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  3. With Alistair Darling set to announce the new Budget tomorrow and the cost of raising a child in the UK soaring to more than 186

With Alistair Darling set to announce the new Budget tomorrow and the cost of raising a child in the UK soaring to more than 186

admin2013-04-08  56
问题     With Alistair Darling set to announce the new Budget tomorrow and the cost of raising a child in the UK soaring to more than 186,000, new survey findings announced by popular preschool TV channel Nick Jr discover how today’s parents are saving for their offspring’s future. Nick Jr’s study of over 800 parents found that almost two fifths are not actively saving for their children’s future (37.1% ). Over half of all families questioned from the North East admitted they weren’t saving, while Londoners were most likely to be investing in one way or another.
    With private schooling setting back parents up to 130,500 and the cost of sending a child to university typically reaching 47,000, education is unsurprisingly the biggest financial concern, with 23.8% of UK parents saving for school or university fees. The survey revealed that Dads are more likely than Mums to prefer riskier investment options, putting their money into stocks and shares (14.6%) and property (9.8%). These choices were also favored by younger parents, who were additionally by far the most likely to invest in a child pension (44.4%).
    6.3% of parents are opting to save for their child’s first car, especially those parents in older age groups. Families living in Wales were also over four times as likely to invest for their offspring’s first set of wheels (10.3%) as those in the South West (2.4%), where they were least likely to be saving for their child’s first car. Only one in ten parents in Wales are saving for educational fees, compared with almost a third of parents in London and Northern regions.
    Parents from Yorkshire are the least likely to invest in stocks and shares, at only 2.5% of those questioned. Property investments are popular with Londoners (26.6%), but parents in the North West and Wales are less likely to put their children’s money into this volatile (反复无常的) market (2.7% and 2.6% respectively).
    In December, it was found that the average cost of raising a child in the UK from birth to the age of 21 had soared to 186,032, which is set to rise to 265,500 in 2012. However, despite parents investing increasing amounts of money on their children’s welfare, only 44.3% of those surveyed felt that their children have more opportunities in life than they did.
The sentence "education is unsurprisingly the biggest financial concern" (Line 2, Para. 2) most probably means ______.
选项 A、education is the most profitable field to invest
B、education is the costliest field for the parents
C、education attracts more investment than stocks and shares
D、education cost is too heavy to the younger parents
答案B
解析 推理处设题。题目要求该句话的含义。联系上下文，可以推知教育很明显成为最大的经济负担。由此推测B含义与之相符，故为答案。
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大学英语四级

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