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  3. We are locked in a generational war, which will get worse before it gets better. No one wants to admit this, because it’ s ugly

We are locked in a generational war, which will get worse before it gets better. No one wants to admit this, because it’ s ugly

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问题     We are locked in a generational war, which will get worse before it gets better. No one wants to admit this, because it’ s ugly and unwelcome. Parents are supposed to care for their children, and children are supposed to care for their aging parents. For families, these collective obligations may work. But what makes sense for families doesn’ t always succeed for society as a whole. The clash of generations is intensifying.
    Last week, a federal judge ruled that Detroit qualifies for municipal bankruptcy. This almost certainly means that pensions and health benefits for the city’ s retired workers will be trimmed. There’ s a basic conflict between paying for all retirement benefits and supporting adequate current services. Detroit’ s retired workers have swelled, benefits were not adequately funded and the city’ s economy isn’ t strong enough to do both without self-defeating tax increases.
    The math is unforgiving. Detroit now has two retirees for every active worker, reports the Detroit Free Press. Satisfying retirees inevitably shortchanges their children and grandchildren.
    What’ s occurring at the state and local levels is an incomplete and imperfect effort to balance the interests of young and old. Conflicts vary depending on benefits ’ generosity and the strength—or weakness—of local economies. A study of 173 cities by the Centre for Retirement Research at Boston College found pension costs averaged 7. 9 percent of tax revenues, but many cities were much higher.
    At the federal level, even this sloppy generational reckoning is missing. The elderly ’ s interests are running roughshod over other national interests. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid—programs heavily for the retired—dominate the budget, accounting for about 44 percent of spending, and have been largely excluded from deficit-reduction measures. Almost all the adjustment falls on other programs: defense, courts, research, roads, education, or higher taxes. The federal government is increasingly a transfer agency: taxes from the young and middle-aged are spent on the elderly.
    The explanation for this is politics. For states and localities, benefit cuts affect government workers—a powerful but small group—while at the federal level, it’ s all the elderly, a huge group that includes everyone’ s parents and grandparents. As a result, the combat has been lopsided. Political leaders of both parties have avoided distasteful choices. Younger US citizens have generally been clueless about how shifting demographics threaten their future government services and taxes.
    Generational warfare upsets us because it pits parents against children. The elderly ’ s wellbeing partly reflects Social Security and Medicare’ s success: but it also comes at the expense of younger US citizens. We pretend these discomforting conflicts don’ t exist. But they do and are rooted in changing demographics, slower economic growth and competing concepts of old age.
    They cannot be dissolved by pious invocations that "we’ re all in this together". To date, the contest has been one-sided: now the other side is beginning to stir.
What’ s the author’ s opinion on the generation conflict?
选项 A、It can totally be avoided if measures are taken.
B、It cannot easily disappear without practical action.
C、It will make Americans go to battle field.
D、It isn’ t a big deal at all when compared to other conflicts.
答案B
解析 根据题干中的关键词author’s opinion，generation conflict，将本题定位于最后一段。该段提到，这些冲突不是用虔诚的祈祷——“我们同舟共济”而能消融的；到目前为止，这种竞争已经向一边倾斜；而对方也已经开始蠢蠢欲动。可见，作者认为光有口号而没有行动是不会有实际效果的。故答案为B(如果没有实际行动，它不会轻易消失)。A项(如果采取措施，可以完全避免冲突)，totally过于决断，故排除；C项(它会使美国人走向战场)，文中没有提到会出现这样的后果，故排除；D项(和其他冲突相比，这不算什么)，文中作者一直在强调这种冲突愈演愈烈的态势，而不是觉得它无足轻重，故排除。
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