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  3. In the eighteenth century, Japan’s feudal overlords, from the shogun to the humblest samurai, found themselves under financial s

In the eighteenth century, Japan’s feudal overlords, from the shogun to the humblest samurai, found themselves under financial s

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问题     In the eighteenth century, Japan’s feudal overlords, from the shogun to the humblest samurai, found themselves under financial stress. In part, this stress can be attributed to the overlords’ failure to adjust to a rapidly expanding economy, but the stress was also due to factors beyond the overlords’ control. Concentration of the samurai in castle-towns had acted as a stimulus to trade. Commercial efficiency, in turn, had put temptations in the way of buyers. Since most samurai had been reduced to idleness by years of peace, encouraged to engage in scholarship and martial exercises or to perform administrative tasks that took little time, it is not surprising that their tastes and habits grew expensive. Overlords, income, despite the increase in rice production among their tenant farmers, failed to keep pace with their expenses. Although shortfalls in overloads, income resulted almost as much from laxity among their tax collectors (the nearly inevitable outcome of hereditary office-holding) as from their higher standards of living, a misfortune like a fire or flood, bringing an in crease in expenses or a drop in revenue, could put a domain in debt to the city rice-brokers who handled its finances. Once in debt, neither the individual samurai nor the shogun himself found it easy to recover.
    It was difficult for individual samurai overlords to increase their income because the amount of rice that farmers could be made to pay in taxes was not unlimited, and since me income of Japan’s central government consisted in part of taxes collected by the shogun from his huge domain, the government too was constrained.
    Therefore, the Tokugawa shoguns began to look to other sources for revenue. Cash profits from government-owned mines were already on the decline because the most easily worked deposits of silver and gold had been exhausted, although debasement of the coinage had compensated for the loss. Opening up new farmland was a possibility, but most of what was suitable had already been exploited and further reclamation was technically unfeasible. Direct taxation of the samurai themselves would be politically dangerous. This left the shoguns only commerce as a potential source of government income.
    Most of the country’s wealth, or so it seemed, was finding its way into the hands of city merchants. It appeared reasonable that they should contribute part of that revenue to ease the shogun’s burden of financing the state. A means of obtaining such revenue was soon found by levying forced loans, known as goyo-kin; although these were not taxes in the strict sense, since they were irregular in timing and arbitrary in amount, they were high in yield. Unfortunately, they pushed up prices. Thus, regrettably, the Tokugawa shoguns’ search for solvency for the government made it increasingly difficult for individual Japanese who lived on fixed stipends to make ends meet.
Which is the major reason for the financial problems experienced by Japan’s feudal overlords?
选项 A、Profits from mining had declined.
B、Spending had outdistanced income.
C、The samurai had concentrated in castle-towns.
D、The coinage had been sharply debased.
答案B
解析 理解归纳题，问18世纪日本封建领主们所遭遇财政问题的主要原因是什么。本题所问的因果关系是出题的一大热点，所以在阅读过程中就应该注意表现因果关系的关键词。本题根据“果”financial problem，找到第一段的financial stress，再通过其后标记的因果关系标志词attribute to就可以将答案定位在attribute to之后。从这儿开始一直到段落结束，作者都在谈造成财政问题的原因，所以答案就是第一段大部分内容的总结：入不 敷出，与其相对应的选项B即为答案。其他几个选项中：A“矿山收益下降”是第二段内容与此无关；C“武士们在城中集中”只是一附带叙述，不能概括全部；D“货币成色下降”也是后面的内容，是财政问题的后果而不是原因。
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