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Along rich countries , people in the United States work the longest hours. T hey work much longer than in Europe. This difference is quite surprising because productivity per hour worked is the same in the United States as it is in France, Spain and Germany, and it is growing at a similar speed.
In most countries and at most times in history, as people have become richer they have chosen to work less. In other words they have decided to “spend”a part of their extra income on a fuller personal life. Over the last fifty years Europeans have continued this pattern, and hours of work have fallen sharply. But not in the United States. We do not fully know why this is. One reason may be more satisfying work,or less satisfying personal lives.
Longer hourd do of course increase the GD (国内生产总值). So the United States has produced more per worker than, say,France.The United States also has more of its people at work,while in Frence many more mothers and older workers have decided to stay at home.The overall result is that Aerican GD per head is 40% higher than in France,even though productivity per hour worked is the same.
It is not clear which of the two situations is better.A we have seen, work has to be compared with other values like family life, which often get lost in interest.It is too erly to explain the different trends（趋势）in happiness over time in different countries. Bt it is a disappointingidea that in the United States happiness has made no progress since 1975, while it has resen in Europe. Culd this have 【題組】56.From the text we know that the autor .
(A)believes that longer working hours is better
(B)prefers shorter working hours to longer ones
(C)says nothing certain about which pattern is better
(D)thinks neither of the patterns is good
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