2016年BEC中級閱讀理解練習(xí)-1

In this part, there are some reading passages followed by 5 questions or unfinished statements each. For each of them there are four answers marked A, B, C and D. You should decide on the best one according to your understanding.

Present pension structures no longer work. They were established in a more youthful period with relatively few older people who were often poor and ill, and generally spent only a short time in retirement. In rich countries today, older people are often well-off and in good health, and are spending around 20 years in retirement. Therefore there is the need for reform.

This survey has presented the arguments for more private funding and for fairer pensions. Such changes will create motives for individuals to take charge of their own retirement needs rather than leaving the task to the state. This, in turn, will make the provision of public pensions more affordable.

Even so, the state will continue to play a leading role in pensions. At a minimum, governments must offer a safety net, probably in the form of a defined benefit financed through taxation, for people who for some reason have not been able to provide for themselves and who would otherwise be miserable in old age. More broadly, there is a use for the state to offer a slimmed-down pay-as-you-go pension system, although as far as possible this should be organized along defined-contributions lines. Such provision widens the range of assets to include human capital because the effective return comes from total wages, and offers a safe in low return.

Governments also have to create a suitable framework for effective private pensions. Administrative (行政的) expenses have to be tightly controlled, and appropriate tax motives have to be offered to encourage voluntary pension saving. Where the state provides a generous safety net, private-pension saving may have to be made mandatory (強制的), otherwise many people will not bother.

So much for the developed countries, but what of the more youthful populations of the rest of the world? In 1994, the World Bank came down heavily in favor of more funding in private accounts. It thought the state's role should be to provide a smallish first pillar with the limited task of providing protection against old-age poverty, and to command a privately-funded second pillar to provide the bulk of pensions.

1. More private funding and fairer pensions _______.

A. can urge people to save more private pensions

B. may be financed through tax

C. can lessen the burden of the state

D. can provide more public pensions

2. To create a proper framework for effective private pensions, the government should _______.

A. increase the income to encourage voluntary pension saving

B. encourage voluntary pension saving

C. make good use of administrative costs

D. not command people to save private-pensions

3. According to the World Bank, we can learn that _______.

A. the state should provide the majority of pensions

B. the state should provide more protection against old-age poverty

C. the role that the state plays in pensions is small

D. private funding should provide the majority of pensions

4. What can we infer from the passage?

A. The state should provide protection for all the old people.

B. The state has to create a suitable framework to restrict the private pensions.

C. The state should protect those who can't support themselves.

D. The state will play a secondary role in pensions due to more private pensions.

5. It can be inferred from the passage the author is probably _______.

A. an official engaged in reformation of pension structures

B. a sociologist devoting himself to the research of social pension structures

C. an economist mastering pension structures in developed countries

D. a politician interested in older people

參考答案：C、B、D、C、B