单选题
0分
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) continues to bleed red ink. It reported a net loss of $5.6 billion fo...
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) continues to bleed red ink. It reported a net loss of $5.6 billion for fiscal 2016, the lOth straight year its expenses have exceeded revenue. Meanwhile, it has more than $120 billion in unfunded liabilities, mostly for employee health and retirement costs. There are many bankruptcies. Fundamentally, the USPS is in a historic squeeze between technological change that has permanently decreased demand for its bread-and-butter product, first-class mail, and a regulatory structure that denies management the flexibility to adjust its operations to the new reality
And interest groups ranging from postal unions to greeting-card makers exert self-interested pressure on the USPS's ultimateoverseer-Congress-insisting that whatever else happens to the Postal Service, aspects of the status quo they depend on get protected. This is why repeated attempts at reform legislation have failed in recent years, leaving the Postal Service unable to pay its bills except by deferring vital modernization.
Now comes word that everyone involved-Democrats, Republicans, the Postal Service, the unions and the system's heaviest users-has finally agreed on a plan to fix the system. Legislation is moving through the House that would save USPS an estimated $28.6 billion over five years, which could help pay for new vehicles, among other survival measures. Most of the money would come from a penny-per-letter permanent rate increase and from shifting postal retirees into Medicare. The latter step would largely offset the financial burden of annually pre-funding retiree health care, thus addressing a long-standing complaint by the USPS and its union.
If it clears the House, this measure would still have to get through the Senate - where someone is bound to point out that it amounts to the bare, bare minimum necessary to keep the Postal Service afloat, not ,comprehensive reform. There's no change to dbective bargaining at the USPS, a major omission considering that personnel accounts for 80 percent of the agency's costs. Also missing is any discussion of eliminating Saturday letter delivery. That common-sense change enjoys wide public support and would save the USPS $2 billion per year. But postal special-interest groups
seem to have killed it, at least in the House. The emerging consensus around the bill is a sign that legislators are getting frightened about a politically embarrassing short-term collapse at the USPS. It is not, however, a sign that they're getting serious about transforming the postal system for the 3lst century.
According to Paragraph 2, the USPS fails to modernize itself due to
And interest groups ranging from postal unions to greeting-card makers exert self-interested pressure on the USPS's ultimateoverseer-Congress-insisting that whatever else happens to the Postal Service, aspects of the status quo they depend on get protected. This is why repeated attempts at reform legislation have failed in recent years, leaving the Postal Service unable to pay its bills except by deferring vital modernization.
Now comes word that everyone involved-Democrats, Republicans, the Postal Service, the unions and the system's heaviest users-has finally agreed on a plan to fix the system. Legislation is moving through the House that would save USPS an estimated $28.6 billion over five years, which could help pay for new vehicles, among other survival measures. Most of the money would come from a penny-per-letter permanent rate increase and from shifting postal retirees into Medicare. The latter step would largely offset the financial burden of annually pre-funding retiree health care, thus addressing a long-standing complaint by the USPS and its union.
If it clears the House, this measure would still have to get through the Senate - where someone is bound to point out that it amounts to the bare, bare minimum necessary to keep the Postal Service afloat, not ,comprehensive reform. There's no change to dbective bargaining at the USPS, a major omission considering that personnel accounts for 80 percent of the agency's costs. Also missing is any discussion of eliminating Saturday letter delivery. That common-sense change enjoys wide public support and would save the USPS $2 billion per year. But postal special-interest groups
seem to have killed it, at least in the House. The emerging consensus around the bill is a sign that legislators are getting frightened about a politically embarrassing short-term collapse at the USPS. It is not, however, a sign that they're getting serious about transforming the postal system for the 3lst century.
According to Paragraph 2, the USPS fails to modernize itself due to
参考答案: A
参考解析: 根据题干due to,判断本题考查因果细节。根据题干关键词:USPS fails to modernize定位到原文第二段最后句,在这句前leaving,留下,导致这个结果,往前找原因,前句提到reform legislation,而且这句前还有this is why只要找到代词this指代就可以判断选项。代词往前推,根据这句主干interest groups exerts pressure on Congress选择选项A,interference对应exert pressure on。
[干扰项分析]选项B,the inadequate funding from Congress一文虽然有提到Congress国会,the aspect of status quo get protected国会保护USPS,并没有提及inadequate funding基金不足。选项C,the shrinking demand for postal service邮政需求缩减,文中没有提及。选项D,the incompetence of posta unions邮政工会的不作为。文章有提到工会,但是只提他们是属于Interest groups,并没有提到无作为。