A recent BBC documentary, "The Town That Never Retired", sought to show the effects of【C1】______the state pension age by putting retirees back to work.【C2】______the results were entertaining, they need not have【C3】______. Away from the cameras,【C4】______numbers of older people are staying in work. Since the start of the recession, the number of 16- to 24-year-olds in work has fallen by 597,000. Over the same【C5】______the number of workers over the age of 65 has increased by 240,000. The【C6】______of the British workforce dates back to around 2001,【C7】______when the proportion of older people working has nearly doubled. But it has【C8】______since the start of the recession. There are several【C9】______why. Happily, people are living longer and healthier lives, which makes staying in work less【C10】______than it was.【C11】______happily, low interest rates, a stagnant stock market and the end of many defined-benefit pension schemes make it a financial【C12】______And changing attitudes,【C13】______by rules against age discrimination, are making it easier than ever. Most older workers are simply【C14】______at the office: 63% of workers over state pension age have been with their employer for more than ten years. Over two-thirds of them work part-time, mostly doing jobs that they once【C15】______full-time. A big【C16】______is that they do not pay national insurance contributions—effectively a second income tax on younger workers. According to Stephen McNair, director of the Centre for Research into the Older Workforce, this【C17】______explains why older workers have not suffered so much in the slump.【C18】______reducing the workforce, as in previous recessions, many firms have【C19】______recruitment and cut working hours. At small businesses【C20】______, keeping on older workers is cheaper and less risky than training replacements.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】解析：空格处填入动词与state pension age“国家退休年龄”构成动宾搭配。其中C项rise为不及物动词，可首先排除；B项improve“改善”及D项reinforce“加强”不与“年龄”构成搭配。A项increase填入文中，指“提高退休年龄”，符合下文“老年人重回工作岗位”的说法。

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】解析：本题宜采用排除法。空格处填入的动词跟先行词jobs存在逻辑上的动宾关系，C项play和D项prepare不能与jobs搭配，可排除；空格动词由full-time“全职”修饰，填入A项apply“申请”语义不通，也排除；因此应选B项perform“做”，此处指“他们现在做以前全职所做的工作”。