[单项选择]"The impulse to excess among young Britons remains as powerful as ever, but the force that used to keep the impulse in check has all but disappeared," claimed a newspaper. Legislation that made it easier to get hold of a drink was "an Act for the increase of drunkenness and immorality", asserted a politician.
The first statement comes from 2005, the second from 1830. On both occasions, the object of scorn was a parliamentary bill that promised to sweep away "antiquated" licensing laws. As liberal regulations came into force this week, Britons on both sides of the debate unwittingly followed a 19th-century script.
Reformers then, as now, took a benign view of human nature. Make booze cheaper and more readily available, said the liberalisers, and drinkers would develop sensible, continental European style ways. Nonsense, retorted the critics. Habits are hard to changer if Britons can drink easily, they will drink more.
Worryingly for modern advocates of liheralisation, ear
A. the statement by a critic
B. the increase of drunkenness
C. the decline of immorality
D. the assertion by a politician