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  3. Text 4 Economic theory suggests that reg

Text 4 Economic theory suggests that reg

最全题库2022-08-02  57
问题 Text 4 Economic theory suggests that regional inequalities should diminish as poorer places attract investment and grow faster than richer ones.The 20th century bore that theory out:income gaps narrowed across American states.No longer.Affluent places are now pulling away from poorer ones.This geographlcal divergence has dramatic consequences.Opportunities are limited for those stuck in the wrong place,and the wider economy suffers.If all its citizens had lived in places of high productivity over the past 50 years,America's economy could have grown twice as fast as it did.Divergence is the result of big forces.In the modern economy scale is increasingly important.The social network that everyone else is on is most attractive to new users;the stock cxchange with the deepest pool of investors is best for raising capital.These returns to scale create fewer,superstar firms clustered in fewer,superstar places.Everywhere else is left behind.Even as rcgional disparities widen,people are becoming less mobile.Demographic shifts help explain this.But the bigger culprit is poor policies.Soaring housing costs in prosperous cities kcep newcomers out.In America the spread of state-specific occupational licensrng and governmeni benefits punishes those who move.The pension of a teacher who stays in the same state could be twice as big as that of a teacher who moves mid-career.Perversely,policies to help the poor unintentionally exacerbate the plight of left-behind places.Unemployment and health benefits enable the least employable people ro survive in struggling places when once they would have had no choice but to move.Welfare makes capitalism Iess brutal for individuals,but it perpetuates the problems where they live.What to do?One answer is to help people move.Thriving places could do more to build the housing and infrastructure to accommodate newcomers.Accelerating the mutual recognition of credentials across state borders would help people move to where they can be most productive.But greater mobility also has a perverse side-effect.By draining poor places of talented workers,it exacerbates their troubles.The local tax-base erodes as productive workers leave,even as welfare and pension obligations mount.To avoid these outcomes,politicians have long tried to bolster left-behind places with subsidies.But such"regional policies"have a patchy record,at best.Better for politicians to focus on speeding up the diffusion of technology and business practices from high-performing places.A beefed-up competition policy could reduce industrial concentration,which saps the economy of dynamism while focusing the gains from growth in fewer firms and places.Fostering clusters by encouraging the creation of private investment funds targeted on particular regions might help.Perhaps most of all,politicians need a different mindset.For progressives,alleviating poverty has demanded welfare;for libertarians,freeing up the economy.Both have focused on people.But the complex interaction of demography,welfare and globalisation means that is insufficient.Easing the anger of the left-behincl means realising that places matter,too.We can learn from Paragraph 3 that welfare_____A.brings about lower mobility but higher employmentB.favors the poor regions but widens regional disparitiesC.benefits the poor but Ieaves their regions poor as beforeD.hinders mobility but relieves the poverty of poor regions
选项 A.brings about lower mobility but higher employment
B.favors the poor regions but widens regional disparities
C.benefits the poor but Ieaves their regions poor as before
D.hinders mobility but relieves the poverty of poor regions
答案 C
解析 [信息锁定]第三段⑦句总说旨在帮助穷人的政策无意中加剧贫困地区的困境，⑧⑨句具体解释：失业和医疗等福利救济使穷人不必逃难他乡，而能在贫困地区继续生存，但这却固化了贫困地区的贫穷状况。可见C.符合文义。[解题技巧]A.中“提高就业率”与⑧句文义“失业等福利救济使最不具备就业能力的人得以生存，即福利救济并未提升就业率”相悖；B.中“偏袒贫穷地区”无中生有，原文并未涉及“对比贫富地区所获福利救济的多少”的内容．D.中“缓解贫困地区的穷困状况”与原文末句“福利救济固化了贫困地区的困境”相悖。
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英语二研究生

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