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  3. The lower house of Australia’s Parliament passed sweeping changes in immigration policy on Wednesday that are meant to discourag

The lower house of Australia’s Parliament passed sweeping changes in immigration policy on Wednesday that are meant to discourag

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问题     The lower house of Australia’s Parliament passed sweeping changes in immigration policy on Wednesday that are meant to discouragedeter asylum seekers who try to reach the country by the thousands each year on rickety, overcrowded ships and boats.
    In a major reversal, the measures would reopen a chain of offshore detention centers that human rights groups have criticized as inhumane and possibly illegal. The Labor government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard largely abandoned use of the detention centers when it came to power in 2007.
    The measures passed the lower house with the backing of both the governing party and the opposition coalition, with only two lawmakers voting against them, and the upper house is expected to approve them this week. But the debate was emotional and contentious, descending at times into a shouting match.
    "This is not the end of the efforts to deal with what is the very, very, very, very pernicious trade of people smuggling, which trades on people’s lives and gives people the expectation that in return for very significant sums of money they can be brought to Australia for passage," Chris Bowen, the immigration minister, told the lower house.
    Though the opposition coalition voted for the measure, it seemed determined to score as many political points as possible from Labor’s change of course. Many Labor members left the floor in protest as their rivals excoriated the government. The opposition leader, Tony Abbott, demanded a formal apology from Ms. Gillard for Labor’s previous policy, which he said encouraged risky attempts to reach Australia.
    "After, tragically, almost 1,000 deaths at sea and after $4.7 billion has been blown because of the government’s border protection failures, the prime minister has finally seen the sense of what the opposition has been proposing all along," Mr. Abbott said, adding, " This government’s failures gave the people smugglers a business model. "
    Australia has tried for years to find a policy that will deter would-be immigrants from trying to make the 220-mile crossing from Java to Christmas Island, a remote spot in the Indian Ocean that is Australia’s closest point to Indonesia. More than 600 migrants bound for Australia have died in accidents at sea since 2009.
    Domestic and international human rights groups have condemned the practice of detaining the asylum seekers for long periods in camps overseas while their cases are processed, saying that the practice is cruel and violates Australia’s obligations under the United Nations refugee convention.
    David Manne, a prominent human rights lawyer who succeeded in blocking a proposal last year to process migrants in Malaysia, called the new legislation the product of "interminable political jousting to see who has the harshest policies for dealing with these people. " "Really, all that deterrence policies like this do is sweep vulnerable people from our doorstep to dangers elsewhere," he said before the vote in Parliament.
According to the passage, the Christmas Island is
选项 A、one of Australian islands lying in the Indian Ocean.
B、220 miles away from the mainland of Australia.
C、the port where people can easily get into Australia.
D、Australia’s nearest spot to the country of Java.
答案A
解析 事实细节题。根据题干关键词the Christmas Island定位至第七段第一句，由该句可知，圣诞岛是印度洋中的一个偏远的小岛，为澳大利亚领土。显然[A]与原文意思相符，故为答案。该句说圣诞岛与爪哇之间的距离为220公里，并不是与澳大利亚大陆之间的距离为220公里，故排除[B]；虽然该句说法案阻止了试图从海路登上圣诞岛从而进入澳大利亚的移民，但文章并没有说该处是最容易进入澳大利亚的港口，因此排除[C]；文中说明该岛是澳大利亚与印度尼西亚之间距离最近的地点，并不是与爪哇之间距离最近的地点，因此排除[D]。
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