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  3. Now that the economy is at last growing again, the burning issue in Britain is the cost of living. Prices have exceeded wages fo

Now that the economy is at last growing again, the burning issue in Britain is the cost of living. Prices have exceeded wages fo

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问题     Now that the economy is at last growing again, the burning issue in Britain is the cost of living. Prices have exceeded wages for the past six years. But the thing that is really out of control is the cost of housing. In the past year wages have risen by 1%; property prices are up by 8.4%. This is merely the latest in a long surge. If since 1971 the price of groceries had risen as steeply as the cost of housing, a chicken would cost ￡51 ($83).
    By subsidising mortgages, and thus boosting demand, the government is aggravating the problem. But that is not the main reason for rising prices. Driven by a baby-boom, immigration and longer lives, Britain’s population is growing by around 0.8% per year, faster than in most rich countries. Foreign wealth, in the meantime, is pouring into London.
    If supply were rising fast too, increasing demand would not matter; but it is not. Though some 221,000 additional households are formed in England annually, just 108,000 homes were built in the year to September 2013.
    The lack of housing is an economic drag. About three-quarters of English job growth last year was in London and its inland, but high prices make it hard for people to move there from less favoured spots. It also damages lives. New British homes are smaller than those anywhere else in Europe, household size is rising in London and slums are spreading as immigrants squash into shared houses (and, sometimes, garden sheds). Inequality is growing, because the higher property prices are, the greater the advantage that belongs to those whose parents own their homes.
    This is all the result of deliberate policymaking. Since the 1940s house-building in Britain has been regulated by a system designed to prevent urban sprawl, something it has achieved well. It is almost impossible to construct any new building anywhere without permission from the local council. In the places where people most want to live—suburbs at the edge of big cities—councils tend not to give it.
The best title of the text may be _____.
选项 A、Economy Is Coming Back
B、Housing Problem in Britain
C、Housing Price: High Everywhere
D、Britain: An Expensive Place to Live in
答案B
解析 主旨题最有可能出现的位置是文章首段、第二段或尾段，如果找不到，可以寻找各段首句，或者结合另外四个题目的题干信息推断。本篇文章首段提到一个关键句子，即：But the thing that is really out of control is the cost of housing．英语文章喜欢开篇点题，要特别注意文章的首段尾句、转折后的信息以及第二段首句。本句体现出文章讨论的话题，因为后面几段基本都是在围绕英国的住房问题进行讨论，因此选项B为答案。
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