原文是：
In spite of “endless talk of difference,” American society is an amazing machine for homogenizing people. There is “the democratizing uniformity of dress and discourse, and the casualness and absence of deference” characteristic of popular culture. People are absorbed into “a culture of consumption” launched by the 19th-century department stores that offered “vast arrays of goods in an elegant atmosphere. Instead of intimate shops catering to a knowledgeable elite,” these were stores “anyone could enter, regardless of class or background. This turned shopping into a public and democratic act.” The mass media, advertising and sports are other forces for homogenization.
22题：
22. According to the author, the department stores of the 19th century ________.
[A] played a role in the spread of popular culture
[B] became intimate shops for common consumers
[C] satisfied the needs of a knowledgeable elite
[D] owed its emergence to the culture of consumption
正确答案为A。
选A固然没错，但B选项根据原文“Instead of intimate shops catering to a knowledgeable elite, these were stores “anyone could enter, regardless of class or background. This turned shopping into a public and democratic act”来看，商店一度只对精英知识阶层友好，而现在不论你的阶层背景，商店变得public的democratic。感觉B选项和原文意思完全一致啊，为什么不对？
希望英文高手给予详细解答
您的意思就是说intimate shops和department stores 在这里指得不是一类商店，B选项出于偷换概念？如果这样我就弄明白了。另外在这段意思里，knowledgeable elite是否属于common consumers的范畴？
追答嗯，我觉得不是同一类商店。
我觉得原文里面，想强调的，其实是
intimate shops 的顾客比较局限——仅仅是knowledgeable elite
而，department stores更面向common consumers（广大群众）。
就算knowledgeable elite属于common consumers，但也只是很小的一部分人，不能代表广大群众的。
谢谢你的回答，不过我的感觉是 knowledgeable elite也属于common consumers的范畴啊，还有大虾对这个intimate怎么理解？
追答小友啊，不能这么理解。里面很显然没把knowledgeable elite 跟common consumers 统一起来啊，精英知识分子跟普通消费者是不一样的。就是在现实生活中也是不一样的啊，这一点结合现实也不难理解。对所有阶层开放，这已经是在承认有阶层之分的前提了。intimate是亲密的，亲近的，在这里面意思也差不多。精英在里面就像贵宾差不多.另外，提醒你一点哈，做这些题的时候千万别自己主观推断哈。有的时候你推断的即便是符合常识的，但是不符合文章意思，都是错的，切记啊！
本回答被提问者采纳