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  3. Those who fight against alcohol sales say the extra tax comes at a cost. Lee

Those who fight against alcohol sales say the extra tax comes at a cost. Lee

游客2023-12-31  27
问题    Those who fight against alcohol sales say the extra tax comes at a cost. Lee Miller, a leader of Angelina Citizens for a Better Community, the group vowing to defeat the measure, points to data from the State of Texas showing that for every US$1 in revenue the state received from alcohol, US$9 is paid out for expenses like treatment for alcohol abuse, law enforcement services and motor vehicle crashes. "This will not benefit us as a community, " Mr. Miller said. "It costs us more money in expenses and in the lives of our children."
   Mr. Miller, who does not drink, says he is concerned that if the vote passes, his 12-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son will have easier access to alcohol.
   David Hatch, the political strategist of Angelina County Citizens for Responsible Business (ACCRB), argues that Mr. Miller’s cost revenue figures paint an inaccurate picture because they do not consider the additional sales taxes from alcohol purchases, only revenue from alcohol excise taxes, the bulk of which flow to the state.
   Oscar Dillahunty, a 69-year-old, one-time beer distributor who hired Mr. Hatch and started ACCRB, has estimated that the county could rack up at least US$15 million in annual beer sales alone, which would translate into US$225, 000 in sales tax revenue for Lufkin and US$75, 000 for the county. He says his estimate is based on sales in a similar county in Mississippi, where he previously owned a beer distributor.
   Many officials in towns and counties that recently went wet say they have not seen an increase in reported crime or drunken driving. Steven Cagle, the city manager in Duncanville, said the town had not devolved into "Drunkenville, " as church groups claimed it would.
   Three police chiefs — David Walker of Fort Payne, Tex., Benny Womack of Albertville, Ala., and Eddie Phillips of East Ridge, Term. — all say they have not seen any increase in law enforcement problems since alcohol sales began in 2004.
   But just as the feared public mayhem wrought by alcohol abuse often fails to materialize, the economic prosperity is often absent, too. In Albertville, Ala., the Rev. Willis Kelly, who preaches at Douglas First Baptist Church, says he is still waiting for the town’s financial boom. "The folks that wanted it to go wet campaigned on the idea that it would bring in money to build a new school, " Mr. Kelly said. "Last year, they collected only a little over US$100, 000 in extra taxes. That wouldn’t even buy toilet paper."
   Mr. Kelly says that since the vote in June, no new restaurants have opened in Albertville, a town of 18, 000 people 65 miles from Birmingham, and only one of the two grocery stores in town opted to sell beer and wine.
   Jon Howard, director of finance for Albertville, would not confirm Mr. Kelly’s tax numbers, and Mayor Carl Pruett declined to comment on the town’s economy.
   In Lufkin, where in recent years the economy has been surging without the help of alcohol sales, some citizens just want their town to be a bit more like the rest of the country and a little less Bible Belt. "This is the 21st century, " said Ernest Rowe, a 70-year-old retired forest worker. "I just want to be able to buy my case of Coors Light, come home and pop open a cold one." [br] The phrase "public mayhem" underlined in Paragraph 7 refers to______.
选项 A、alcohol abuse
B、drunken driving
C、public disorder
D、economic prosperity
答案 C
解析    词义界定。本题需要语境。假设mayhem是生词，要确定词义，只能依靠上下文，即语境。首先，从局部语境“…just as the feared public mayhem wrought by alcohol abuse，the economic prosperity…”判断，mayhem是alcohol abuse的结果，是公众担心的(feared)不好的结果。其次，扩大语境来看，第一段第五行提到三点：alcohol abuse，law enforcement services和motor vehiclecrashes。第五段第二行驳斥了vehicle crashes，第三行驳斥了alcohol abuse，第六段最后一行驳斥了law enforcement problems。紧接着第七段开头出现了本题的设问，因此，综合起来，选项C概括了上述问题。【知识拓展】根据框架语义学，要理解语言中词语的意义，必须先具备概念结构，懂得词语在话语中使用的背景和动因。词语可以通过它所在的语言结构，选择并突出基本语义框架的某些方面或某些实例。它是以一定的方式进行的。本题的词义界定就需要依赖局部语境和整体语境提供的实例，通过推理来确定。
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