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] Which of the following statements contains a metaphor?
选项
A、Norwegians are socking away most of the petroleum profits in a national rainy-day fund.
B、... the wealth is deeply rooted in hardscrabble farms and fishing hamlets.
C、A village maxim that warns people not to act as though they are better than anyone else.
D、... a left-leaning government, it didn’t rein in social spending.
答案
A
解析
在选项A中,用rainy-day来暗喻“困难时期”,national rainy-day fund指的就是国家紧急备用金了,A是正确答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3833243.html
相关试题推荐
(1)TheNorwegiangovernmentjustgaveLarsSelhheimmorethan$5,000.Whydi
(1)TheNorwegiangovernmentjustgaveLarsSelhheimmorethan$5,000.Whydi
(1)TheNorwegiangovernmentjustgaveLarsSelhheimmorethan$5,000.Whydi
眼下政府需要解决的就是就业问题。Employmentistheproblemthegovernmenthastosolveatpresent
眼下政府需要解决的就是就业问题。Employmentistheproblemthegovernmenthastosolveatpresent
PASSAGETHREE[br]Whatistheconclusionofthewholepassage?Governmentshould
A、Theprimaryschoolsector.B、Thecollegesector.C、Thegovernmentschoolsecto
PassageThree[br]Whatdoesthesentence"thegovernmenthascut...trainingcou
(1)SocialmobilityintheU.K.couldbereversedunlessthegovernmentandu
(1)SocialmobilityintheU.K.couldbereversedunlessthegovernmentandu
随机试题
同一消息可以调用多种不同类的对象的方法,这些类有某个相同的超类,这种现象是(
某公司采用邀请招标的方式选择承建单位,实施过程中发生了如下事件:①该公司向3家
某高校新建一栋办公楼和一栋实验楼,均为现浇钢筋混凝土框架结构。办公楼地下2层、地
物料混合的均匀与否直接关系到药物剂量的准确性和外观及疗效的优劣,物料混合时应遵循
77.组合电器是由断路器、隔离开关、电流互感器、电压互感器、避雷器、套管等组成的
抵销的作用不包括()。A.简化交易程序 B.降低交易成本 C.提高交易安全
A.3~10g B.3~6g C.0.5~2g D.3~9g E.5~1
某企业为增值税一般纳税人,适用增值税13%税率。2019年8月发生如下业务:
(2018年真题)按照费用构成要素划分的建筑安装工程费用项目组成规定,下列费用项
关于急性左心衰的发病机制,阵发性室上性心动过速A.左室充盈障碍 B.左室后负荷
最新回复
(
0
)