首页
登录
职称英语
(1)The Norwegian government just gave Lars Selhheim more than $5,000. Why di
(1)The Norwegian government just gave Lars Selhheim more than $5,000. Why di
游客
2024-11-06
9
管理
问题
(1)The Norwegian government just gave Lars Selhheim more than $5,000. Why did the 32-year-old dairy farmer need such a handout? To take his family camping, of course.
(2)That may sound crazy, but here in Norway it makes sense. Since everyone deserves an annual vacation, the government reasons, it should pay for temporary workers to milk the cows so that farmers can get away. Welfare is not bashed here but celebrated by politicians of all stripes. When a center-tight coalition took power last year from a left-leaning government, it didn’t rein in social spending. Rather, it raised pensions and advocated cash payments to parents caring for infants.
(3)Norway serves up an amazing menu of entitlements. Health care is guaranteed to everyone, and it’s free after the first $172 in personal medical costs each year. Disabled people receiving specially equipped cars and wheelchairs to get around. University education is free. Maternity leave stretches for 42 weeks at full pay. Many arthritis sufferers get an all-expense-paid trip to a spa in the Canary Islands. Sick leave can last a year at full salary. Stay-at-home parents earn a public pension. Norwegians who live above Arctic Circle get tax breaks; poets and painters get subsidies.
(4)What makes such generosity possible is North Sea petroleum. Norway is the World’s No.2 exporter of crude oil and No. 3 exporter of natural gas. Last year, those industries netted the state $12.3 billion, or about $2,800 for every citizen. Still, the welfare system is costly—anyone earning more than $36,000 a year pays the top income tax rate of 49.5 percent. Sin taxes are high too, driving up the price of a beer at an ordinary bar to $6 and the price of a pack of cigarettes to $7. Norwegians complain about waiting lists for some medical procedures, and many of the wealthy opt for private health care. Yet opinion polls show most people to be content. "There’s a general consensus that you should take care of the poorest," says Tor Hersoug of the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry. "We have so much money. We can afford it."
(5)The inclination to share the wealth is deeply rooted in hardscrabble farms and fishing hamlets. This is a small country(4.4 million people)more accustomed to poverty than privilege. Flaunting one’s money—the "conspicuous consumption" that the late Norwegian-American economist Thorstein Veblen condemned—is more than vulgar; it’s, well, un-Norwegian. The closest thing to a national creed is something called Jantelaw, a village maxim that warns people not to act as though they are better than anyone else. Americans familiar with the denizens of Garrison Keillor’s fictional Lake Wobegon would recognize the mentality. Here, it’s a national policy: "The philosophy is to keep the traditional equality we’ve had," says Magnhild Meltveit Kleppa, minister for social affairs.
(6)Still, there are worries in the welfare state. Some fret that Norwegians, whose idea of vacation is to rough it in unheated mountain cabins, are going soft. Single parenthood is on the rise, and conservauveness(capped by a funeral grant)erodes initiative. As a result, the Prime Minister, an ordained Lutheran Pastor who scandalized some constituents by puffing on a cigar in public, has launched a "values commission" to foster traditional mores.
(7)Then there is the fear of "oil addiction". A fall in crude prices sent Norway’s economy tumbling in the mid-80s, and the current drop in oil prices is lowering government revenues. Interest rates are up and inflation may not be far behind. So the risk-averse Norwegians are socking away most of the petroleum profits in a national rainy-day fund. Just eight years from now, Norway expects to earn more from its investments than from its oldfangled magnanimity, indefinitely. "We’re lucky in Norway." says a smiling farmer Selheim. Lucky indeed but certainly no better than anyone else. [br] The Norwegian government gave the dairy farmer money for his vacation, because he _____.
选项
A、is an excellent worker with high skills
B、has the right to enjoy an annual vacation
C、can milk the cow to produce more milk
D、brings people the fresh milk every day
答案
B
解析
根据题干定位到原文第2段,该段第2句指出在挪威每个人都享有度假的权利,所以奶农自然也不例外,选项B是正确答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3833241.html
相关试题推荐
(1)TheNorwegiangovernmentjustgaveLarsSelhheimmorethan$5,000.Whydi
(1)TheNorwegiangovernmentjustgaveLarsSelhheimmorethan$5,000.Whydi
(1)TheNorwegiangovernmentjustgaveLarsSelhheimmorethan$5,000.Whydi
(1)TheNorwegiangovernmentjustgaveLarsSelhheimmorethan$5,000.Whydi
Whatifthegovernmentsimplypaideveryoneenoughsothatnoonewaspo
眼下政府需要解决的就是就业问题。Employmentistheproblemthegovernmenthastosolveatpresent
PASSAGETHREE[br]Whatistheconclusionofthewholepassage?Governmentshould
(1)SocialmobilityintheU.K.couldbereversedunlessthegovernmentandu
(1)SocialmobilityintheU.K.couldbereversedunlessthegovernmentandu
(1)SocialmobilityintheU.K.couldbereversedunlessthegovernmentandu
随机试题
这是一本自助手册,用来帮助人们保持健康,无需经常看医生。(without)Thisisaself-helpmanual,whichcanhelpp
Ifyoucanprovidesatisfactoryafter-saleservice,yourproductswillsurelyha
InEnglandrecentlythreeforeignerscametoabusstop.About5minuteslat
Itisobviousthatthisnewruleis__________(毫无例外地适用于任何人).applicabletoeveryo
Forthispart,youareallowed30minutestowriteashortessayonthetopicof
Thehumanbraincontains10thousandmillioncellsandeachofthemmayhave
Theteacherorderedthatallthebooks(send)______atonce.(should)besent老师让把
药物的临床研究包括A:临床前研究、人体研究和临床后研究三部分 B:临床前研究、
阿姨给幼儿园小朋友分苹果,如果每人分3个,多16个苹果,如果每人分5个,那么就差
(2018年5月)企业薪酬制度设计的原则包括( )。A.经济性原则 B.竞争
最新回复
(
0
)