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  3. Of all the cuts to public services, few have provoked such loud protests as proposals to close libraries. Petitions and curses h

Of all the cuts to public services, few have provoked such loud protests as proposals to close libraries. Petitions and curses h

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问题     Of all the cuts to public services, few have provoked such loud protests as proposals to close libraries. Petitions and curses have been followed by legal challenges. On November 16th a judge in London ruled against plans to close 21 libraries in Gloucestershire and Somerset. Campaigners in Brent, in north-west London, have taken their fight against closures to the Court of Appeal.
    Local politicians are startled. Keith Mitchell, leader of Oxfordshire county council, which was forced by public pressure to abandon plans to close many libraries, complained that protesters seemed much less upset by cuts to social care and rubbish collection. Visits to libraries have declined by 6. 7% in the past five years, according to the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA).
    But this is to underestimate the symbolic role libraries play as a visible public good. A 2010 poll found that 69% of people had been to a library in the past year. More than 80% view libraries as " essential" or " very important".
    Yet savings have to be made somewhere. If library closures cause protests, cuts must be done stealthily. In the 2010-11 fiscal year libraries acquired 7. 4% fewer adult fiction books and 13. 7% fewer non-fiction books than they had the year before. An older, less appealing stock could speed the decline in library visits.
    Yet hard times are also forcing innovations that may help libraries in the long run. In a quiet success for David Cameron’s "Big Society" , the number of volunteer librarians has risen from 12,708 to 21,642 in the past five years. That trend has its critics, especially among professional librarians. But staff account for at least half the cost of running a library. Other savings could probably be made by consolidating England’s 151 library authorities, and by making better use of technology. "London has 32 library authorities but just one police authority," marvels Desmond Clarke, a library campaigner.
    An entirely different option is to pour money into a single edifice in the hope that it will have a benign effect on the neighborhood. England’s most popular library is the Norfolk & Norwich Millennium, a multi-storey space in a sparkling new building with a restaurant and gallery, which lured nearly 1. 5m people last year. As the anchor of the development, the library attracts users who then linger and spend money nearby. Birmingham is building a new ￡ 188.8m library, the flagship of a development in the city centre that is due to open in 2013. Many of the city’s other 39 libraries could face cuts in service, including shorter opening hours and fewer staff. Libraries are not dead—just a little dusty.
Birmingham poured a lot of money into a new library project with an ulterior motive to______.
选项 A、create a landmark building as impressive as the Norfolk & Norwich Millennium
B、compensate for the decline of service quality in other libraries
C、create an engine of economic development in certain area
D、restore public’s enthusiasm in reading books
答案C
解析 根据题干的地名锁定文章最后一段。和三四段中介绍的图书馆压缩成本的方法不同，第五段讲的是重振英国图书馆的另一条策略——追加预算，集中力量建设某一个图书馆。例如英国的诺福克和诺维奇千年图书馆，它是一幢多楼层建筑，楼内附带有餐馆和画廊，去年吸引了近150万人。作为该地区经济发展的龙头项目，该图书馆起到了很好的刺激经济的作用。借鉴诺福克和诺维奇千年图书馆的成功经验，伯明翰也投入大量资金建设一个新的图书馆，同样，它的目的也在于利用这样一个地标性的建筑刺激当地经济的发展。因此，本题的正确答案应该选[C]。
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考研英语一

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