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  3. The past five years have been a bad time to be a taxpayer in Europe. Across the continent, governments have relied heavily on ta

The past five years have been a bad time to be a taxpayer in Europe. Across the continent, governments have relied heavily on ta

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问题     The past five years have been a bad time to be a taxpayer in Europe. Across the continent, governments have relied heavily on tax rises to cut budget deficits, increasing the total burden by almost 5% of GDP in France and Greece. But rather than raise taxes any further, many countries are starting to cut them. The European Commission reckons that the euro zone’s tax-to-GDP ratio stabilised in 2013 and is now falling.
    In January France announced plans to cut payroll taxes by 30 billion. This month Italy unveiled income-tax cuts worth 10 billion for those earning less than 25,000 a year. This week Britain proposed tax cuts for most people on low or medium incomes. Ireland and Spain are also planning tax cuts later this year.
    Lower taxes may be popular, but how are such giveaways being financed? Few countries have the scope to borrow much more. The commission has criticised France and Spain for repeatedly missing their deficit-reduction targets, though it is not taking action against them. Italy’s high level of public debt, which hit 133% of GDP in 2013, has also landed it on the commission’s fiscal "watch list".
    Instead, most countries plan to pay for their tax proposals with public-spending cuts. Italy says it will reduce spending by an extra 7 billion this year and save a further 2. 2 billion thanks to lower yields on its debt—though these figures may prove optimistic.
    The politicians hope that lower taxes will boost growth. As euro-zone countries cannot devalue or lower their own interest rates, tax cuts are one of the few ways of trimming business costs fast, says Guillaume Menuet at Citigroup. France and Italy both hope to improve their competitiveness by reducing the tax "wedge" between employers’ costs and what workers actually take home. In 2012 this tax take reached nearly 50% of the payroll bill in France and Italy, against an OECD average of just 36%.
    Some economists doubt that cutting income tax, Italy’s approach, is the best way forward. Instead, they favour slashing Europe’s high employer-paid social security charges, as France proposes to do. This would directly lower labour costs, encouraging companies to hire extra workers as well as to increase their investment. That would also give a welcome boost to growth.
In the past half decade, Europeans have suffered from______.
选项 A、low income
B、budget deficit
C、heavy revenue
D、family burden
答案C
解析 根据题干中的in the past half decade“在过去5年”定位到首段第一句the past fiveyears，再根据Europeans一词定位到首段首句的Europe，确定答案来源为第一段。而首句仅仅帮助我们定位，具体答案来自下一句：Across the continent，governments have reliedheavily on tax rises to cut budget deficits．“在整个欧洲，政府依靠税收增长来减少预算赤字。”由此可以知道第一句提到“过去5年对于欧洲纳税人来说是一段艰难的时光”的原因，是因为“税收增长”，即[C]项heavy revenue“繁重的税收”是本题答案。
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