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  3. Enviably healthy Denmark is leading the way in taxing unhealthy food. Why are

Enviably healthy Denmark is leading the way in taxing unhealthy food. Why are

游客2023-10-10  36
问题    Enviably healthy Denmark is leading the way in taxing unhealthy food. Why are they doing it, and will it work? The Danish government’s now infamous, since "fat tax" has caused an international uproar. It’s praised by public health advocates on the one hand and dismissed on the other as a nanny state whose social engineering has gone violent.
   I see it as one country’s attempt to stave off rising obesity (肥胖症) rates, when other options seem less feasible. But the policies appear confusing. Why Denmark of all places? Why particular foods? Will such taxes really change eating behaviour? And aren’t there better ways to halt or reverse rising rates of diet-related chronic (慢性的) diseases?
   Before getting to these questions, let’s look at what Denmark has done. In 2009, its government announced a major tax overhaul aimed at softening the shock of the global economic crisis, promoting renewable energy, protecting the environment, discouraging climate change, and improving health—all while maintaining revenues, of course. The tax reforms make it more expensive to produce products likely to harm the environment and to consume products potentially harmful to health, specifically tobacco, ice cream, chocolate, candy, sugar-sweetened soft drinks, and foods containing lots of fats.
   Taxes pay for this through policies that maintain a relatively narrow gap between the incomes of the rich and the poor. Because its level of income disparity (差异) is relatively low, the effects of health taxes are less hard on the poor than in many other countries. But the Danes want their health to be better. Life expectancy in Denmark is 79 years, at least two years below that in Japan or Iceland. The stated goal of the tax policies is to increase life expectancy as well as to reduce the burden and cost of illness from diet-related diseases. [br] What was the aim of the major tax overhaul of Denmark in 2009?
选项 A、Decreasing the chronic disease rate.
B、Softening the shock of the global economic crisis.
C、Prohibiting the production of unhealthy food.
D、Changing medical conditions.
答案 B
解析 由题干中的aim、major tax overhaul 和Denmark in 2009定位到第三段第二句。该句指出，2009年丹麦政府宣布进行税收制度的全面改革，旨在缓解全球经济危机带来的打击、鼓励使用再生能源、保护环境、减缓气候变化并改善人们的健康状况等，由此看出B)最符合文意。
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