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  3. Economic refugees have traditionally lined up to get into America. Lately, they have been lining up to leave. In the past few mo

Economic refugees have traditionally lined up to get into America. Lately, they have been lining up to leave. In the past few mo

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问题    Economic refugees have traditionally lined up to get into America. Lately, they have been lining up to leave. In the past few months, half a dozen biggish companies have announced plans to merge with foreign partners and in the process move their corporate homes abroad. The motive is simple; corporate taxes are lower in Ireland, Britain and, for that matter, almost everywhere else than they are in America.
   In Washington, D. C. , policymakers have reacted with indignation. Jack Lew, the treasury secretary, has questioned the companies’ patriotism and called on Congress to outlaw such transactions. His fellow Democrats are eager to oblige, and some Republicans are willing to listen.
   The proposals are misguided. Tightening the rules on corporate "inversions" , as these moves are called, does nothing to deal with the reason why so many firms want to leave; America has the rich world’s most dysfunctional corporate-tax system. It needs fundamental reform, not new complications.
   America’s corporate tax has two horrible flaws. The first is the tax rate, which at 35% is the highest among the 34 mostly rich-country members of the OECD. Yet it raises less revenue than the OECD average thanks to countless loopholes and tax breaks aimed at everything from machinery investment to NASCAR race tracks. Last year these breaks cost $ 150 billion in forgone revenue, more than half of what America collected in total corporate taxes.
   The second flaw is that America levies tax on a company’s income no matter where in the world it is earned. In contrast, every other large rich country taxes only income earned within its borders. Here, too, America’s system is absurdly ineffective at collecting money. Firms do not have to pay tax on foreign profits until they bring them back home. Not surprisingly, many do not: American multinationals have some $ 2 trillion sitting on their foreign units’ balance-sheets, and growing.
   All this imposes big costs on the economy. The high rate discourages investment and loopholes distort it, because decisions are driven by tax considerations rather than a project’s economic merits. The tax rate companies actually pay varies wildly, depending on their type of business and the creativity of their lawyers; some pay close to zero, others the full 35%. But as other countries chopped their rates and America’s stayed the same, the incentive to flee grew. A possible solution is to lower the corporate rate, eliminate tax breaks and move America from a worldwide system to a territorial one.
Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
选项 A、Corporate Tax in America: Time to Reform
B、The Questionable Tax Breaks in America
C、Corporations in America: Time to Leave
D、The Hopeless Corporate Tax in America
答案A
解析 主旨题。文章第一段通过描述大量公司离开美国，引出美国企业税(corporate tax)这一问题：第二段描述官员对美国公司的行为表示愤怒，并作出一些提议；第三段引出作者观点：官员的提议具有误导性，美国企业税制需要改革；第四、五段分别讨论美国企业税的两大问题：最后一段总结美国企业税制的缺点并提出解决方案。选项[B]中Tax Breaks“税收减免”一词仅在第四、六两段出现过，只是文章讨论的部分内容，并非全文讨论的重点，该项可以排除。选项[C]中Corporations、Leave等关键词是首段讨论的内容，也非全文主旨，故也可以排除。选项[A][D]都强调了“美国企业税”这一关键词，[A]突出Reform“改革”，而[D]突出Hopeless“无可救药的”。作者在第三段最后一句提出：It needs fundamental reform，not new complications．又在第六段最后一句提出：A possible solution is to lower the corporate rate，eliminate tax breaks and move America from a worldwide system to a territorial one．因此，文章强调Reform“改革”一词，而非Hopeless“无可救药的”。故排除[D]选项，本题答案为[A]。
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