These are tough times for Wal-Mart, America’s biggest retailer. Long accused of (1)_____ small-town America mad condemned for th

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问题     These are tough times for Wal-Mart, America’s biggest retailer. Long accused of (1)_____ small-town America mad condemned for the selfishness of its pay, the company has lately come under (2)_____ for its meanness over employees’ health-care benefits. The charge is arguably (3)_____: the firm’s health coverage, while (4)_____ less extensive than the average for big companies, is on equal terms (5)_____ other retailers’. But bad publicity, coupled with rising costs, has (6)_____ the Bentonville giant to action. WalMart is making changes that should shift the ground in America’s healthcare debate.
    One (7)_____ is to reduce the prices of many generic, or out-of-patent, prescription drugs. Wal-Mart’s critics dismiss the move as a publicity (8)_____. The list of drugs includes only 143 different medicines and excludes many popular group. True, but short-sighted. Wal-Mart has (9)_____ retailing by using its size to squeeze suppliers and (10)_____ the gains on to consumers. It could (11)_____ the same with drugs. A "Wal-Mart effect" in drugs will not solve America’s health-costs problem: group account for only a small share of drug costs, which in turn make (12)_____ only 10% of overall health spending. But it would (13)_____.
    The firm’s other initiative is more (14)_____. Wal-Mart is joining the small but fast-growing group of employers (15)_____ are controlling costs by shifting to health insurance with high deductibles.
    Early evidence (16)_____ these plans do help firms control the cost of health insurance. But critics say that the savings are (17)_____. They argue that the plans shift costs to sicker workers, discourage preventative care and will anyway do little to (18)_____ overall health spending, (19)_____ most of the $2 trillion that America (20)_____ health care each year goes to people with multiple chronic diseases.


选项 A、dismission
B、fire
C、force
D、agitation

答案B

解析 accused of,condemned for,under从整句话来看,沃尔玛公司的策略受到公众的指责,under fire的意思是being criticized severely"受到指责",如:The government is under fire from all sides on its economic policy政府的经济政策受到各方面的指责。dismission"解散"具有迷惑性。从整句话来看,沃尔玛公司没有面临解散,而是遭到指责,所以不能入选。force"力量"和agitation"烦乱,骚乱,动摇"均不符合题意,排除。
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