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  3. America’s recent history has been a persistent tilt to the West—of people, ideas, commerce and even political power. California

America’s recent history has been a persistent tilt to the West—of people, ideas, commerce and even political power. California

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问题     America’s recent history has been a persistent tilt to the West—of people, ideas, commerce and even political power. California and Texas are the twin poles of the West, but very different ones. For most of the 20th century the home of Silicon Valley and Hollywood has been the brainier and trendier of the two. Texas has trailed behind: its stereotype has been a conservative Christian in cowboy boots. But twins can change places. Is that happening now?
    It is easy to find evidence that California is in a panic. At the start of this month the once golden state started paying creditors in IOUs. The gap between projected outgoings and income for the current fiscal year has leapt to a horrible $26 billion. With no sign of a new budget to close this gulf, one credit agency has already downgraded California’s debt. As budgets are cut, universities will let in fewer students, prisoners will be released early and schemes to protect the vulnerable will be rolled back.
    By contrast, Texas has coped well with the recession, with an unemployment rate two points below the national average and one of the lowest rates of housing repossession. In part this is because Texan banks, hard hit in the last property bust, did not overexpand this time. Texas also clearly offers a different model, based on small government. It has no state capital-gains or income tax, and a business-friendly and immigrant-tolerant attitude. It is home to more Fortune 500 companies than any other state.
    Despite all this, it still seems too early to hand over America’s future to Texas. To begin with, that lean Texan model has its own problems. It has not invested enough in education, and many experts rightly worry about a "lost generation" of mostly Hispanic Texans with insufficient skills for the demands of the knowledge economy.
    Second, it has never paid to bet against a state with as many inventive people as California. Even if, Hollywood has gone into depression, it still boasts an unequalled array of sunrise industries and the most brisk venture-capital industry on the planet. The state also has an awesome ability to reinvent itself—as it did when its defense industry collapsed at the end of the cold war.
    The truth is that both states could learn from each other. Texas still lacks California’s great universities and lags in terms of culture. California could adopt not just Texas’s leaner state, but also its more bipartisan approach to politics. There is no perfect model of government: it is America’s genius to have 50 public-policy laboratories competing to find out what works best.
What does the author say about California and Texas in Paragraph 1?
选项 A、They have been competing for the leading position.
B、California has been superior to Texas in many ways.
C、They are both models of development for other states.
D、Texas’s cowboy culture is less known than California’s.
答案B
解析 本题关键词是California和Texas，问题是：关于加利福尼亚州和得克萨斯州作者说了什么?定位到文章第一段。根据第一段第二句可知，虽然加利福尼亚州和得克萨斯州是美国西部的双生轴心，但是两者却有很大差别。第三、四句具体阐述两州的差别：在20世纪的大部分时间里，加利福尼亚州在科技和潮流方面一直领先于得克萨斯州(the brainier and trendier of the two)。由此不难看出，加利福尼亚州在很多方面都要优于得克萨斯州。因此选项B与原文是相同含义，为正确选项。选项A曲解文意，在20世纪，得克萨斯州暂时没有能力和加利福尼亚州竞争领先地位。选项C无中生有，本段并没有提及其他州的情况，无法进行比较。选项D属于偷换概念，在目前情况下，加州的形象比较“新潮”，而得州比较“传统”，并非德克萨斯州的牛仔文化不如加利福尼亚州的出名，并且违背常识。
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