Wanen Buffett,who will host Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholders'meeting on May 3rd,is an icon of American capitalism.At 83,he also epitomhes a sLriking demographic 1:for highly skilled people to go on working well int0 2 was once thought to be old age.Across the rich world,well-educated people 3 work longer than the less-skilled.Some 65%of American men aged 62-74 with a professional deUee are in the 4,compared with 3290 0f men with only a high-school certificate.In the European Union Lhe pattern is similar.This 5 is part of a deepening divide between the well-educated 6 and the unskiUed poor that is slicing 7 all age groups.Rapid innovation has raised the incomes of the highly skilled while 8 those of the unskilled.Those 8t the cop are working longer hours each year than those at the bottom.9 the well-qualified are extending their working lives,compared with those ofless-educated people.The 10,for indrviduals and society,are profound.The world is on the 11 rise in the number of old people,and they will live longer than ever before.12 the next 20 years the global population of those aged 65 or more will almost double,from 600m to 1.1 billion.The 13 of the 20th century,when greater longevity translated into more years in retirement 14 more years at work,has persuaded many observers that this shift will 15 slower economic growth and"secular stagnation",while the 16 ranks of pensioners will bust government budgets.But the notion of a sharp division between the working young and the 17 0ld misses a new trend,the 18 gap between the skilled and the unskilled.Employment rates are falling among younger unskiUed people,19 0lder skilled folk are working longer.The divide is most extreme in America,where well-educated baby-boomers are 20 retirement while many less-skilled youn-ger people have dropped out of the workforce.16选？
词汇辨析题。本题选项[A]decaying和[D]fading都有“衰退”之意，可以同时排除。答案锁定在[B]crawling“爬行”和[C]swelling“膨胀，增大，增多”。该段整段都在讲述老年人口增加，该空为重复信息，其中下文的ranks of pensioners指“领养老金的群体”，也就是老年人，故得知该空应填人“多”这样的词才符合整段话的语境，故本题选择[c]。
