Text 3 According to the old saw,anyone w

资格题库2022-08-02  38

问题 Text 3 According to the old saw,anyone who wishes to maintain respect for sausages and laws should not see how either are made.Congress has just finished validating that saying by engaging in the sorry every-five-years exercise known as drafting a farm bill.This mess of subsidies and regulations claims to protect U.S.agriculture,not just from the vagaries of pests,crop diseases and weather but also from the ups and downs of the free market itself.Inevitably,the farm bill showers benefits on well-to-do business owners who don't need or deserve taxpayer help under the cover of deliberately obscure terms such as"federal milk marketing orders".It's true that farm income has dropped in each of the past four years because of falling commodity prices,but Congress showered agribusiness with taxpayer largesse when incomes reached all-time highs a half-decade ago,too.Clumsy manipulation by government probably exacerbates market swings.Where is it written that this one sector deserves federally guaranteed profitability'?You will hear a Iot about the need for food security,but it's mostly nonsense:A mere 6.3 percent of Americans'consumer expenditures were on food consumed at home in 2016,according to the Agriculture Department.This was easily the lowest percentage in the world,as it has been for many years.Even in the wildly unlikely event it doubled,we'd still be better off than developed countries such as Sweden and France.If Congress really wanted to help farmers,it would do something to stop President Trump's trade war,which has provoked retaliatory tarif{s by many countries against U.S.farm exports.This year's process has introduced a new level of ugliness to this inherently unlovely law.The House version of the farm bill,passed with Republican votes only,would add a work requirement to the government's largest food aid program for the poor,the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,or SNAP.Helping poor people buy groceries is the main way the farm bill actually enhances food security;for decades,linking SNAP to farm subsidies in a single bill has been the price of urban lawmakers'support for rural corporate welfare.Mr.Trump applauded the measure,which would make most adult SNAP recipients(up to 7 million people)spend 20 hours per week either working or participating in a state-run training program as a condition of receiving benefits,which at present average$125 per month to 42.3 million Americans.Democratic representatives,mostly from urban America,and several Republicans,too,recoiled.Correctly,they cited the bill's insufficient funding for training programs,as well as the added paperwork and administrative burden.They might also have noted the bill's juxtaposition of tougher eligibility criteria for the poor with continued sugar price supports for agribusinesses in the South and Midwest.A large bipartisan majority of the Senate rejected the work requirement,which may mean that it can't survive the conference committee.The mere fact that it has gotten this far,however,tells you something about farm-bill politics in general and the priorities of the Republican House in particular.The old saw is cited to introduce a bill that____.A.can improve the free marketB.aims to reform farm subsidiesC.is made public too soonD.has too many drawbacks

选项 A.can improve the free market
B.aims to reform farm subsidies
C.is made public too soon
D.has too many drawbacks

答案 D

解析 [信息锁定]首句谚语把“法律”和“香肠”相提并论看似荒谬,但“要想对两者保持尊重.就别看它们是怎么制成的”暗示两者共性:外表光鲜.实则加工过程腐败,暗病多多。②句随即指出“国会刚刚亲身印证了该谚语一一参与了农业法案的起草”,修饰语sorry以及下句的mess也提示此举历来令人失望,法案是一团糟,可见开篇谚语旨在引出一项“出台过程腐败,存在诸多弊病”的法案,D.正确。[解题技巧]A.源于段末protect.…from the ups and downs of the free market,但该信息是法案声称要实现的内容(claims to.......)并非事实。B.从③句碎片信息mess of subsidies.…臆断法案宗旨,法案虽难免涉及对补贴的调整.但文中并未指出法案意在对其改革。C.干扰源于首句字面信息“应避免(提前)了解法案的具体制定”,但该内容实际意在“’风刺”.而非“建议”。
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