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英语二阅读理解-冲刺训练 Day10
英语二阅读理解-冲刺训练 Day10
Britain is ageing badly. Or at least without paying due care and attention to a demographic
revolution that may be more destabilising than is generally understood. According to a study this
month by the Office for National Statistics, the proportion of people aged 85 and over will almost
double during the course of the next 25 years. By 2030, one in five people will be aged 65 or over.
This creates most obviously a huge healthcare challenge. Successive governments have failed to deal
with the crisis in social care provision. The Johnson government has shamefully kicked the issue
further into the long grass. This has been a collective dereliction of duty by Westminster.
An important report published by the Resolution Foundation on Monday highlighted another, less
well understood, dimension to ageing in Britain. In a period when polarisation and division has gripped
our body politic to such a disturbing degree, it should give pause for thought. According to the
thinktank’s research, some parts of the UK are ageing twice as fast in the 21st century as others.
Coastal and rural areas in particular are experiencing rapidly ageing populations.
The drivers of this divergence are various, from booming student populations in places such as
Nottingham and Newcastle, to higher birth rates in areas such as Barking and Dagenham. More
generally, the study’s findings suggest an ongoing drift of young people from smaller towns and rural
areas to large towns and cities, which have benefited from the lion’s share of economic growth in the
post-industrial era.
A virtuous circle has been created in prospering urban centres: these cities and large towns,
usually boasting at least one major university, attract well-qualified young people, who in turn lure in
further investment. In Manchester, which has enjoyed a 21st-century revival through a service and
IT-driven economy, regeneration in the city centre focused almost exclusively on flats for young
professionals attracted by prospects unavailable in their home towns. Manchester has got younger.
The trend risks stretching to breaking point social services in some of the country’s poorest local
authorities, which are faced with falling budgets and a bigger care bill. There is also a danger that
demographic divergence will entrench cultural and political divides that are already a feature of the
political landscape. It is surely unhealthy for the national conversation that an unbalanced economy is
skewing the age profile of communities. Britain does not need a new geography of ageing to add to
27. One reason for this divergence cited by the thinktank’s research would be ________ .
28. The study’s findings suggest that large towns and cities ________ .
[A] scared
[B] tedious
[C] tricky
[D] good