisition of material goods. It isn't the goods themselves we seek, it is the love we stand to gain through our possession of them. The next time we see someone driving a Ferrari, we shouldn't condemn them for their greed, we should pity them for the intensity of their need for love from the world.

At the root of snobbery is a lack of imagination and confidence about how to decide who in the world is valuable. The snobs are brutally misguided and slavish in their beliefs about how the superior individuals can be identified. For snobs, it is the already acclaimed and already successful who are the only ones worthy of respect. There is no room in their timid regimented minds to imagine that someone might be clever, kind or good-and yet somehow have been overlooked entirely by society, their qualities lying hidden beneath an unfamiliar veil, and having as yet discovered no obvious outlet.

The true answer to snobbery is not to say that there is no such thing as a better or worse person, but to insist that better or worse exist in constantly unexpected places and carry none of the outward signs of distinction. And because we are such poor judges of the worth of others, our ultimate duty remains to be kind, good, curious and imaginative about pretty much everyone who ever crosses our path.

46. What gives rise to our worry about careers apart from money?

A) Fear of being judged in a snobbish manner.

B) The prospect of facing fault-finding managers.

C) The ruthless way employees are often treated.

D) Fright at the difficulty in hunting for a job.

47. What do we learn from the passage about today's snobs?

A) They try hard to dig into a person's past.

B) They draw a rigid conclusion about people.

C) They judge a person by their occupation.

D) They tend to place people in a social context.

48. What does the author say about people's interest in material goods?

A) It is the cause for condemnation of their greed.

B) It has a lot to do with the comforts they provide.

C) It arouses pity rather than respect from the wealthy.

D) It arises from their craving for social recognition.

49. What kind of people do snobs deem worth respect and esteem?

A) Those with fame and fortune.

B) Those with regimented minds.

C) Those with intelligence and imagination.

D) Those with qualities lying hidden in disguise.

50. What does the author imply we should do to avoid being snobbish?

A) Be aware there has never been such a thing as a better or worse person.

B) Be kind to and curious about those who we happen to meet in our lives.

C) realize that better or worse keeps changing in unexpected ways.

D) Judge people on the basis of their distinctive character traits.

答案解析：

46. 由题干中的关键词“our worry about careers apart from money”定位到第一段。第一段提到“We worry because we suspect - not wrongly - that the world is full of a frightening sort of person ready to judge us ruthlessly and swiftly: a person we can call a snob.”，即我们担心是因为怀疑世界上有很多以势利方式评判我们的人，所以除了钱，以势利方式评判带来的恐惧让我们担忧职业，选A。

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47. 由题干中的关键词“today's snobs”定位到第二段。第二段指出“Nowadays, the snob cares about one thing only: what you do for a living.”，说明如今势利的人只关心职业，即他们通过职业评判人，选C。

48. 由题干中的关键词“people's interest in material goods”定位到第四段。第四段提到“A lot of our interest in fancy cars, jobs and houses has nothing to do with materialism. It has to do with a hunger for the respect and esteem that is only available in our societies through the acquisition of material goods.”，表明人们对物质商品的兴趣源于对社会认可的渴望，选D。

49. 由题干中的关键词“snobs deem worth respect and esteem”定位到第五段。第五段提到“For snobs, it is the already acclaimed and already successful who are the only ones worthy of respect.”，即势利的人认为有名气和财富的人值得尊重，选A。

50. 由题干中的关键词“avoid being snobbish”定位到最后一段。最后一段提到“our ultimate duty remains to be kind, good, curious and imaginative about pretty much everyone who ever crosses our path.”，即要对生活中遇到的人友善、好奇，选B。