2. 外语
  3. It is easy to be cynical about government—and rarely does such cynicism go unrewarded. Take, for instance, policy towards women.

It is easy to be cynical about government—and rarely does such cynicism go unrewarded. Take, for instance, policy towards women.

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问题     It is easy to be cynical about government—and rarely does such cynicism go unrewarded. Take, for instance, policy towards women. Some politicians declare that they value women’s unique role, which can be shorthand for keeping married women at home looking after the kids. Others create whole ministries devoted to policies for women, which can be a device for parking women’s issues on the periphery (外围)of policy where they cannot do any harm. Still others, who may actually mean what they say, pass laws giving women equal opportunities to men. Yet decreeing an end to discrimination is very different from bringing it about.
    Amid this tangle of evasion, half-promises and wishful thinking, some policymakers have embraced a technique called gender budgeting. It not only promises to do a lot of good for women, but carries a lesson for advocates of any cause: the way to a government’s heart is through its pocket.
    At its simplest, gender budgeting sets out to quantify how policies affect women and men differently. That seemingly trivial step converts exhortation about treating women fairly into the coin of government: costs and benefits, and investments and returns.
    As well as identifying opportunities and errors, gender budgeting brings women’s issues right to the heart of government, the ministry of finance. Governments routinely bat away sensible policies that lack a champion when the money is handed out. But if judgments about what makes sense for women are being formed within the finance ministry itself, then the battle is half-won.
    Gender budgeting is not new. Feminist economists have argued for it since the 1980s. Now, it showed how, with an ageing population, the country gained from spending on care. It is found that investment in clean water not only curbed disease but also freed up girls, who used to fetch the stuff, to go to school. Ample research confirms that leaving half a country’s people behind is bad for growth. Violence against women; failing to educate girls properly; unequal pay and access to jobs: all take an economic toll.
    Inevitably there are difficulties. Dividing a policy’s costs and benefits between men and women can be hard. Sometimes, as with lost hours of school, the costs have to be estimated. Redesigning the budgeting process upends (颠倒) decades of practice. If every group pressing for change took the same approach, it would become unmanageable. In a way, though, that is the point. Governments find it easy to pay lip-service to women’s rights. Doing something demands tough choices.
It is indicated in Paragraph Five that________.
选项 A、years of striving for feminism have been proved in vain
B、investments into social welfare may gain double revenues
C、underdeveloped areas face more challenges in women’s issues
D、lots of women’s issues are in need of financial support
答案B
解析 由题干中的Paragraph Five及各选项语义定位至第五段第三至四句。推理判断题。定位句指出，国家能从投资社会福利中获益，在随后的举例中可以看出，投资水净化项目不仅控制了疾病，还解放了当地的女孩子，可见投资社会福利是有可能获得双重收益的，故答案为B。
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