2. 外语
  3. There is, of course, no reason in logic why a transaction that involves moving goods across a border should be treated different

There is, of course, no reason in logic why a transaction that involves moving goods across a border should be treated different

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问题     There is, of course, no reason in logic why a transaction that involves moving goods across a border should be treated differently from a transaction within a border. Throughout history, states have also had recourse(求助)to taxes on domestic transactions. Ancient Athens had an excise on sales of slaves. Rome had a similar 4 percent sales tax, as well as a tax on the manumission(解放)of slaves and a 1 percent sales tax on other goods. In medieval France the Ordonance of December 1360 "revolutionized" royal finance by imposing a duty(the gabelle)on salt and aides of 5 percent on the sale of most commodities apart from wine, which was taxed at a higher rate(at first 8, later 5 percent). Renaissance Florence depended for a fifth of its revenue on a similar salt duty, levied at the city’s gates. Habsburg Castile had the alcabala, a 10 percent sales tax. Even before the introduction of the vodka monopoly, the excise on spirits was one of the Russian state’s principal sources of revenue, accounting for as much a third of the total in 1815.
    Few states in history have relied as heavily on the taxation of domestic consumption as Hanoverian Britain; and this is of particular interest as it was the regime that presided over the first industrial revolution. In fact, the excise-defined succinctly in Dr. Johnson’s dictionary as "a hateful tax levied upon commodities" — had its origins in the Stuart period: Charles I had levied duties on cloth, starch, soap, spectacles, gold and silver wire and playing cards; and in 1643, parliament had introduced excises on tobacco, wine, cider, beer, furs, hats, leather, lace, linen and imported silks. By 1660, excises were also being levied on salt, saffron, hops, lead tin, iron and glass. In the course of the next hundred years, these taxes became the British state’s principal source of revenue. To help finance the war with revolutionary France, the Younger Pitt added hats, gloves, mittens, perfumery, shops and female servants to the list of dutiable goods, to say nothing of bricks, horses and hunting. By the end of the Napoleonic wars, it seemed that scarcely anything in Britain was not taxed.
Which of the followings is the best title for the passage?
选项 A、Heavy Taxes
B、Taxes on Every Article
C、Getting the Taxes
D、British Famous Taxes
答案B
解析 本文主要是说无所不在的税收，因为在第一段中回顾了征税的历史，如在本段第二句指出古雅典的税务情况，而在第二段中又列举了眼镜、金银线和扑克牌等种类繁多的被征税物品，故选B)“无处不在的税收”。
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