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
外语
(1)The Norwegian government just gave Lars Selhheim more than $5,000. Why did the 32-year-old dairy farmer need such a handout?
(1)The Norwegian government just gave Lars Selhheim more than $5,000. Why did the 32-year-old dairy farmer need such a handout?
admin
2021-08-05
23
问题
(1)The Norwegian government just gave Lars Selhheim more than $5,000. Why did the 32-year-old dairy farmer need such a handout? To take his family camping, of course.
(2)That may sound crazy, but here in Norway it makes sense. Since everyone deserves an annual vacation, the government reasons, it should pay for temporary workers to milk the cows so that farmers can get away. Welfare is not bashed here but celebrated by politicians of all stripes. When a center-tight coalition took power last year from a left-leaning government, it didn’t rein in social spending. Rather, it raised pensions and advocated cash payments to parents caring for infants.
(3)Norway serves up an amazing menu of entitlements. Health care is guaranteed to everyone, and it’s free after the first $172 in personal medical costs each year. Disabled people receiving specially equipped cars and wheelchairs to get around. University education is free. Maternity leave stretches for 42 weeks at full pay. Many arthritis sufferers get an all-expense-paid trip to a spa in the Canary Islands. Sick leave can last a year at full salary. Stay-at-home parents earn a public pension. Norwegians who live above Arctic Circle get tax breaks; poets and painters get subsidies.
(4)What makes such generosity possible is North Sea petroleum. Norway is the World’s No.2 exporter of crude oil and No. 3 exporter of natural gas. Last year, those industries netted the state $12.3 billion, or about $2,800 for every citizen. Still, the welfare system is costly—anyone earning more than $36,000 a year pays the top income tax rate of 49.5 percent. Sin taxes are high too, driving up the price of a beer at an ordinary bar to $6 and the price of a pack of cigarettes to $7. Norwegians complain about waiting lists for some medical procedures, and many of the wealthy opt for private health care. Yet opinion polls show most people to be content. "There’s a general consensus that you should take care of the poorest," says Tor Hersoug of the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry. "We have so much money. We can afford it."
(5)The inclination to share the wealth is deeply rooted in hardscrabble farms and fishing hamlets. This is a small country(4.4 million people)more accustomed to poverty than privilege. Flaunting one’s money—the "conspicuous consumption" that the late Norwegian-American economist Thorstein Veblen condemned—is more than vulgar; it’s, well, un-Norwegian. The closest thing to a national creed is something called Jantelaw, a village maxim that warns people not to act as though they are better than anyone else. Americans familiar with the denizens of Garrison Keillor’s fictional Lake Wobegon would recognize the mentality. Here, it’s a national policy: "The philosophy is to keep the traditional equality we’ve had," says Magnhild Meltveit Kleppa, minister for social affairs.
(6)Still, there are worries in the welfare state. Some fret that Norwegians, whose idea of vacation is to rough it in unheated mountain cabins, are going soft. Single parenthood is on the rise, and conservauveness(capped by a funeral grant)erodes initiative. As a result, the Prime Minister, an ordained Lutheran Pastor who scandalized some constituents by puffing on a cigar in public, has launched a "values commission" to foster traditional mores.
(7)Then there is the fear of "oil addiction". A fall in crude prices sent Norway’s economy tumbling in the mid-80s, and the current drop in oil prices is lowering government revenues. Interest rates are up and inflation may not be far behind. So the risk-averse Norwegians are socking away most of the petroleum profits in a national rainy-day fund. Just eight years from now, Norway expects to earn more from its investments than from its oldfangled magnanimity, indefinitely. "We’re lucky in Norway." says a smiling farmer Selheim. Lucky indeed but certainly no better than anyone else.
Which of the following statements contains a metaphor?
选项
A、Norwegians are socking away most of the petroleum profits in a national rainy-day fund.
B、... the wealth is deeply rooted in hardscrabble farms and fishing hamlets.
C、A village maxim that warns people not to act as though they are better than anyone else.
D、... a left-leaning government, it didn’t rein in social spending.
答案
A
解析
在选项A中,用rainy-day来暗喻“困难时期”,national rainy-day fund指的就是国家紧急备用金了,A是正确答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/6UIK777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Asmanyas40%ofuniversitylanguagedepartmentsarelikelytoclosewithinadecade,theformergovernmentadviserchargedw
WhenaskedhowtheydefinetheAmericanDream,mostpeoplewillsay,"Success."Thedreamofindividualopportunityhasbe
StephenKrashen’sTheoryofSecondLanguageAcquisitionStephenKrashenisanexpertinthefieldoflinguistics.Somepointsab
StephenKrashen’sTheoryofSecondLanguageAcquisitionStephenKrashenisanexpertinthefieldoflinguistics.Somepointsab
StephenKrashen’sTheoryofSecondLanguageAcquisitionStephenKrashenisanexpertinthefieldoflinguistics.Somepointsab
PASSAGETHREEWhydofootexpertsrecommendshoppingatshoestoreswithexperiencedstaff?
(1)SocialmobilityintheU.K.couldbereversedunlessthegovernmentanduniversitiesmakechangestoencourageandpayfor
PASSAGEFOURWhat’stheauthor’sattitudetowardstheindustrialsubsidypolicyofthegovernment?
随机试题
国际贸易结算的中心枢纽是【】
谷氨酰胺在体内的代谢去路是
金属经过冷却加工后,其性能下降的是
疲劳损伤积累理论认为,当零件的应力低于()时,应力循环不会对零件造成损伤。
全额包销过程中,承销机构与证券发行人之间的关系是委托代理关系。()
某公司资不抵债,向人民法院申请破产宣告,法院受理了申请,该公司的下列行为中,无效的有()。
忠实与通顺,作为翻译的标准,应该是统一的整体,不能把两者割裂开来。与原意________的文字,不管多么通顺,都称不上翻译:同样,译文词不达意也起不到翻译的作用。填入划横线部分最恰当的一项是()。
可支配收入
Inmanywesterncountriespeopledonotbatheeveryday,Sometimestheybatheonlyonceaweek,Sometimestheybathetwoorthre
A、Thetrainwillarriveontime.B、Thetrainhasalreadyarrivedthirteenminutesago.C、Thetrainwillarriveinthirteenminut
最新回复
(
0
)