首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
考研
It is hard to pinpoint the date at which Americans developed an Indian—or perhaps British fatalism about the declining quality o
It is hard to pinpoint the date at which Americans developed an Indian—or perhaps British fatalism about the declining quality o
admin
2015-09-30
53
问题
It is hard to pinpoint the date at which Americans developed an Indian—or perhaps British fatalism about the declining quality of their infrastructure. When my British mother spent several months in the US in the 1950s, it was dazzlingly futuristic. There was air conditioning, an icebox in every fridge, ubiquitous neon lights and an open road on which even the working class could afford to drive. But bit by bit over the past 30 years, the world’s first truly modern infrastructure has shown its age. It has been starved by a generation of under-investment. And Americans have adapted around it.
At some point in the next 12 months, we will discover whether the US has the will to bring its infrastructure into the 21st century. If all goes well, Congress will take steps to avert a fiscal cliff before January 1. As part of that deal lawmakers will schedule another ticking time bomb for late 2013, before which they will have to strike a larger bargain or hit another fiscal cliff. The likelihood is that Congress will shrink the already meagre federal investment budget. The hope, as the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Center puts it, is that Congress will "cut to invest" rather than doing so crudely across the board.
There are three reasons to worry. First, there is remarkably little public outrage over the dilapidation in the power grid, public roads, domestic airports and waterways. This means that lawmakers will be feeling stronger pressures in other directions(such as defending the existing low level of capital gains tax, for example, or maintaining job-creating defence budgets). It is hard to fly domestically in the US and not at regular intervals face heavy delays, cancellations or being bumped off your flight. It is also hard not to miss the impressively stoical reaction of most passengers.
Second, most Americans are unaware of how far behind the rest of the world their country has fallen. According to the World Economic Forum’s competitiveness report, US infrastructure ranks below 20th in most of the nine categories, and below 30 for quality of air transport and electricity supply. The US gave birth to the internet the kind of decentralised network that the US power grid desperately needs, yet according to the OECD club of mostly rich nations, average US internet speeds are barely a 10th of those in countries such as South Korea and Germany. In an age where the global IT superhighway is no longer a slogan, this is no joke. The budding US entrepreneur can survive gridlocked traffic, but a slow internet can be crippling.
Third, it may be asking too much of Washington in its present state of polarisation to give the green light to an ambitious infrastructure plan. In a departure from their party’s traditions, many Republicans are now ideologically opposed to any serious federal role in infrastructure and want to decentralise it to the states. It is thus also a stretch to imagine Congress setting up a public infrastructure bank, as President Barack Obama has requested. The bank would use $ 10bn in seed money to leverage a multiple of that in private money for cross-state projects much like the European Investment Bank. The chances are it will stay on the drawing board.
It can be inferred from the last paragraph that______.
选项
A、infrastructure transformation is a bipartisan pursuit in the US
B、the US still has a long way to go to bring its infrastructure into the 21st century
C、republicans have a tradition of opposing to any serious federal role in infrastructure
D、congress will set up a public infrastructure bank by the end of this year
答案
B
解析
本题考查考生对最后一段内容的理解。最后一段指出由于华盛顿目前处于两党对立的状态,此时不可能对基础设施建设计划达成共识。而由于许多共和党人如今在意识形态上反对联邦在基础设施建设上履行任何重要职能,美国国会也不可能建立一家公共基础设施银行。可见,决定美国能否进行基础设施改造的关键性问题——联邦投资,在短期内无法实现,因此可以推断出.让其基础设施步入21世纪,美国还有很长的一段路要走。B项正确。美国基础设施改造并不是两党的共同追求.最后一段一开始就说两党在这一问题上存在分歧,因此A错误。最后一段讲到“与共和党传统相悖的是,许多共和党人如今在意识形态上反对联邦在基础设施建设上履行任何重要职能”,因此C错误.反对联邦在基础设施建设上履行任何重要职能并不是共和党的一贯做法。而由于共和党的反对,美国国会不能建立一家公共基础设施银行。最后一句明确说道“这家银行可能仍将停留在规划中”,因此D项错误。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/4DzZ777K
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
Youwillpasstheexaminationifyou______harder.
【C1】______wehearmuchaboutthe"newfather",themanwho【C2】______anactiveroleintheday-todaycareofhischildren,ther
Everyonemusthavehadatleastonepersonalexperiencewithacomputererrorbythistime.Bankbalancesaresuddenlyreported
Advancesincomputersanddatanetworksinspirevisionsofafuture"informationeconomy"inwhicheveryonewillhave(1)_____t
Allanimalsmustrest,butdotheyreallysleepasweknowit?Theanswertothisquestionseemsobvious.Ifananimalregularly
Whatimpactcanmobilephoneshaveontheirusers’health?Manypeopleworryaboutthesupposedilleffectscausedbyradiation
How’sthisforunintendedconsequences?Someofthebiggestbeneficiaries(受惠者)ofthewomen’smovementhavebeenmarriedmen.Acc
ManycountrieswillnotallowcigaretteadvertisingintheirnewspaperoronTV-especially【1】theadvertisementsareusuallywri
ThePewFoundationdiscoveredinarecent【C1】______thattensionsoverinequalityinwealthnow【C2】______tensionsoverraceandi
Besidethe580FreewayeastoftheSanFranciscoRay,thehillsarealivewiththesoundofwhooshing.Windturbinescovertheh
随机试题
将湿空气转变成干空气的方法有哪些?
年终结账时,应在“本年合计”下面通栏划双红线。()
某企业以CIF成交方式购进一台砂光机,先预付设备款25000港币,发货时再支付设备价款40000港币,并另直接支付给境外某权利所有人专用技术使用费15000港币.此外,提单上列明THC费为500港币,该批货物经海关审定的成交价格为()。
外商甲与内资企业乙拟设立一股份有限公司,注册资本为3000万元(每股1元),根据我国法律法规的规定,甲持有的股份最低应为()股。
标志着中国半殖民地半封建社会基本形成的不平等条约是()。
下列属于民事法律调整的行为的是()。
诺维斯公司有10000股票发行在外,且股利支付率为100%,该公司的净收入为32000美元,公司一年的预期价值为1545600美元。诺维斯公司适用的折现率为12%。该公司当前的价值是多少?
StandardEnglishisthevarietyofEnglishwhichisusuallyusedinprintandwhichisnormallytaughtinschoolsandtonon-nat
Whatpointismadeinthefirstparagraph?Davenportsuggestsorganisingcompanyconferencesbecause
WhatkindofcompanyisKleinfelder?Kleinfelderisa/an______company.Besidestheusualpaymentandbenefit,whatelsemak
最新回复
(
0
)