2. 考研
  3. It’s easy to dismiss as absurd the federal government’s ideas for plugging the chronic funding gap of our national parks. Can an

It’s easy to dismiss as absurd the federal government’s ideas for plugging the chronic funding gap of our national parks. Can an

admin2023-03-23  66
问题     It’s easy to dismiss as absurd the federal government’s ideas for plugging the chronic funding gap of our national parks. Can anyone really think it’s a good idea to allow Amazon deliveries to your tent in Yosemite or food trucks to line up under the redwood trees at Sequoia National Park?
    But the government is right about one thing: U. S. national parks are in crisis. Collectively, they have a maintenance backlog of more than $12 billion. Roads, trails, restrooms, visitor centers and other infrastructure are crumbling.
    But privatizing and commercializing the campgrounds would not be a cure-all. Campgrounds are a tiny portion of the overall infrastructure backlog, and businesses in the parks hand over, on average, only about 5％ of their revenues to the National Park Service.
    Moreover, increased privatization would certainly undercut one of the major reasons why 300 million visitors come to the parks each year: to enjoy nature and get a break from the commercial drumbeat that overwhelms daily life.
    The real problem is that the parks have been chronically starved of funding. An economic survey of 700 U. S. taxpayers found that people would be willing to pay a significant amount of money to make sure the parks and their programs are kept intact. Some 81％ of respondents said they would be willing to pay additional taxes for the next 10 years to avoid any cuts to the national parks.
    The national parks provide great value to U.S. residents both as places to escape and as symbols of nature. On top of this, they produce value from their extensive educational programs, their positive impact on the climate through carbon sequestration, their contribution to our cultural and artistic life, and of course through tourism. The parks also help keep America’s past alive, working with thousands of local jurisdictions around the country to protect historical sites—including Ellis Island and Gettysburg—and to bring the stories of these places to life.
    The parks do all this on a shoestring. Congress allocates only $3 billion a year to the national park system—an amount that has been flat since 2001 ( in inflation-adjusted dollars) with the exception of a onetime boost in 2009 as pail of the Obama stimulus package. Meanwhile, the number of annual visitors has increased by more than 50％ since 1980, and now stands at 330 million visitors per year.
According to Paragraph 5, most respondents in the survey would________.
选项 A、go to the national parks on a regular basis
B、advocate a bigger budget for the national parks
C、agree to pay extra for the national parks
D、support the national Parks’ recent reforms
答案C
解析 推理题。根据题干定位到第五段。该段第二句指出，一项针对700名美国纳税人进行的经济调查发现，人们愿意支付高额的费用，以保证公园及其项目完好无损。由此可知，大多数调查对象愿意为国家公园支付额外费用，故选项C正确。本文并未提及有关调查对象定期去国家公园的信息，故排除选项A；选项B与第五段第二句表述矛盾，budget这里指国家的财政预算，而原文是指调查对象愿意自己支付高昂的费用，故排除；本段并未提及有关国家公园改革的问题，故排除选项D。
转载请注明原文地址:https://www.kaotiyun.com/show/1AMD777K
0

考研英语二

相关试题推荐
随机试题
最新回复(0)