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  3. The past five years have been a bad time to be a taxpayer in Europe. Across the continent, governments have relied heavily on ta

The past five years have been a bad time to be a taxpayer in Europe. Across the continent, governments have relied heavily on ta

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问题     The past five years have been a bad time to be a taxpayer in Europe. Across the continent, governments have relied heavily on tax rises to cut budget deficits, increasing the total burden by almost 5% of GDP in France and Greece. But rather than raise taxes any further, many countries are starting to cut them. The European Commission reckons that the euro zone’s tax-to-GDP ratio stabilised in 2013 and is now falling.
    In January France announced plans to cut payroll taxes by 30 billion. This month Italy unveiled income-tax cuts worth 10 billion for those earning less than 25,000 a year. This week Britain proposed tax cuts for most people on low or medium incomes. Ireland and Spain are also planning tax cuts later this year.
    Lower taxes may be popular, but how are such giveaways being financed? Few countries have the scope to borrow much more. The commission has criticised France and Spain for repeatedly missing their deficit-reduction targets, though it is not taking action against them. Italy’s high level of public debt, which hit 133% of GDP in 2013, has also landed it on the commission’s fiscal "watch list".
    Instead, most countries plan to pay for their tax proposals with public-spending cuts. Italy says it will reduce spending by an extra 7 billion this year and save a further 2. 2 billion thanks to lower yields on its debt—though these figures may prove optimistic.
    The politicians hope that lower taxes will boost growth. As euro-zone countries cannot devalue or lower their own interest rates, tax cuts are one of the few ways of trimming business costs fast, says Guillaume Menuet at Citigroup. France and Italy both hope to improve their competitiveness by reducing the tax "wedge" between employers’ costs and what workers actually take home. In 2012 this tax take reached nearly 50% of the payroll bill in France and Italy, against an OECD average of just 36%.
    Some economists doubt that cutting income tax, Italy’s approach, is the best way forward. Instead, they favour slashing Europe’s high employer-paid social security charges, as France proposes to do. This would directly lower labour costs, encouraging companies to hire extra workers as well as to increase their investment. That would also give a welcome boost to growth.
It can be inferred from the second paragraph that______.
选项 A、all domestic taxes will be cut in France soon
B、tax cut may be a good news to some Britons
C、most people in Italy benefit from the tax cut
D、low-income people needn’t pay tax in Ireland
答案B
解析 根据题干定位到第二段。选项[A]的all domestic taxes，soon等词过于肯定，从该段第一句提到France的句子中未能推断出来，故该项错误。选项[B]对应该段第三句，该句提到“英国提议减少大多数中低收入人群的税收”，故该项推理“减税对于一些英国人来说是好消息”是正确的。选项[C]对应第二句，该句指出“意大利为年薪低于2．5万欧元的人减税”，但是具体有多少人并不知道，故该项的most people benefit无法推断出来，该项错误。选项[D]对应最后一句，原文只是提到爱尔兰计划减税，并没有提到针对哪些群体，故该项错误。综上，本题答案为[B]。
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