Passage One They earn and spend, buy and sell, workand play. It's a mass of individuals,struggling to satisfy often-conflictinggoals, who set the pace for the American system. Whether the nation's huge businessmachine sputters or steams ahead depends on millions of individual consumers,the real "bosses"of the American economy. People's decisions on where to live andwork, what to buy or pass over, how much to save are at the heart of the freemarket system. Business and government take their cues from consumers, changingplans to meet their wants and needs. Everyday, the nation's 218 millionconsumers spend more than 3 billion dollars. Their purchases account for almosttwo-thirds of all the money spent each year, with government and businessresponsible for the rest. The trouble is that while people's needs are almostendless, their incomes aren't. Where money goes? About 70 percent of theaverage household's spending goes for necessities such as housing, food,clothes and health care. To be able to afford these items and still have moneyleft for nonessentials such as travel and entertainment, most families findthemselves economizing and watching their pennies. The same problem of matchinglimited resources with seemingly endless demands confronts businesses andpublic agencies. That is what the economy is all about-machoices on how to use limited resources of money, manpower, machinery andmaterials, whether it involves a shopper deciding what to buy in thesupermarket or a manufacturer deciding what line of goods to produce. Choices made in the economy involve acontinuous tug-of-war between consumers and producers over price. If many businesses are offering a productand there is plenty of it to satisfy the needs of all consumers, a producerwill be forced to sell at a price not far above costs in order to keep frombeing stuck with a lot of unmarketable supplies. This is why, for example,prices for fresh fruit and vegetables drop during the summer months when suchproduce is in great number. There is a natural ceiling on price, butit differs from one buyer to the next, depending on how much each can afford topay and how badly he wants to buy. If a company prices its goods or servicestoo high, some consumers will decide they're getting too little value for themoney and will put off buying. "It's not worth that much" is the viewheard in such situation. But if a respected brand of clothing orappliance is marked down during a sale, the reaction may be just the opposite arush of purchases. Why? "It's a good buy for the money."
The average Americans spend most of their money on____
A、stocks
B、necessities
C、education
D、entertainment
【正确答案】：B
