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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

admin2022-07-29  95
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 today’s California?
选项 A、Its debts are pushing it into bankruptcy.
B、Its budgets have been cut by $26 billion.
C、It is faced with a serious financial crisis.
D、It is trying hard to protect the vulnerable.
答案C
解析 本题关键词是today’s California，问题是：对于当今的加利福尼亚州，作者说了什么?可以定位到第二段。第二段提到，有证据表明，加利福尼亚州正处在恐慌(panic)之中，并介绍了产生恐慌的具体原因，包括给债权人打欠条，预算支出和收入的缺口巨大，信用等级被下调 (downgraded California’s debt)等，这些都是严重的财务危机的表现，因此选项C与原文为相同含义，是正确选项。选项A属于无中生有，原文并未提到加利福尼亚州走向破产。选项B属于偷换概念：由第二段第三句可看出，预算支出和收入的缺口(The gap between projected outgoings and income)达到260亿美元，而非财政预算被削减了260亿美元。选项D属于正反混淆：由第二段最后一句可知，如果加州预算被削减，那么一些旨在保护弱势群体的项目不得不被搁浅(be rolled back)，所以该选项不符合原文。第二段：加利福尼亚州面临财政危机。
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