填空题 The backlash against the rich has gone global 1Defending the French government"s recent decision to raise the top rate of income tax to 75 per cent, Pierre Moscovici, the country"s finance minister, told Le Monde: " This is not a punitive measure, but a patriotic measure. " The rich, he explained, are being given an opportunity to make "an exceptional contribution" to solving France"s financial problems. I am sure they are very grateful. France is clearly taking a big risk by raising its tax rates so much higher than those of its neighbours, 2The truth is that the new French government is at the extreme end of a new global trend: an international backlash against the wealthy that is reshaping politics from Europe to the U. S. to China. David Cameron, the British prime minister, has offered to roll out the red carpet for French tax exiles. But even in Britain, where the top tax rate is 45 per cent, there is a new mood of antagonism towards the rich. 3 In the U. S. , meanwhile, Barack Obama is campaigning to increase taxes on "millionaires and billionaires". It is true that the tax rises that the U. S. president wants would be laughably small by French standards. Mr Obama merely wants to raise the top rate from 35 per cent to 39. 6 per cent, as well as increasing taxes on capital gains and dividends. 4 The French socialists made great play of Nicolas Sarkozy"s allegedly " bling" lifestyle and friendships with the super-rich. In similar vein, the Obama campaign has attacked Mitt Romney as a tax-dodging representative of "the 1 per cent"—and mocked his wife"s ownership of a dressage horse. These tactics sound risky because Americans are traditionally said to admire the wealthy , rather than to envy them. But the Obama camp can read polls. By a margin of 64 per cent to 33 per cent, Americans are in favour of higher taxes on those earning more than $250, 000. Political sensitivities about the gap between the wealthy and the rest are not confined to the west. The lifestyles of the rich and powerful is now the most sensitive and dangerous topic in Chinese polities. The website of Bloomberg News was recently shut down in China, apparently as punishment for the publication of an article on the family wealth of a high rank official in China. Why is all this happening? As Zanny Minton Beddoes of The Economist writes in a recent essay, " a majority of the world"s citizens now live in countries where the gap between the rich and the rest is a lot bigger than it was a generation ago". 5As Ms. Minton Beddoes points out, in the U. S. "the portion of national income going to the richest 1 per cent tripled from 8 per cent in the 1970s to 24 per cent in 2007". Eventually that kind of shift is liable to spark a political backlash. The trigger for that reaction has been the Great Recession, which has increased the pressure on the living standards of ordinary people, while exposing misbehaviour at the top. Western politicians, from Barack Obama to Francois Hollande are seeking to capture and channel this new mood. In Asia, where the Great Recession has hit less hard, other factors may be at work. The internet and the rise of microblogging have made it easier to spread information and to whip up indignation about the gap between the hard-pressed worker and the super-rich. Choose the following sentences marked A to E to complete the above article. Write your answer on the ANSWER SHEET. A. The trend has been most extreme in the west. B. It is never a great sign when politicians start appealing to taxpayers" patriotism. C. Even conservative politicians dare not defend bankers" pay. D. But it is a mistake to portray the Hollande administration as Socialist dinosaurs. E. But some of the president"s rhetoric has distinct echoes of the successful Hollande campaign in France.