In order to “change lives for the better” and reduce “dependency”, George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, introduced the “upfront work search” scheme. Only if the jobless arrive at the jobcentre with a CV, register for online job search, and start looking for work will they be eligible for benefit—and then they should report weekly rather than fortnightly. What could be more reasonable?

     More apparent reasonableness followed. There will now be a seven-day wait for the jobseeker’s allowance. “Those first few days should be spent looking for work, not looking to sign on,” he claimed. “We’re doing these things because we know they help people stay off benefits and help those on benefits get into work faster.” Help? Really? On first hearing, this was the socially concerned chancellor, trying to change lives for the better, complete with “reforms” to an obviously indulgent system that demands too little effort from the newly unemployed to find work, and subsidises laziness. What motivated him, we were to understand, was his zeal for “fundamental fairness”— protecting the taxpayer, controlling spending and ensuring that only the most deserving claimants received their benefits.

     Losing a job is hurting: you don’t skip down to the jobcentre with a song in your heart, delighted at the prospect of doubling your income from the generous state. It is financially terrifying, psychologically embarrassing and you know that support is minimal and extraordinarily hard to get. You are now not wanted; you are now excluded from the work environment that offers purpose and structure in your life. Worse, the crucial income to feed yourself and your family and pay the bills has disappeared. Ask anyone newly unemployed what they want and the answer is always: a job.

    But in Osborneland, your first instinct is to fall into dependency—permanent dependency if you can get it—supported by a state only too ready to indulge your falsehood. It is as though 20 years of ever-tougher reforms of the job search and benefit administration system never happened. The principle of British welfare is no longer that you can insure yourself against the risk of unemployment and receive unconditional payments if the disaster happens. Even the very phrase “jobseeker’s allowance” is about redefining the unemployed as a “jobseeker” who had no fundamental right to a benefit he or she has earned through making national insurance contributions. Instead, the claimant receives a time-limited “allowance,” conditional on actively seeking a job; no entitlement and no insurance, at £71.70 a week, one of the least generous in the EU.

答案精析：由George Osborne’s scheme和intended to可定位至第一段首句，in order to和intended to相对应。该句表示，为了改善民生并减少依赖性，财政大臣乔治·奥斯本提出了一项“先求职，后补助”的计划。此计划旨在降低失业者对失业救济金的依赖，并促使他们积极找工作。故正确答案为B。

错项排除：首段第二句指出，要想获得救济金，失业者必须带着自己的简历到就业中心进行网上注册，并且开始找工作才可以。随后指出，他们还要每周进行一次汇报。由此推断出，失业者想得到救济金的福利更加困难了，A项与原文不符，故排除。原文中提到失业者每周要进行报告，但这只是领取救济金的条件之一，是强制要求，不是自愿报告，也不是其目的，故排除C项。新政策提出了各种条件来限制失业者领取救济金，并非保障了他们获取救济金的权利，故排除D项。

长难句分析：Only if the jobless arrive at the jobcentre with a CV, register for online job search, and start looking for work will they be eligible for benefit—and then they should report weekly rather than fortnightly.

本句是由and连接的两个并列分句。在第一个分句中（破折号之前），Only if引导条件状语从句，only if引导的从句位于句首时，主句应使用部分倒装形式，助动词will需前置，放在主句的主语they前面。条件状语从句的主语是the jobless，之后由and连接了三个并列谓语arrive, register和start，隐含了动作的先后顺序。第二个分句（破折后之后），是简单句，主谓宾结构，易于理解。

句意为：只有当失业者带着简历来到就业中心，在网上注册求职并开始找工作时，他们才有资格领取救济金——此后他们应该每周进行一次报告，而不是每两周。