08年1月6级真题.docVIP

08年1月6级真题 Passage Two Whats hot for 2007 among the very rich? A ＄ 7.3 million diamond ring. A trip to Tanzania to hunt wild animals. Oh, and income inequality, Sure, some leftish billionaires like George Soros have been railing against income inequality for years. But increasingly, centrist and right-wing billionaires are starting to worry about income inequality and the fate of the middle class. In December, Mortimer Zuckerman wrote a column in U.S. News World Report, which he owns. Our nations core bargain with the middle class is disintegrating, lamented (哀叹) the 117th-riehest main in America. Most of our economic gains have gone to people at the very top of the income ladder. Average income for a household of people of working age, by contrast, has fallen five years in a row. He noted that Tens of millions of Americans live in fear that a major health problem can reduce them to bankruptcy. Wilbur Ross Jr. has echoed Zuckermans anger over the bitter struggles faced by middle-class Americans. Its an outrage that any Americans life expectancy should be shortened simply because the company they worked for went bankrupt and ended health-care coverage, said the former chairman of the International Steel Group. Whats happening? The very rich are just as trendy as you and I, and can be so when it comes to politics and policy. Given the recent change of control in Congress, the popularity of measures like increasing the minimum wage, and efforts by Californias governor to offer universal health care, these guys dont need their own personal weathermen to know which way the wind blows. Its possible that plutocrats (有钱有势的人) are expressing solidarity with the struggling middle class as part of an effort to insulate themselves from confiscatory (没收性的) tax policies. But the prospect that income inequality will lead to higher taxes on the wealthy doesnt keep plutocrats up at night. They can live with that. No, what they fear was that the political