These are tough times for Wal-Mart, America’s biggest retailer. Long accused of (1) small-town America mad condemned for the selfishness of its pay, the company has lately come under (2) for its meanness over employees’ health-care benefits. The charge is arguably (3) : the firm’s health coverage, while (4) less extensive than the average for big companies, is on equal terms (5) other retailers’. But bad publicity, coupled with rising costs, has (6) the Bentonville giant to action. WalMart is changes that should shift the ground in America’s healthcare debate.
B.
One (7) is to reduce the prices of many generic, or out-of-patent, prescription drugs. Wal-Mart’s critics dismiss the move as a publicity (8) . The list of drugs includes only 143 different medicines and excludes many popular group. True, but short-sighted. Wal-Mart has (9) retailing by using its size to squeeze suppliers and (10) the gains on to consumers. It could (11) the same with drugs. A "Wal-Mart effect" in drugs will not solve America’s health-costs problem: group account for only a small share of drug costs, which in turn make (12) only 10% of overall health spending. But it would (13) .
C.
The firm’s other initiative is more (14) . Wal-Mart is joining the small but fast-growing group of employers (15) are controlling costs by shifting to health insurance with high deductibles.
D.
Early evidence (16) these plans do help firms control the cost of health insurance. But critics say that the savings are (17) . They argue that the plans shift costs to sicker workers, discourage prative care and will anyway do little to (18) overall health spending, (19) most of the $2 trillion that America (20) health care each year goes to people with multiple chronic diseases.
As regards social conventions, we must say a word about the well known English class system. This is an embarrassing subject for English people, and one they tend to be ashamed of, though during the present century class-consciousness has grown less and less, and the class system less rigid. But it still exists below the surface. Broadly speaking, it means there are two classes, the "middle class" and the "working class". (We shall ignore for a moment the old "upper class", including the hereditary aristocracy, since it is extremely small in numbers; but some of its members have the right to sit in the House of Lords, and some newspapers take a surprising interest in their private life.) The middle class consists chiefly of well to do businessmen and professional people of all kinds. The working class consists chiefly of manual and unskilled workers.
B.
The most obvious difference between them is in their accent. Middle class people use slightly varying kinds of "received pronunciation" which is the kind of English spoken by BBC announcers and taught to overseas pupils. Typical working class people speak in many different local accents which are generally felt to be rather ugly and uneducated. One of the biggest barriers of social equality in England is the two class education system. To have been to a so called "public school" immediately marks you out as one of the middle class. The middle classes tend to live a more formal life than working class people, and are usually more cultured. Their midday meal is "lunch" and they have a rather formal evening meal called "dinner", whereas the working man’s dinner, if his working hours permit, is at mid-day, and his smaller, late evening meal is called supper.
C.
As we have said, however, the class system is much less rigid than it was, and for a long time it has been government policy to reduce class distinctions. Working class students very commonly receive a university education and enter the professions, and working class incomes have grown so much recently that the distinctions between the two classes are becoming less and less clear. However, regardless of one’s social status, certain standards of politeness are expected of everybody, and a well bred person is polite to everyone he meets, and treats a laborer with the same respect he gives an important businessman. Servility inspires both embarrassment and dislike. Even the word "sir", except in school and in certain occupations (e.g. commerce, the army, etc.) sounds too servile to be commonly used.
Traveling can be fun and easy. A vacation trip to another country is especially (21) when the traveling conditions are good. Good traveling conditions (22) a comfortable mode of transportation, knowledge of the (23) language, familiarity (24) the custom and habits of the people in the country, and pleasant traveling (25) . All of us have had nice trips (26) this.
B.
Most of us have also had trips that we would (27) to forget. Many conditions can produce a bad (28) experience. For example, if the four conditions (29) above do not exist, we will probably have a bad experience, (30) at best difficult (31) . Students who travel to a (32) country to study often have a difficult trip. They usually travel (33) . They don’t know the language of the new country (34) . They often arrive in the new country (35) a judge international airport. From the airport, they need to (36) their way to their school. Maybe they need to (37) airplanes, to take a bus, a train, or a taxi. They need to do ail this in a country (38) everything is unfamiliar. Later, after the experience is (39) , they can laugh. But at the (40) , they feel terrible.