Passage Three
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.
Age has its privileges in America, and one of the more prominent of them is the senior citizen discount. Anyone who has reached a certain age — in some cases as low as 55 — is automatically entitled to dazzling array of price reductions at nearly every level of commercial life. Eligibility is determined not by one’s need but by the date on one’s birth certificate. Practically unheard of a generation ago, the discounts have become a routine part of many businesses — as common as color televisions in motel rooms and free coffee on airliners.
People with gray hair often are given the discounts without even asking for them; yet, millions of Americans above age 60 are healthy and solvent(有支付能力的). Businesses that would never dare offer discounts to college students or anyone under 30 freely offer them to older Americans. The practice is acceptable because of the widespread belief that “elderly” and “needy” are synonymous(同义的). Perhaps that once was true, but today elderly Americans as a group have a lower poverty rate than the rest of the population. To be sure, there is economic diversity within the elderly, and many older Americans are poor. But most of them aren’t.
It is impossible to determine the impact of the discounts on individual companies. For many firms, they are a stimulus to revenue. But in other cases the discounts are given at the expense, directly or indirectly, of younger Americans. Moreover, they are a direct irritant in what some politicians and scholars see as a coming conflict between the generations.
Generational tensions are being fueled by continuing debate over Social Security benefits, which mostly involves a transfer of resources from the young to the old. Employment is another sore point. Buoyed(支持)by laws and court decisions, more and more older Americans are declining the retirement dinner in favor of staying on the job — thereby lessening employment and promotion opportunities for younger workers.
Far from a kind of charity they once were, senior citizen discounts have become a formidable economic privilege to a group with millions of members who don’t need them.
It no longer makes sense to treat the elderly as a single group whose economic needs deserve priority over those of others. Senior citizen discounts only enhance the myth that older people can’t take care of themselves and need special treatment; and they threaten the creation of a new myth, that the elderly are ungrateful and taking for themselves at the expense of children and other age groups. Senior citizen discounts are the essence of the very thing older Americans are fighting against — discrimination by age.
56. We learn from the first paragraph that _______.
A ) offering senior citizens discounts has become routine commercial practice
B ) senior citizen discounts have enabled many old people to live a decent life
C ) giving senior citizens discounts has boosted the market for the elderly
D ) senior citizens have to show their birth certificates to get a discount
57. What assumption lies behind the practice of senior citizen discounts?
A ) Businesses, having made a lot of profits, should do something for society in return.
B ) Old people are entitled to special treatment for the contribution they made to society.
C ) The elderly, being financially underprivileged, need humane help from society.
D ) Senior citizen discounts can make up for the inadequacy of the Social Security system.
58. According to some politicians and scholars, senior citizen discounts will _____.
A ) make old people even more dependent on society
B ) intensify conflicts between the young and the old
C ) have adverse financial impact on business companies
D ) bring a marked increase in the companies’ revenues
59. How does the author view the Social Security system?
A ) It encourages elderly people to retire in time.
B ) It opens up broad career prospects for young people.
C ) It benefits the old at the expense of the young.
D ) It should be reinforced by laws and court decisions.
