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  3. Time was, old people knew their place. Power was passed to sons and daughters, crowns placed on younger heads. Not any more. The

Time was, old people knew their place. Power was passed to sons and daughters, crowns placed on younger heads. Not any more. The

admin2015-07-13  92
问题     Time was, old people knew their place. Power was passed to sons and daughters, crowns placed on younger heads. Not any more. The elderly are no longer a sidelined sliver of society, but its mainstream. During the next two generations, the number of the world’s people older than 60 will quadruple, rising from 606 million now to 2 billion in 2050. For the first time in human history,the elderly will outnumber children. More and more, it’s not the children who are our future, it’s the seniors. The graying of the globe is quite simply the "most significant population shift in history," says Ann Pawliczko of the United Nations Population Fund.
    And growing old doesn’t mean what it used to. Better medical care has increased the average global life expectancy by two decades—to 66—in as many generations. "One hundred is the new 60," says Marty Davis, of the American Association of Retired People. In the West, technology and wealth are empowering the aged. They are an increasingly vocal political lobby and muscular consumers. The portfolio of Senioragency, Europe’s only ad agency aimed at the 50-plus market, used to consist of hearing aids and insurance. Now mainstream companies like Coca-Cola and Siemens are approaching the firm. "We’re used to thinking of a 60-year-old who looks like" Whistler’s Mother, "but we should be thinking about someone who looks like Tina Turner," says Gloria Gutman, president of the International Association of Gerontology.
    The rapidly shifting demographics are forcing a radical rethinking of many facets of our lives. Two billion elderly will need new systems of care and support. The growing number of old people who want to live independently will need housing, streets and cityscapes that will accommodate their slower pace. Smart technology will have to plug nursing shortages; architects and social planners will have to start catering for populations with dementia and failing eyesight or hearing.
    In contrast to the youth-driven culture of the last half century, the elderly will set the agenda for how the late-21st century lives. Already societies have begun facing the pension crisis, the scariest specter haunting Western treasuries. For one thing, 80 percent of the world already can’t afford to retire. Even in Western Europe and the United States, say experts, the very concept of retirement may soon be viewed as a historical aberrational social curiosity from the era between World War II and the war on terror. And paying for the elderly is just a fraction of the massive upheaval underway. What’s been dubbed "the silent revolution" is changing everything from politics to tax structures to the width of the world’s doorways (for wheelchairs).
We may safely assume that_____.
选项 A、existing pension system needs reform
B、problems brought by population aging will be solved soon
C、people have to slow their pace down
D、people are living longer and better
答案A
解析 推理判断题。第四段第二句提到甚至富裕的西方国家也开始面临“养老金危机”，这就说明现行的养老金制度将很难适用拥有庞大老年人口的老龄化社会，故可推断养老金制度需要改革，A项正确。
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