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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 reasons this formerly stable federal institution finds itself on the verge of bankruptcy. 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 long-standing complaint by the USPS and its unions.
If it clears the House, this measure would still have to get through the Senate 一 where someone is bound to point out that it amounts to the bare, bare minimum necessary to keep the Postal Service afloat, not comprehensive reform. There's no change to collective bargaining at the USPS, a major omission 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.
1.The financial problem with the USPS is caused partly by(  ).
2.According to Paragraph 2, the USPS fails to modernize itself due to (  ).  
3.The long-standing complaint by the USPS and its unions can be addressed by (  ).  
4.In the last paragraph, the author seems to view legislators with (  ).  
5.Which of the following would be the best title for the text?

第 1 问

A. its unbalanced budget

B. its rigid management

C. the cost for technical upgrading

D. the withdrawal of bank support

第 2 问

A. the interference from interest groups

B. the inadequate funding from Congress

C. the shrinking demand for postal service

D. the incompetence of postal unions

第 3 问

A. removing its burden of retiree health care

B. making more investment in new vehicles

C. adopting a new rate-increase mechanism

D. attracting more first-class mail users

第 4 问

A. respect

B. olerance

C. discontent

D. gratitude

第 5 问

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.

参考答案: B A A C D

详细解析:

1.应选[B]。考查考生把握重要细节信息的能力。
【试题解析】(1)本题出处定位在第一段第五句。(2)根据文章,“原因有二:其一是技术改变;其二是管理结构”。选项[B]是原文“denies management the flexibility”的同义转述。

2.应选[A]。考查考生把握句间、段间关系的能力。
【试题解析】(1)题干明示定位在第二段,题干对应第二段最后一句。句中代词“This”指代上文内容。(2)换言之,原因需参见第一句。根据文章,“利益群体给国会施加压力,以保护他们赖以生存的现状”。 据此,选项[A]最佳。

3.应选[A]。考查考生把握重要细节信息的能力。
【试题解析】(1)题干与第三段末句的 “thus addressing a long-standing complaint by the USPS and its unions ”对应。(2)“ thus addressing…”这一部分是一个现在分词短语,动词“addressing”的逻辑主语便是这个问题的要点。(3 )再根据主句内容“The latter step would largely offset the financial burden of annually pre-funding retiree health care”(后者将大幅抵消每年预先支付的退休人员医疗保健的经济负担),“addressing”的逻辑主语是“latter step”。而“latter step”指代的是上文 “shifting postal retirees into Medicare”(将邮政退休人员的退休金转移到联邦医疗保险中)。因此,选项[A]最佳。

4.应选[C]。考查考生把握作者态度和评价的能力。
【试题解析】(1)题干明示,出处定位在最后一段第六句。(2)根据文章,“立法者对USPS在短期内破产感到恐慌,因为这种破产会引起政治性的尴尬”。但是,“立法者没有认真对待21世纪的邮政系统的转型”。从最后一段看,作者呼吁USPS的改革和革新,故选项[C]最佳。

5.应选[D]。考查考生把握全文中心主旨的能力。
【试题解析】(1)本题需要综合全文内容才能进行判断。(2)首先,第一段点出USPS的财政困难以及两个原因,第二段实现现代化努力未果的原因是利益群体的干涉,第三段提及传言中进行的立法,第四段点明立法乃权宜之计,而非综合的措施,人们遗漏了许多解决问题的根本措施。(3)综合这些内容,选项[D]最佳。

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