首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
1 A panel of the great and the good from Europe and the United States recently drew up an elegant blueprint for remaking the At
1 A panel of the great and the good from Europe and the United States recently drew up an elegant blueprint for remaking the At
admin
2010-01-18
44
问题
1 A panel of the great and the good from Europe and the United States recently drew up an elegant blueprint for remaking the Atlantic community. They settled the hash of disunity over Iraq, looming trade disputes and American ambivalence over the European Union’s determination to have its own defense and foreign policies.
2 You can and should read about it in the Council on Foreign Relations paper "Renewing the Atlantic Partnership". But what’s missing is a paragraph about the demographic changes in Europe and America, even though these changes are widening the economic and political divides in the world’s most important partnership.
3 You won’t read about the growing weight of Muslim minorities in Europe and of Hispanic and Asian populations in the United States, which will inevitably show up in domestic and foreign policies on both sides of the Atlantic. Perhaps even more consequential is the astonishingly rapid aging and shrinking of the populations in many of Europe’s main countries, while in the United States continued population growth feeds economic growth.
4 The subject was just too thorny to be tackled in a brief summary, according to several of the panel’s 26 members—in contrast to war, protectionism or the greater Middle East. So a proposed paragraph on changes in the ethnic and social composition of populations on both sides of the Atlantic was left on the cutting-room floor.
5 There are good reasons for caution in talking about policy-related demographic changes. But the silence the experts stumbled into is instructive. Like individuals, nations try to avoid thinking about aging, its costs and consequences. We whistle past the rest home as well as the graveyard.
6 But it is vital to recognize that much of Europe is turning into a continent of geezers, however much it hates. And countries such as France and Germany hate even more making the changes geezerhood requires—the most important being whether the welfare state will cut its generous benefits, raise its exorbitant taxes to meet tomorrow’s rising health costs or make people work longer before retiring.
7 Europe is also loath to examine its restrictive immigration policies, which help curb population growth and economic renewal. (As always, Britain is an exception. ) Not even the enlargement of the European Union to 25 members will bring much immediate relief, since Germany has led the way in keeping up walls against population flows from the east and south.
8 I can sympathize with the historians, ex-diplomats, economists and other experts on the New York-based council’s panel. They wrestled with and walked away from slippery census numbers on the race and religion. of population groups. We actually don’t know if the number of Muslims in the United States is closer to 2 million than to 7 million, or whether in France 5 million Muslims is a more accurate count than 10 million. Those commonly cited ranges cover a multitude of unknowns.
9 But good numbers on some little-remarked societal forces do exist. Across Western Europe, the median age of the workforce and the population at large is steadily rising, as life expectancy increases and fertility rates drop below the 2. 1 children per couple needed to ensure population growth. The birthrate is now 1.4 in Germany, and even lower in Italy and Spain. Consider this: Half of all union members in Italy are retired and drawing pensions.
10 The median age of voters in Europe today is 46 to 47, and will be 50 by 2013, according to reports presented last month to the Council for the United States and Italy. "There is no time to waste for politicians who must cut pensions and other benefits before their governments go broke. It only gets harder from here," said one economist.
11 Karl Lauterbach, a German expert in demographics, asked the group: "Who will want to invest in an aging and shrinking population? Germany risks losing one-third of its natural economic growth because of these trends. From 1970 to today, 10 million German children we would have expected in other times were not born" and will not be available to work in 20 years.
12 The United States faces problems in its Social Security system, but they are relatively small compared with the society-bending changes in store for Europe (and for Japan). Demographics and the aging of nations in particular deserve to be on any transatlantic agenda today.
What does "it" in the first sentence of Para. 2 refer to?
选项
A、A panel.
B、Europe.
C、A blueprint.
D、The Atlantic community.
答案
C
解析
本题为细节理解题。it 前的read about提示blueprint。其余在搭配上有问题。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/Hi9YFFFM
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Orangehasawavelengthlongerthanthatofgreen.
What’sthenon-financialODImadebydomesticinvestorsfromJunetoNovemberin2018?
Whathavescientistsconcludedthroughstudiesovertheyears?
Intheinformationtechnologyindustry,itiswidelyacknowledgedthathowwellITdepartmentsofthefuturecanfulfilltheirb
A、Weshouldnottakeourabilitytolistenforgranted.B、Weshouldhavetherightlisteningstyleforaparticularsituation.C
A、HeisfondofEnglishdishes.B、Heistiredofpuddingsandpies.C、HeenjoysEnglishstrawberryyogurt.D、Heseldomhasbreak
A、Socially-mindedpeople.B、Scientistsandintellectuals.C、Mediocrewriters.D、Friendlycompanions.B
Intheearly1970’s,CitibankofNewYorkCitybecameoneofthefirstfinancialinstitutionstoinstallATM’sonalargescale.
Icameacrossanoldcountryguidetheotherday.Itlistedallthetradesmenineachvillageinmypartofthecountry,andit
TheUnitedStatesDepartmentofAgriculture【C1】______fororganicfoodproducts.Therequirementscomemorethan【C2】______afterC
随机试题
给定资料: 1.2013年8月12日8时至14时,嫩江上游尼尔基水库库区突降暴雨,阿彦浅站(内蒙古莫力达瓦旗)最大降雨量达102毫米。受降雨影响,尼尔基水库12日14时入库洪峰流量达9440立方米每秒,为重现期超过50年的特大洪水。尼尔基水库库区人员已经
Haveyou【C1】______askedyourselfwhychildrengotoschool?Youwillprobablysaythattheygo【C2】______theirownlanguageando
患者,女,26岁,已婚。停经48天,尿妊娠试验(+),1周来纳呆恶心,呕吐食物残渣,恶闻食气,口淡,神疲思睡,舌淡苔白润,脉缓滑无力。其证型是
人民法院应当从()方面对甲的再审申请进行考察。若甲2006年6月10日向市人民检察院申诉,人民检察院经审查认为原判决不当的,那么下列说法错误的有()。
企业经营管理水平的高低,主要取决于领导班子的知识结构和市场开拓能力。()
国有企业改组为股份有限公司时,净资产折股比例不得低于()
参考标准是在给定地区或给定组织内,通常具有最高计量学特性的一种测量标准。在我国,与参考标准相当的是()。
一个班集体必须有的基本特征是()。
陈某因打架斗殴违反《治安管理处罚条例》受到处罚,陈某的行为属于()。
设则当x→0时,两个无穷小的关系是().
最新回复
(
0
)