大全6/63中第3题找不到感觉

In the eighteenth century, Japan’s feudal overlords, from the shogun to the humblest samurai ,found themselves under financial stress. In part, this stress can be attributed to the overlords’ failure to adjust to a rapidly expanding economy, but the stress was also due to factors beyond the overlords’ control. Concentration of the samurai in castle-towns had acted as a stimulus to trade. Commercial efficiency, in turn, had put temptations in the way of buyers. Since most samurai had been reduced to idleness by years of peace, encouraged to engage in scholarship and martial exercises or to perform administrative tasks that took little time, it is not surprising that their tastes and habits grew expensive. Overlords’ income, despite the increase in rice production among their tenant farmers, failed to keep pace with their expenses. Although shortfalls in overlords’ income resulted almost as much from laxity among their tax collectors (the nearly inevitable outcome of hereditary office-holding) as from their higher standards of living, a misfortune like a fire or flood, bringing an increase in expenses or a drop in revenue, could put a domain in debt to the city rice-brokers who handled its finances. Once in debt, neither the individual samurai nor the shogun himself found it easy to recover.

It was difficult for individual samurai overlords to increase their income because the amount of rice that farmers could be made to pay in taxes was not unlimited, and since the income of Japan’s central government consisted in part of taxes collected by the shogun from his huge domain, the government too was constrained. Therefore, the Tokugawa shoguns began to look to other sources for revenue. Cash profits from government-owned mines were already on the decline because the most easily worked deposits of silver and gold had been exhausted, although debasement of the coinage had compensated for the loss. Opening up new farmland was a possibility, but most of what was suitable had already been exploited and further reclamation was technically unfeasible. Direct taxation of the samurai themselves would be politically dangerous. This left the shoguns only commerce as a potential source of government income.

Most of the country’s wealth, or so it seemed, was finding its way into the hands of city merchants. It appeared reasonable that they should contribute part of that revenue to ease the shogun’s burden of financing the state. A means of obtaining such revenue was soon found by levying forced loans, known as goyo-kin; although these were not taxes in the strict sense, since they were irregular in timing and arbitrary in amount, they were high in yield. Unfortunately, they pushed up prices. Thus, regrettably, the Tokugawa shoguns’ search for solvency for the government made it increasingly difficult for individual Japanese who lived on fixed stipends to make ends meet.

3. Which of the following best describes the attitude of the author toward the samurai discussed in lines 11-16(划线部分)?

(A) Warmly approving

(B) Mildly sympathetic

(C) Bitterly disappointed

(D) Harshly disdainful（B）

(E) Profoundly shocked

不明白为什么说作者的这句话带有温和的同情呢？他们的吃住开销增长了值得同情？哪位指点迷津啊，多谢！

如果实在不行就用排除法

D，E马上排除，因跟文章出入较大

剩下ABC，有两个办法
A) warmly approving (作者或许默许这种事情的客观存在，但绝没有这么主动，warmly)
C) bitterly disappointed (失望的概念是to make someone feel unhappy because something they hoped for or expected did not happen or because someone or something was not as good as they expected,与文章中的it is not surprising有出入）

所以只剩下B了。

个人看法

little兄分析的很细致，谢谢！

对这种态度题如果不仔细体味真的找不到感觉，而且觉得warmly,bitterly这些副词对判断选项很重要，比如，如果仅仅是disappointed,那跟文中的not surprising还是可以match的。

如同版主劃線部分,我覺得語氣的判斷重點在於it is not surprising that their tastes and habits grew expensive

綜合前後文意,可以感覺expensive帶有貶意,既然想附庸風雅,那當然就得有昂貴的支出

根據全文,這些領主為了開拓財源傷透腦筋,因果關係為:engage in scholarship and martial exercises -> tastes and habits grew expensive -> 為了開拓財源傷腦筋

所以可以理解作者的是覺得mildly sympathetic