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  3. The treatment of the gypsy population of the United Kingdom is disgraceful. Local authorities are slow to provide permanent site

The treatment of the gypsy population of the United Kingdom is disgraceful. Local authorities are slow to provide permanent site

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问题     The treatment of the gypsy population of the United Kingdom is disgraceful. Local authorities are slow to provide permanent sites on which gypsies may camp. Some authorities prefer to neglect the problem of the education of gypsy children. But these authorities have a legal obligation both to provide camp sites and to ensure that the children attend school. It is a sad reflection on our society that there should be such reluctance to comply with the law. The reasons, however, are not difficult to find. Gypsies are widely reputed to be lazy, dirty and dishonest. No proud house-owner wishes to see a slovenly gypsy encampment a short distance down the road. His suburban spirit is shocked by the huddled caravans and ancient cars or ill-kept ponies: he is repelled by the slovenly women and the hordes of apparently unwashed children. And, of course, the majority of elected councilors are just such proud house-owners.
    But gypsies are, in large part, what we have made them. Ever since their arrival in Britain more than three-and-a-half centuries ago, they have been treated as a criminal race. They came to this country proudly proclaiming themselves Counts of Egypt, but within a few years they found that every man’s hand was raised against them. Somehow they have survived, a burden upon our conscience. The law no longer discriminates against them, as it does in so many other countries, but our society is still hostile toward them.
    We cannot hope for any dramatic changes in their position. The barrier of generations of mistrust can only be slowly broken down. The first step is to ensure that they are provided with adequate sites both for those willing to live in permanent camps and for those who are still confirmed nomads. After all, a camp site is far cheaper than a housing project, and gypsies who have been obliged to abandon their traditional sites because of the spread of our towns surely have a right to a place to live. Again, surely everybody would benefit from the provision of well-planned sites: the temporary encampments along the roads which so offend the tidy-minded would then disappear and the gypsies themselves would have somewhere to feel secure. At the moment, when so many of them are camped illegally, their lives are an unending battle against authority and they can never forget that they are outsiders, rejected by all.
Why is British society hostile to gypsies?
选项 A、They have more privileges than in many other countries.
B、The British law used to discriminate against them.
C、They do not like the British.
D、They refuse to conform to British standards.
答案D
解析 文中倒数第二段提到英国人把他们看成是罪犯，说明吉普赛人来到英国不遵守英国的行为标准。
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本试题收录于： C类竞赛（非英语专业本科）题库大学生英语竞赛（NECCS）分类
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C类竞赛（非英语专业本科）

大学生英语竞赛（NECCS）

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