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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  71
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 problem is Texas confronted with?
选项 A、Its Hispanic population is mostly illiterate.
B、Its sunrise industries are shrinking rapidly.
C、Its education cannot meet the needs of the knowledge economy.
D、Its immigrants have a hard time adapting to its cowboy culture.
答案C
解析 本题关键词是：problem和Texas，问题是：得克萨斯州目前面临什么问题?可以定位到原文第四段。根据第四段第二、三句，得出自身仍然存在很多问题(has its own problems)，该州在教育方面投资不足；大批西班牙裔的得克萨斯州人缺乏足够的技能(insufficient skills)，难以满足知识经济(the knowledge economy)的需求，因此选项C与原文是相同含义，是正确选项。选项A属于主观推导，虽然西班牙裔得克萨斯州人大多缺少足够的技能，但不一定是文盲。选项B属于无中生有，全文并未说明得克萨斯州的朝阳产业(sunrise industries)情况；而且第五段提到的是加利福尼亚州的朝阳产业。选项D偷换概念，第四段第三句提到，西班牙裔移民缺乏足够的技能，不能适应知识经济的需求，而非适应“牛仔文化”。第四段：得克萨斯州模式仍然存在很多问题。
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