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  3. In the eighteenth century, Japan’s feudal overlords, from the shogun to the humblest samurai, found themselves under financial s

In the eighteenth century, Japan’s feudal overlords, from the shogun to the humblest samurai, found themselves under financial s

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问题     In the eighteenth century, Japan’s feudal overlords, from the shogun to the humblest samurai, found themselves under financial stress. In part, this stress can be attributed to the overlords’ failure to adjust to a rapidly expanding economy, but the stress was also due to factors beyond the overlords’ control. Concentration of the samurai in castle-towns had acted as a stimulus to trade. Commercial efficiency, in turn, had put temptations in the way of buyers. Since most samurai had been reduced to idleness by years of peace, encouraged to engage in scholarship and martial exercises or to perform administrative tasks that took little time, it is not surprising that their tastes and habits grew expensive. Overlords, income, despite the increase in rice production among their tenant farmers, failed to keep pace with their expenses. Although shortfalls in overloads, income resulted almost as much from laxity among their tax collectors (the nearly inevitable outcome of hereditary office-holding) as from their higher standards of living, a misfortune like a fire or flood, bringing an in crease in expenses or a drop in revenue, could put a domain in debt to the city rice-brokers who handled its finances. Once in debt, neither the individual samurai nor the shogun himself found it easy to recover.
    It was difficult for individual samurai overlords to increase their income because the amount of rice that farmers could be made to pay in taxes was not unlimited, and since me income of Japan’s central government consisted in part of taxes collected by the shogun from his huge domain, the government too was constrained.
    Therefore, the Tokugawa shoguns began to look to other sources for revenue. Cash profits from government-owned mines were already on the decline because the most easily worked deposits of silver and gold had been exhausted, although debasement of the coinage had compensated for the loss. Opening up new farmland was a possibility, but most of what was suitable had already been exploited and further reclamation was technically unfeasible. Direct taxation of the samurai themselves would be politically dangerous. This left the shoguns only commerce as a potential source of government income.
    Most of the country’s wealth, or so it seemed, was finding its way into the hands of city merchants. It appeared reasonable that they should contribute part of that revenue to ease the shogun’s burden of financing the state. A means of obtaining such revenue was soon found by levying forced loans, known as goyo-kin; although these were not taxes in the strict sense, since they were irregular in timing and arbitrary in amount, they were high in yield. Unfortunately, they pushed up prices. Thus, regrettably, the Tokugawa shoguns’ search for solvency for the government made it increasingly difficult for individual Japanese who lived on fixed stipends to make ends meet.
Which could best be substituted for the word "THIS" in the last sentence of the second paragraph?
选项 A、The search of Japan’s Tokugawa shoguns for solvency.
B、The unfairness of the tax structure in eighteenth-century Japan.
C、The difficulty experienced by both individual samurai and the shogun himself in extricating themselves from debt.
D、The difficulty of increasing government income by other means.
答案D
解析 词义指代题，问第二段最后一句中的THIS一词所指对象。做指代题的一般方法是：根据就近指代、数格一致的原则确定答案，然后代入原文验证，看语义、逻辑和语法上是否通顺。需要注意的是，如果出题对象是物称代词，它不仅可能就近指代前文的名词性词汇和结构，还可能就近指代前上句话或上几句话的内容。本题即如此，根据This left the shoguns only commerce as a potential source of government income．这使将军们只能将贸易作为政府收入的潜在来源的句意，通过查看THIS之前的几句话，我们就可以发现它所指代的就是前文中所列举的三个选择都行不通的事实。这样选项D试图增加政府收入的其他方式的困难符后题意。而A“德川家试图找到偿还能力”意思上不通；B“18世纪日本税收制度不合理”距离此处太远；C“武士和将军很难从债务中脱身”是第一段内容，相隔太远且意思不通。
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