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  3. Royal Mail could be made to accept further controls on stamp prices as part of an inquiry announced by the communications watchd

Royal Mail could be made to accept further controls on stamp prices as part of an inquiry announced by the communications watchd

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问题     Royal Mail could be made to accept further controls on stamp prices as part of an inquiry announced by the communications watchdog. Ofcom said it would carry out a "fundamental review" of how it regulates Royal Mail to make sure the company maintains its obligation to deliver to all parts of the country. The regulator decided to undertake the review after Whistl, Royal Mail’s only national competitor for direct delivery of letters, pulled out of the market.
    Whistl, formerly known as TNT and owned by Dutch private postal group PostNL, suspended deliveries last month and withdrew permanently from the market on 10 June. It had planned to expand beyond its existing network in west London, Liverpool and Manchester to deliver to a quarter of the U. K.
    Ofcom said it was concerned that without competition for letter delivery, Royal Mail might fail to make itself more efficient, threatening the universal postal service in the long run. One of the options is to introduce additional controls on the prices Royal Mail charges for its service. After Ofcom gave it greater commercial freedom in 2012, Royal Mail increased the price of first-and second-class stamps by 14p to 60p and 50p respectively.  Prices rose to 63p for first class and 54p for second class in March.
    Royal Mail shares fell 1% to 500p in afternoon trading. Ofcom said: "The review will ensure regulation remains appropriate and sufficient to secure the universal postal service, given the recent withdrawal by Whistl from the ’direct delivery’ letters market, which has resulted in Royal Mail no longer being subject to national competition."
    "Ofcom will consider...whether Royal Mail’s wholesale and retail prices are both affordable and sufficient to cover the costs of the universal service and whether Royal Mail’s commercial flexibility remains appropriate in the changing market. And, if not, whether wholesale or retail charge controls might be appropriate."
    David Kerstens, an analyst at the stockbroker Jefferies, said further curbs on Royal Mail’s charges could make the company less profitable as people post fewer letters. He said: "Stamp prices in the U. K. are at the low end of the spectrum compared with other countries across Europe. A control on pricing would be negative for Royal Mail because they won’t be able to offset volume pressure to the same extent that some of their peers in Europe are able to do."
    Dave Ward, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, accused Ofcom of interfering with its members’ relations with Royal Mail. He said: "Royal Mail is efficient and postal workers are some of the most productive in the U. K. Ofcom has overstepped its remit in criticising terms and conditions and a regulator should not be using efficiency to drive down employment standards."
What can we infer from the third paragraph?
选项 A、The increase of price of first-class stamps may be greater than that of the second-class.
B、The additional controls on the price may improve the efficiency in the long run.
C、The greater commercial freedom may improve the quality of postal service.
D、Ofcom is threatening the universal postal service in the long run.
答案B
解析 段落推理题。B项选项定位到第二句：One of the options is to introduce additional controls on the prices…第一句说“没有了竞争，皇家邮政有可能无法提升效率”，这样第二句“其中的一个选项，即其中的一个解决办法就是增加对价格的控制”也就是B项选项“可能会提升效率”很完美的同义替换。原文中说了第一次两种邮票的增幅是一样的，第二次其实二等邮票的增幅更大，所以A项不对；更大的商业自由可能提升的是价格，而不是质量，所以C项不对；威胁服务的是缺乏竞争而不是Ofcom，所以D项不对。
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