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  3. The U. S. Postal Service (USPS) continues to bleed red ink. It reported a net loss of $ 5.6 billion for fiscal 2016, the 10th st

The U. S. Postal Service (USPS) continues to bleed red ink. It reported a net loss of $ 5.6 billion for fiscal 2016, the 10th st

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问题     The U. S. Postal Service (USPS) continues to bleed red ink. It reported a net loss of $ 5.6 billion for fiscal 2016, the 10th straight year its expenses have exceeded revenue. Meanwhile, it has more than $ 120 billion in unfunded liabilities, mostly for employee health and retirement costs. There are many bankruptcies. Fundamentally, the USPS is in a historic squeeze between technological change that has permanently decreased demand for its bread-and-butter product, first-class mail, and a regulatory structure that denies management the flexibility to adjust its operations to the new reality.
    And interest groups ranging from postal unions to greeting-card makers exert self-interested pressure on the USPS’s ultimate overseer—Congress-—insisting that whatever else happens to the Postal Service, aspects of the status quo they depend on get protected. This is why repeated attempts at reform legislation have failed in recent years, leaving the Postal Service unable to pay its bills except by deferring vital modernization.
    Now comes word that everyone involved—Democrats, Republicans, the Postal Service, the unions and the system’s heaviest users—has finally agreed on a plan to fix the system. Legislation is moving through the House that would save USPS an estimated $ 28.6 billion over five years, which could help pay for new vehicles, among other survival measures. Most of the money would come from a penny-per-letter permanent rate increase and from shifting postal retirees into Medicare. The latter step would largely offset the financial burden of annually pre-funding retiree health care, thus addressing a longstanding complaint by the USPS and its unions.
    If it clears the House, this measure would still have to get through the Senate—where someone is bound to point out that it amounts to the bare, bare minimum necessary to keep the Postal Service a-float, not comprehensive reform. There’s no change to collective bargaining at the USPS, a major o-mission considering that personnel accounts for 80 percent of the agency’s costs. Also missing is any discussion of eliminating Saturday letter delivery. That common-sense change enjoys wide public support and would save the USPS $ 2 billion per year. But postal special-interest groups seem to have killed it, at least in the House. The emerging consensus around the bill is a sign that legislators are getting frightened about a politically embarrassing, short-term collapse at the USPS. It is not, however, a sign that they’re getting serious about transforming the postal system for the 21st century.
Which of the following would be the beat title for the text?
选项 A、The USPS Starts to Miss Its Good Old Days
B、The Postal Service: Keep Away from My Cheese
C、The USPS: Chronic Illness Requires a Quick Cure
D、The Postal Service Needs More than a Band-Aid
答案D
解析 文章前两段指出USPS在财政上面临严峻形势，并分析了其原因。第三段具体讲述由各方商议出来的解决方案，其中着重提到该方案可以带来的效益。第四段指出该方案存在的问题，并在最后表明作者对改革方案的态度。所以本篇文章的结构遵循提出问题、分析并解决问题、最后给出建议。因此D选项“邮政管理局需要的不只是一个权宜之计”最符合要求。故选D。
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