Text4Whenthegovernmenttalksabo-考网

Text 4 When the government talks about infrastructure contributing to the economy the focus is usually on roads,railways,broadband and energy.Housing is seldom mentioned.Why is that?To some extent the housing sector must shoulder the blame.We have not been good at communicating the real value that housing can contribute to economic growth.Then there is the scale of the typical housing project.It is hard to shove for attention among multibillionpound infrastructure project,so it is inevitable that the attention is focused elsewhere.But perhaps the most significant reason is that the issue has always been so politically charged.Nevertheless,the affordable housing situation is desperate.Waiting lists increase all the time and we are simply not building enough new homes.The comprehensive spending review offers an opportunity for the government to help rectify this.It needs to put historical prejudices to one side and take some steps to address our urgent housing need.There are some indications that it is preparing to do just that.The communities minister,Don Foster,has hinted that George Osborne,Chancellor of the Exchequer,may introduce more flexibility to the current cap on the amount that local authorities can borrow against their housing stock debt.Evidence shows that 60,000 extra new homes could be built over the next five years if the cap were lifted,increasing GDP by 0.6%.Ministers should also look at creating greater certainty in the rental environment,which would have a significant impact on the ability of registered providers to fund new developments from revenues.But it is not just down to the government.While these measures would be welcome in the short term,we must face up to the fact that the existing￡4.5bn programme of grants to fund new affordable housing,set to expire in 2015，is unlikely to be extended beyond then.The Labour party has recently announced that it will retain a large part of the coalition's spending plans if returns to power.The housing sector needs to accept that we are very unlikely to ever return to era of largescale public grants.We need to adjust to this changing climate.While the government’s commitment to long-term funding may have changed,the very pressing need for more affordable housing is real and is not going away.

According to Paragraph 5,George Osborne may____

A.allow greater government debt for housing
B.stop local authorities from building homes
C.prepare to reduce housing stock debt
D.release a lifted GDP growth forecast

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答案： A

本题解析：

细节题【命题思路】这是一道细节题，需要考生理解文中引用的人物观点。【直击答案】根据题干中的人名可以回文定位到第五段第二句话。这句话指出乔治?奥斯本将会让当地政府用来偿还建房借贷的限额变得更加宽松，并且在借贷限额放宽的情况下，将会另有六万套新房在未来的五年中建造。因而A项“允许更多的政府建房借贷”是正确选项，其中“greater government debt”是原文中“more flexibility to the current cap”的同义替换。【干扰排除】第五段最后一句话指出未来的五年政府将会建造六万套新房，B项的意思是阻止当地政府建房，这与原文信息正好相反，故排除。C项，减少住房贷款也与原文信息相反，故排除。文中提到随着建房借贷限额的提高，GDP也会随之增长，并未提到乔治会发布对GDP增长的预测，因而D项属于无中生有，故排除。