President Bush has proposed adding optional personal accounts as one of the central elements of a major Social Security reform proposal. Although many details remain to be worked out, the proposal would allow individuals who choose to do so to divert part of the money they currently pay in Social Security taxes into individual investment accounts. Individuals would have a choice of fund managers, and the return that they earn from those accounts would then partially determine the Social Security benefit they receive when they retire.Individual accounts pose a number of important and complex design and implementation issues, including how to lower the cost of administering accounts so that they do not erode the value of pensions that individuals receive when they retire, how many and what kinds of fund choices should be offered, and how to engage workers in choosing funds.In the late 1990s, Sweden added a mandatory individual accounts tier to its public pension system. This p01icy brief examines the Swedish experience and lessons it suggests for the United States about the design and implementation challenges of individual accounts.Sweden has one of the oldest and most comprehensive public pension systems in the world. But by the 1980s, several problems with the system were becoming evident, including current funding deficits and a very large projected funding shortfall as Sweden’s population, which is among the oldest in the world, continued to age.Between 1991 and 1998, Sweden adopted a new pension system built on three fundamental elements. A new "income pension" is intended to tie pension benefits more closely to contributions made over the entire course of an individual’ s working life, while lowering the overall cost of the system; it is financed entirely by a 16 percent payroll tax. A "guarantee pension" provides minimum income support for workers with low lifetime earnings. It is financed entirely by general government revenues and is income-tested against other public pension income.The third element is a "premium pension" financed by a 2.5 percent payroll tax. These funds are placed in an individual investment account. Individuals have a wide variety of fund choices. To lower administrative costs; and the administrative burden on employers, collection of premium pension contributions and fund choices are centrally administered by a new government agency, the Premium Pension Authority. Deposits into pension funds are made only once a year, after complete wage records for a calendar year are available from the state tax authorities. Employees choose up to five funds from a list of funds approved by the PPA. Swedes can change their fund allocations as often as they want without charge, but the system is not designed to facilitate "day trading"—switching funds often takes several days.The new pension system’s planners recognized that many workers might not make an active pension fund choice. They created a Seventh Swedish National Pension Fund to offer a default fund, called the Premium Savings Fund, for those who do not choose a fund or simply prefer to have the government invest for them. The Premium Pension Authority()。
A. provides several funds for employees to choose
B is a non-governmental agency
C. pays the pension for people
D. centrally administers premium pension contributions and fund choices
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Since ancient times it has been known that your word is a cause set in motion. In fact, the universe itself is claimed to have emanated from a single primordial sound. In the science of yoga, it is believed that certain Sanskrit words, known as mantras, can bring about magical results, thus you can secure abundance with a certain mantra, peace with another, and so on. On a more practical level, your word still remains highly potent.With your words, you can wound someone, sending them into spirals of defeat, and with your words you can heal someone, raising them up from a dismal place to soaring hope and motivation. In fact, the entire field of self-improvement is the transmission of words that will assist others to get a firm perspective and move forward with their lives, fulfilling their dreams and desires.On a personal level, too, your words affect you. What you say to yourself about anyone or anything affects you, too. If you speak well of someone or something, you bring more of that harmony into your life. And if you speak ill of someone or something, you bring more of that frustration and anger and conflict into your life.Psychological literature often speaks of numerous cases where a parents words, spoken casually, can affect the destiny of a child. And the most potent words that a parent can use to affect a child are those spoken at the time of dying since these are the last words, and the moment is so highly-charged and the awareness so acute, these words become an imperative that the child now feels obligated to never disown.Words are further charged with the emotion behind them. The stronger the emotion, the more highly charged the words. Many a love affair has fallen by the wayside because of emotionally charged words, which are later regretted.Despite all this, people use words with the utmost casualness. People wreck their own lives and that of others through the careless use of words. They also accept the words of others as a given truth, when, in fact, all comments by others are merely opinion.The most marvelous aspect of words is how they can bend time. The brilliantly crafted words of Shakespeare or the eloquence of Martin Luther King still shape our lives. Words are so sacred that whole buildings are used to archive them and make them available for reading.A person can rise from poverty to wealth, from sickness to health, and from loneliness to loving companionship simply through exposing themselves to the most beneficial stream of words.Words not only steal hearts, but shape reality as well. The earth can be a better place because of your choice of words. You can fill lives with the miracles of your words. You can be an agent for positive change and bring out the best in yourself and others simply by how you use words. Words are psychic shape-shifters; use them wisely. Better choice of words can do all of the following EXCEPT()。
A. shaping reality
B. making life better
C. bringing about positive change
D. fulfilling dreams
The old man stood there at a loss, his sunken eyes staring at the man seated behind the table. Raising his hand, he wiped the sweat from his forehead and heavily wrinkled face. He didn’t use the traditional kerchief and headband as usual, though he could feel the sweat running down his temple and neck, and he gave no reply to the man seated behind the table who went on asking him, "Why did you go in opening all the doors of the wards looking for your wife Why didn’t you come directly to Enquires" The old man kept silent. Why, though, was the man seated behind the table continuing to open one drawer after another His eyes busy watching him, he said, "I came here the day before yesterday wanting the hospital and looking for the mother of my children."The man seated behind the table muttered irritably, blaming himself for not having ever learned how to ask the right question, how to get a conversation going, and why it was that his question, full of explanations, and sometimes of annoyance, weren’t effective. He puffed at his cigarette as he enquired in exasperation, "What’ s your wife’ s name" The old man at once replied, "Zeinab Mohamed." The man seated behind the table began flipping through the pages of the thick ledger; each time he turned over a page there was a loud noise that was heard by everyone in the waiting room. He went on flipping through the pages of his ledger, pursing his lips listlessly, then nervously, as he kept bringing the ledger close to his face until finally he said, "Your wife came in here the day before yesterday" The old man in relief at once answered, "Yes, sir, when her heart came to a stop." Once again irritated, the man seated behind the table mumbled to himself, "Had her heart stopped she wouldn’t be here, neither would you." With his eyes still on the ledger, he said, "She’ s in Ward 4, but it’ s not permitted for you to enter her ward because there are other women there." Yawning, he called to the nurse leaning against the wall. She came forward, in her hand a paper cup from which she was drinking. Motioning with his head to the man, he said, "Ward Number 4 -Zeinab Mohamed." The nurse walked ahead, without raising her mouth from the cup. The old man asked himself how it was that this woman worked in a hospital that was crammed with men, even though she spoke Arabic. Having arrived at the ward, the nurse left him outside after telling him to wait; then, after a while, she came out and said to him, "There are two women called Zeinab Mohamed. One of them, though, has only one eye. Which one is your wife so that I can call her"The old man was thrown into confusion. One eye How am I to know He tried to recall what his wife Zeinab looked like, with her long gown and black headdress, the veil, and sometimes the black covering enveloping her face and sometimes removed and lying on her neck. He could picture her as she walked and sat, chewing a morsel and then taking it out of her mouth so as to place it in that of her first-born. Her children. One eye. How am 1 to know tie could picture her stretched out on the bed, her eyes closed. The old man was thrown into confusion and found himself saying, "When I call her, she’ll know my voice." The nurse doubted whether he was in fact visiting his wife; however, giving him another glance; she laughed at her suspicions and asked him, "How long have the two of you been married Again, he was confused as he said, ’ Allah knows best — thirty, forty years ...\ Which of the following words best describes the old man’ s mood when he could not answer the nurse’ s questions()。
A. Surprised.
B. Puzzled.
C. Irritated.
D. Reserved.
W: Hello, Freddy.M: Hello, Mary. How nice to see you again. How’s everything goingW: Fine. Busy these daysM: Yeah. With lots of things to do. Would you like to join me for a drinkW: Ok, thanks.M: Any news recentlyW: Oh, well, I read in the local paper the other day that the government is planning to build an airport here, you know thatM: I’m afraid not.W: Well, my real objection to this idea of a new airport is, is the whole thing is so wasteful, I mean, we know we are currently in fuel crises, we know that we’ve got to conserve oil and fuel and all the rest of it, and get here the government seems quite deliberately to be encouraging people to,... to travel, to use and these jets use a hack of a lot of oil, I mean it takes a ton of oil, a ton of petrol before one of these big jets even takes off.M: Mm...W: It seems so completely short-sighted to me. Quite apart from all the ways to the land and so on, I can’t see, I can’t see the rationale behind really wanting an, an airport at all.M: Well, surely you must have to admit that the existing airport nearby are becoming swarmed. I mean, why should people, uhh...W: Well, they aren’t being swarmed.M: ... be treated like cattle when there is a chance of... a new airport here.W: But, but really people shouldn’t be traveling as much, that’s, that’s why most of the journeys, I mean, they swamped because there is far too much unnecessary tourism and soon. It isn’t necessary for people to travel so far or even so often.M: Well, you take the climate here in this country. Now just before Christmas, there was this dreadful cold spell, and there was a tremendous increase in number of people who wanted to leave and spent Christmas and the New Year in a reasonable climate of sun and, and a certain mild climate. And, and in summer, the same situation occurs. It is unbearably hot here and people want to go somewhere cool.W: Well, yes, I can sympathize with that. But it is still not really necessary to do, well, as it is necessary to, to conserve fuel and it is necessary to, well, not to Waste land. I mean land for a new airport could be used for far more important things which would benefit the people here far more. I mean it could be used for farming for instance.M: True.W: It could also he used for housing, or it could be used for parks, you know. People then could come and enjoy themselves without having to travel far.M: But, airports do bring some local advantages. They bring roads, there is obviously extra employment, for instance, new hotels, shops, restaurants will have to be built. This means more jobs for the locals and it is good for local economy.W: But you ask the people, you ask those who are now living near the airports, for instance, whether, whether they reckon that airports bring them advantages, although, all the airports bring in are noise and vast motorways, and the whole area is, is desolated, isn’t itM: But the airport infra,..., infrastructure relies on housing and other facilities for the great number of people who would be employed in the airport, the pilots even, the stewardess, they have to live somewhere near the airport, rightW: Yeah, but it’s, it’s just so, so damaging to the whole area. I think, airports, from my point of view, the whole concept is outdated, really. Umm, with modern technology, we can make a lot of travel unnecessary, really. For example, it won’t be necessary for businessmen to fly out to a foreign county to talk to somebody. They can just leave it to the telephone in the office, press the button, and say to the person they want to do business with. You see, business deals can be made without having to travel back and forth, rightM: Yes, you are right. But for a lot of people, personal contact is important. And this means travel, and means quick travel, air travel. And we just need a new airport. We learn from the conversation that Freddy is () Mary’s ideas.
A. strongly in favour of
B. mildly in favour of
C. strongly against
D. mildly against
In the days before Diana became accustomed to daily hairdressers, high fashion and expertly applied makeup, she looked her best when she was wearing her least. No frilly blouses concealed her elegant neck, carefully cut skirts her long legs, or bulky sweaters her well-rounded figure. She was young and not fully aware of just how attractive she could be. But if she wanted to impress a young man, any young man, she always made it a point to go swimming or sailing or, at the very least, play a game of tennis.When Prince Charles saw her aboard Britannia at Cowes in the late summer of 1980, he wasn’t however particularly interested. She belonged to his younger brother Andrew’s set, and had come aboard, not at Chariest s invitation, but with Lady Sarah Armstrong Jones, his cousin and sixteen years his junior.Diana was three years older than Sarah, but still almost a generation away. And besides, Charles had his mind on other things—most particularly the breakup of his romance with the beautiful but self-willed Anna Wallace. There was also the fact that if he noticed Diana in anything more than passing, he thought about her as the sister of one of his former girlfriends—Lady Sarah Spencer—who had recently married (he hadn’t attended), and whatever others might have been plotting he most certainly was not thinking of renewing his romantic links with the Spencer girls.But if Charles was not instantly enchanted by the fresh, gambolling nineteen-year-old who spent some days aboard the Royal Yacht, his staff were. "She was so unassuming and so natural,’ one recalls. And in the manner of all servants, particularly ones who are in the employ of the bachelor Prince, they inevitably started speculating amongst themselves if she was the one for what they called "the job".So, it seems, did Diana. At the age of sixteen she had jokingly told a friend that she was "out to get’ Charles. But that may have been just romantic fantasizing on the part of a young girl whose main reading was the soapy romances penned by her step-grandmother, the redoubtable Barbara Cartland. The Prince’s late valet, Stephen Barry; insisted however: "She went after the Prince with single-minded determination. She wanted him—and she got him!"She had, of course, met him many times before in the years of her childhood spent as a near-neighbour of the Windsors at Sandringham when Charles used to pop his head round the nursery door where she was having tea with Andrew and Edward, or during a shooting party on Sandringham Estate where at the age of sixteen she was reintroduced to him by her sister Sarah. More recently she had encountered him at polo. But then he had always been busy or with a girlfriend in tow. This time he was alone.She made sure Charles was watching when she bravely followed his example and went windsurfing in the ehoppy and not-too-warm waters of the Solent. Naturally flirtatious, she made sure he noticed her long slim legs and trim figure. And he could not fail but start to take an interest—if only a comparative one—in the beautiful younger sister of a former girlfriend.Accounts of this first meeting vary. Some claim that it is where the famous romance began. Others insist that his interest was but a mild one; that with Anna still in mind, the timing was wrong and he simply regarded her as a new and pretty addition to his surprisingly limited circle of friends.But she had certainly impressed him enough for him to invite her up to Balmoral shortly afterwards. Diana accepted with alacrity. To impress a young man, Diana might choose to play a game of tennis, because ()。
A. she was a highly skilled tennis player
B. she looked attractive in her tennis outfit
C. she preferred tennis to swimming
D. her hair-style was fashionably designed