Why people work？ Undoubtedly you have periodically asked yourself the same question, perha

ps focused on why you have to work. "Self interest" in its broadest sense, including the interests of family and friends, is a basic motivation for work in all societies. But self-interest can involve more than providing for subsistence or accumulating wealth. For instance, among the Maori, a Polynesian people of the South Pacifica desire for approval, a sense of duty, a wish to conform. to custom and tradition, a feeling of emulation (竞争), and a pleasure in craftsmanship are additional reasons for working. Even within the United States, we cannot understand work as simply a response to economic necessity. Studies show that the vast majority of Americans would continue to work even if they inherited enough money to live comfort- ably.

When people work, they gain a contributing place in society. The fact that what they receive pay for their work indicates that what they do is needed by other people and that what they are a necessary part of the social fabric. Work is also a major social mechanism for placing people in the larger social structure and for providing them with identities. In the United States, it is a blunt and ruthlessly public fact that to do nothing is to be nothing and to do little is to be little. Work is commonly seen as the measure of an individual.

Sociologist Melvin L. Kohn and his associates have shown some of the ways work affects our lives. Generally, people who engage in self-directed work come to value self-direction more highly, to be more open to new ideas and to be less authoritarian in their relationships with others. Moreover, they develop self-conceptions consistent with these values, and as parents they pass these characteristics on to their children. Our work, then, is an important socializing experience that influences who and what we are.

Traditionally, work for "self interest" would be interpreted to mean work for______.

A．selfish reasons

B．a feeling of satisfaction

C．earning a living

D．a contributing place in society