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  3. Of all the cuts to public services, few have provoked such loud protests as proposals to close libraries. Petitions and curses h

Of all the cuts to public services, few have provoked such loud protests as proposals to close libraries. Petitions and curses h

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问题     Of all the cuts to public services, few have provoked such loud protests as proposals to close libraries. Petitions and curses have been followed by legal challenges. On November 16th a judge in London ruled against plans to close 21 libraries in Gloucestershire and Somerset. Campaigners in Brent, in north-west London, have taken their fight against closures to the Court of Appeal.
    Local politicians are startled. Keith Mitchell, leader of Oxfordshire county council, which was forced by public pressure to abandon plans to close many libraries, complained that protesters seemed much less upset by cuts to social care and rubbish collection. Visits to libraries have declined by 6. 7% in the past five years, according to the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA).
    But this is to underestimate the symbolic role libraries play as a visible public good. A 2010 poll found that 69% of people had been to a library in the past year. More than 80% view libraries as " essential" or " very important".
    Yet savings have to be made somewhere. If library closures cause protests, cuts must be done stealthily. In the 2010-11 fiscal year libraries acquired 7. 4% fewer adult fiction books and 13. 7% fewer non-fiction books than they had the year before. An older, less appealing stock could speed the decline in library visits.
    Yet hard times are also forcing innovations that may help libraries in the long run. In a quiet success for David Cameron’s "Big Society" , the number of volunteer librarians has risen from 12,708 to 21,642 in the past five years. That trend has its critics, especially among professional librarians. But staff account for at least half the cost of running a library. Other savings could probably be made by consolidating England’s 151 library authorities, and by making better use of technology. "London has 32 library authorities but just one police authority," marvels Desmond Clarke, a library campaigner.
    An entirely different option is to pour money into a single edifice in the hope that it will have a benign effect on the neighborhood. England’s most popular library is the Norfolk & Norwich Millennium, a multi-storey space in a sparkling new building with a restaurant and gallery, which lured nearly 1. 5m people last year. As the anchor of the development, the library attracts users who then linger and spend money nearby. Birmingham is building a new ￡ 188.8m library, the flagship of a development in the city centre that is due to open in 2013. Many of the city’s other 39 libraries could face cuts in service, including shorter opening hours and fewer staff. Libraries are not dead—just a little dusty.
In the author’s opinion, public libraries in Britain faces a______future.
选项 A、bleak
B、rosy
C、uncertain
D、despairing
答案C
解析 整篇文章似乎都在讨论英国图书馆的没落，在经济危机的背景下，图书馆似乎必然会陷入无人问津的尴尬境地。但是文章有好几处显示了作者对于公共图书馆的信心，特别是在最后一段，有些地方政府通过建立图书馆带动当地经济发展的行为让作者看到了英国图书馆的曙光，因此他在最后一句话中说“Libraries are not dead—just a little dusty．”作者既没有悲观绝望，也不怀有十分的信心，这里[C]选项uncertain一词能十分准确地概括作者的态度。
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考研英语一

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