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  3. Unemployment-insurance (UI) benefits first passed in 2008 and extended severa

Unemployment-insurance (UI) benefits first passed in 2008 and extended severa

游客2024-01-31  33
问题    Unemployment-insurance (UI) benefits first passed in 2008 and extended several times. America’s government has enacted such measures in every recession since 1957. The most recent extension expired on December 28th, leaving roughly 1. 3m Americans suddenly cut off and setting the stage for a huge political battle early in 2014.
   Republicans principally object to the extension’s cost—around $25 billion over the next two years. Some point out that supplemental UI benefits have been in place longer and paid out more than in past recessions. Of course, one reason for this is that a far larger share of Americans remains out of work now than when the recession began. In November 2013 America’s unemployment rate was 7. 0% , still a full two points higher than its 5% level when the recession began in December 2007. There remain roughly three applicants for every open job. Even so, Rand Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky, says that extending UI benefits causes workers "to become part of this perpetual unemployed group in our economy" and "actually does a disservice to the people you’re trying to help." Not extending benefits will probably cause the unemployment rate to drop.
   Unlike some other economic stimuli, these benefits tend to get spent quickly on consumer goods. Mr. Obama has proposed several policies aimed at helping the long-term unemployed. One would set up a National Infrastructure Bank and spend $ 40 billion on deferred-maintenance repairs. Another, the Community College to Career Fund Act, would award grants to educational institutions and state and local governments for better job-training programmes. Congress has not approved them. In 2010 it passed a payroll-tax exemption for employers who hire the unemployed; this has since expired.
   Yet there is not much hope for improvement in America’s polarized atmosphere. Instead, Congress will begin the new year by once again debating UI benefits. House Democrats have introduced legislation to extend benefits for three months, paid for by trimming farm subsidies. [br] According to the first paragraph, what does political battle refer to?
选项 A、The debate on economic recession.
B、The argument on rising unemployment.
C、The different ideas on expired unemployment benefits.
D、The dispute on extending unemployment benefits.
答案 D
解析 根据题干定位至文章第一段，political battle出现在第一段的最后一句。根据上下文，这里所说的“政治斗争”主要是人们对是否延长失业救济金政策存在分歧。A和B是干扰项，可以排除。C的干扰性很大，“对过期的失业救济金政策持不同的观点”。本文主要是在讨论延长失业救济金政策所带来的影响，并不是围绕过期的失业救济金政策在讨论，所以要仔细审视其中的关键词expired。另外，该选项中的expired一词是干扰源。其实C选项的表述中有无该词都是错误的。题干问到的是political battle指的是什么，与expired无关。
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