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  3. Imagine a Briton’s new year resolutions: he vows to stop smoking 20 cigarettes a day, and abandon his daily bottle of claret and

Imagine a Briton’s new year resolutions: he vows to stop smoking 20 cigarettes a day, and abandon his daily bottle of claret and

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问题     Imagine a Briton’s new year resolutions: he vows to stop smoking 20 cigarettes a day, and abandon his daily bottle of claret and nightly whisky. Confronting his enlarging gut, he may even promise to make his ten-mile round-trip commute by bike, not car.
    What admirable goals. And since this gentleman’s annual vice bill comes to around 7,500 pounds, he will be well-rewarded for his virtue even before considering the effect on his health. But the Treasury might rejoice a little less. In the fiscal year 2010-11 nearly 10% of all taxes collected came from duty on alcohol, tobacco, and fuel as well as from vehicle excise duty, a tax that falls most heavily on the least efficient cars. You may say that New Year resolutions are notoriously short-lived, but the longer-run trend still looks bad for the exchequer. Because many vices are in constant decline, so are receipts, predicts the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
    Smoking rates have been falling for decades, attributed partly to high taxes, and partly to public health campaigns changing social mores and a smoking ban in workplaces introduced across Britain in 2007. The government could respond by increasing sin tax rates. But when duties rise, so do the incentives to get around them, by buying abroad or on the black market. This is particularly common with cigarettes, which are easy for individual smokers to import. In 2000 non-duty consumption reached a peak of 78% , a consequence of the weak euro as well as a sudden increase in taxes of inflation plus 5%.
    Petrol taxes are leaking more quickly. As with smoking, behavior is changing; car and van mileage has fallen for four consecutive years, partly because petrol is so expensive and new vehicles have better engines. These trends, as well as the rise of electric and hybrid cars, are forecast to compress receipts from 1.8% of GDP in 2010 to just 1.1% in 2030.
    There are, of course, advantages to Britons giving up their filthy habits. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable illness and premature death in Britain. It cost the National Health Service more than 5 billion pounds a year in 2005-06, some 5.5% of its budget at the time, according to an Oxford University study. But any benefit to the NHS may be short-lived. Those who do not perish from diseases associated with smoking are likely to die more slowly of age-related illnesses.
    In moral terms, a decline in sin tax receipts suggests a job well done. But in fiscal terms, a hole is a hole. As the OBR sees it, falling Treasury income means Britons will be getting, in effect, an unannounced tax cut. Other taxes could therefore rise without leaving people worse off in aggregate. The maths makes sense. For the virtuous, though, being clobbered with new taxes may seem a rather poor reward.
According to Paragraph 3, increasing tax rates on cigarettes is not a reasonable way for government to counteract effects of less people smoking because______.
选项 A、it will force more people to give up smoking
B、it will stimulate people to access cigarettes from alternative channels
C、it can not counter the effects of weak euro
D、it can not counter the effects of inflation
答案B
解析 本题考查对文章第三段中一个细节内容的理解。第三段第一句话中提到英国的吸烟率在过去的几十年中持续下降，除了烟草税的调节作用之外，健康运动以及公共场所的禁烟令都起到了一定的作用。接着在第二句话中作者讲到政府当然可以通过提高烟草税率来弥补税收损失，但是这样做只会刺激消费者到国外或者黑市上购买香烟，以逃避高额税率。“But when duties rise，so do the incentives to get around them，by buying abroad or on the black market．”因此本题的正确答案选[B]。[A]选项虽然在现实生活中有可能发生，却不是第三段提到的主要原因。[C]和[D]选项利用weak euro和inflation设置无关干扰。
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