在我平时与大量的高口考生交流过程，很多同学都表示对这一项的困惑：究竟怎样回答才能让阅卷老师满意？又听说仅是简单照抄原文是不可能得到高分的，那么我们自己写的又是怎么都不能与原文相提并论的，那到底要我们怎么做呢？

      我在这里选取2004年9月高口试卷中的最后一篇文章来做分析。我刻意没有选取一篇本身难度过大的文章，我相信在考试过程中，考生放弃Short Question Answering中阅读难度最大的文章是明智的决定。

　　Millions of elderly Germans received a notice from the Health & Social Security Ministry earlier this month that struck a damaging blow to the welfare state. The statement informed them that their pensions were being cut. The reductions come as a stop-gap measure to control Germany's ballooning pension crisis.1 Not surprisingly, it was an unwelcome change for senior citizens such as Sabine Wetzel, a 67-year-old retired bank teller, who was told her state pension would be cut by $12.30, or 1% to $1,156.20 a month. It was a real shock, she says. My pension had always gone up in the past.

　　There's more bad news on the way. On Mar. 11, Germany's lower house of Parliament passed a bill gradually cutting state pensions — which have been rising steadily since World War II — from 53% of average wages now to 46% by 2020. And Germany is not alone. Governments across Western Europe are racing to curb pension benefits. In Italy, the government plans to raise the minimum retirement age from 57 to 60, while France will require that civil servants2 put in 40 years rather than 37.5 to qualify for a full pension. The reforms are coming despite tough opposition from unions, leftist politicians, and pensioners' groups.

　　The explanation is simple: Europeans are living longer and having fewer children. By 2030 there will only be two workers per pensioner, compared with four in 2000. With fewer young workers paying into the system, cuts are being made to cover a growing shortfall. The gap between money coming in and payments going out could top $10 billion this year in Germany alone. In the future, a state pension alone will no longer be enough to maintain the living standards employees had before they retired, says German Health & Social Security Minister Ulla Schmidt. Says Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti: The welfare state is producing too few cradles and too few graves

　　Of course, those population trends have been forecast for years. Some countries, such as Britain and the Netherlands, have responded by making individuals and their employers assume more of the responsibility for pensions. But many Continental governments dragged their feet3. Now, the rapid runup in costs is finally forcing them to act. State-funded pension payments make up around 12% of gross domestic product in Germany and France and 15% in Italy — two percentage points more than 20 years ago. Pensions account for an average 21% of government spending across the European Union. The U.S. Social Security system, by contrast, consumes just 4.8% of GDP. The rising cost is having serious repercussions on key European nations' commitments to fiscal restraint.4 Governments have no choice but to make pension reform a priority, says Antonio Cabral, deputy director of the European Commission's Directorate General for Economic & Financial Affairs.

      Just as worrisome is the toll being exacted on the private sector. Corporate contributions to state pension systems — which make up 19.5% of total gross pay in Germany — add to Europe's already bloated labor costs. That, in turn, blunts manufacturers' competitiveness and keeps unemployment rates high. According to the Institute of German Economics in Cologne, benefit costs reached a record 41.7% of gross wages in Germany last year, compared with 37.4% a decade before. French cement manufacturer Lafarge says pension cost of $121 million contributed to a 9% fall in operating profits last year.

      To cope, Germany and most of its EU partners are using tax breaks to encourage employees to put money into private pensions schemes. But even if private pensions become more popular, European governments will have to increase minimum retirement ages and reduce public pensions. While today's seniors complain about reduced benefits, the next generation of retirees may look back on their parents' pension checks with envy.

1 The reductions come as a stop-gap measure to control Germany's ballooning pension crisis.

这一削减就是为了控制住德国日益膨胀的养老金危机而采取的缩小收支差距的措施。(这里的收支差距就是指后面文中所提到的老龄化问题所造成的为社会福利体系注入资金的年轻人越来越少，而从福利体系中提取养老金的老年人越来越多的现象。)

2 civil servants 公务员

3 dragged their feet 拖着脚走，慢慢吞吞，表示心里不情愿

4 The rising cost is having serious repercussions on key European nations' commitments to fiscal restraint.

不断上升的(养老金)开销已经严重地影响到这些主要欧洲国家完成控制其财政支出的承诺。

7.    What does the author want to tell us from the example of the retired bank teller Sabine Wetzel?

这是一个典型的“信息点”题目，原文中的相关部分很好找到“Not surprisingly, it was an unwelcome change for senior citizens such as Sabine Wetzel, a 67-year-old retired bank teller, who was told her state pension would be cut by $12.30, or 1% to $1,156.20 a month. ‘It was a real shock’ she says. ‘My pension had always gone up in the past.’”你可以注意到，我将原文的有些词加了标注，而这些词所代表的信息是在你的回答中应当体现出来的。当然，我们都明白，直接拿这段作为这题的回答显然是不合适的。我的回答是这样的：

The example of the retired bank teller Sabine Wetzel shows that the retired people in Germany do not like (unwelcome change) the government’s decision to cut their pensions, which is understandable(not surprisingly) since their pensions in the past always went up(gone up in the past). 

8.    Paraphrase Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti's statement The welfare state is producing too few cradles and too few graves. (para.3)

      要求我们做“paraphrase”的题目难度是不低的。有时这种题目出现的形式是“Give your interpretation of this statement”。非常可惜的是，有的同学居然写上了自己的中文译文，这显然是错误的，阅读的这部分是要求你用全英文回答。“Interpret”在这里是“解释”的意思。著名心理学家Freud(弗洛依德)的名著“The Interpretation of Dreams”被译为《梦的解析》而不是《梦的翻译》

      同学们应该不难发现，这一句所出现的原文第三小节中心内容就是“Europeans are living longer and having fewer children.”但光把这一句写上去，或者自己稍加改动之后写上去是不是就可以了呢？大家心里就没底了。

      显然把这一句不管用什么形式出现(比如改写成“The number of old people in Europe is rising quickly while the number of new-born babies there declining a lot”之类)，得分是肯定的，因为这就是重要的核心信息。但不会是高分，原题中的“cradle”和“grave”是典故，应当指出，同时原文中的两个“too”表明了说话者的忧虑，这也是不能忽略的。我的建议回答是：

A welfare state is supposed to take care of its citizens from their birth to their death(from cradle to grave), but now since people are living longer and unwilling to have children, the number of old people taking money from the welfare system increases a lot, while the number of young people contributing to it declines. The gap between the two threatens the whole social welfare system.

设想有这么一题(是我模仿高口出题风格杜撰的) “To be, or not to be, is no longer a problem”，让你来“paraphrase”，我想你的回答中必须点明这句话改写自“Shakespeare”的名言。

9.    Introduce briefly the pension reforms in some key European countries.

      这是典型的对我们归纳总结能力的要求。应该说给我们足够的时间能做出来，关键在于我们总觉得时间太紧张。那么在真实考试中由于时间的安排的问题，使这一问题的回答不够全面也是很难避免的。这就要求我们平时经常要求自己写一写类似summary的东西，把自己的笔头练快。我的建议答案是：

In Germany, the state pensions will be cut from 53% of average wages now to 46% by 2020.

In Italy, the minimum retirement age will be raised from 57 to 60.

In France, a civil servant will have to work for 40 years instead of 37.5 in order to get a full pension.

Britain and the Netherlands have asked individuals and their employers to take on more of the responsibility for pensions.

Germany, also with most its EU partners, is using tax breaks to encourage businesses to invest more money into private pension schemes.

10.  What is implied by the last sentence of the passage While today's seniors complain about reduced benefits, the next generation of retirees may look back on their parents' pension checks with envy.?

所谓“implied meaning”指的就是虽没有直接说出，但阅读者或听者都很容易得到的信息，这类题目在考生看懂原文的情况下都不难处理。记住一点，尽可能利用这个机会给阅卷老师留下一个印象：“我看懂了原文，掌握了原文的精髓”。我的建议回答中前一句希望能达到这个效果。