2013年6月英语六级阅读理解Setion B1原文答案及点评
Part IV Reading Comprehension
Section B-1原文+答案+点评
Section B
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Sheet 2 with a single line through the center.
Passage One
Questions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage.
''Depression'' is more than a serious economic downturn. What distinguishes a depression from a harsh recession is paralyzing fear--fear of the unknown so great that it causes consumers, businesses, and investors to retreat and panic. They save up cash and desperately cut spending. They sell stocks and other assets. A shattering loss of confidence inspires behavior that overwhelms the normal self-correcting mechanisms that usually prevent a recession from becoming deep and prolonged: a depression.
Comparing 1929 with 2007-09, Christina Romer, the head of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, finds the initial blow to confidence far greater now than then. True, stock prices fell a third from September to December 1929, but fewer Americans then owned stocks. Moreover, home prices barely dropped. From December 1928 to December 1929，total household wealth declined only 3%. By contrast, the loss in household wealth between December 2007 and December 2008 was 17%. Both stocks and homes, more widely held, dropped more. Thus traumatized (受到创伤)，the economy might have gone into a free fall ending in depression. Indeed, it did go into free fall. Shoppers refrained from buying cars, appliances, and other big-ticket items. Spending on such "durables" dropped at a 12% annual rate in 2008’s third quarter, a 20% rate in the fourth. And businesses shelved investment projects.
That these huge declines didn’t lead to depression mainly reflects, as Romer argues, counter-measures taken by the government. Private markets for goods, services, labor, and securities do mostly self-correct, but panic feeds on itself and disarms these stabilizing tendencies. In this situation, only government can protect the economy as a whole, because most individuals and companies are involved in the self-defeating behavior of self-protection.
Government’s failure to perform this role in the early 1930s transformed recession into depression. Scholars will debate which interventions this time--the Federal Reserve’s support of a failing credit system, guarantees of bank debt, Obama’s “stimulus” plan and bank "stress test" --counted most in preventing a recurrence. Regardless, all these complex measures had the same psychological purpose: to reassure people that the free fall would stop and, thereby, curb the fear that would perpetuate (使持久）a free fall.
All this improved confidence. But the consumer sentiment index remains weak, and all the rebound has occurred in Americans' evaluation of future economic conditions, not the present. Unemployment (9.8%) is abysmal (糟透的)，the recovery's strength unclear. Here, too, there is an echo from the 1930s. Despite bottoming out in 1933，the Depression didn't end until World War II. Some government policies aided recovery; some hindered it. The good news today is that the bad news is not worse.
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答
52. Why do consumers, businesses and investors retreat and panic in times of depression?
A) They suffer great losses in stocks, property and other assets.
B) They find the self-correcting mechanisms dysfunctioning.
C) They are afraid the normal social order will be paralyzed.
D) They don't know what is going to happen in the future.
53. What does Christina Romer say about the current economic recession?
A) Its severity is no match for the Great Depression of 1929.
B) Its initial blow to confidence far exceeded that of 1929.
C) It has affected house owners more than stock holders.
D) It has resulted in a free fall of the prices of commodities.
54. Why didn’t the current recession turn into a depression according to Christina Romer?
A) The government intervened effectively.
B) Private markets corrected themselves.
C) People refrained from buying durables and big-ticket items.
D) Individuals and companies adopted self-protection measures.
55. What is the chief purpose of all the countermeasures taken?
A) To create job opportunities.
B) To curb the fear of a lasting free fall.
C) To stimulate domestic consumption.
D) To rebuild the credit system.
56. What does the author think of today’s economic situation?
A) It may worsen without further stimulation.
B) It will see a rebound sooner or later.
C) It has not gone from bad to worse.
D) It does not give people reason for pessimism.
【总评】这是一篇经济社会类文章。文章首先解释了什么是经济萧条，以及经济萧条与经济衰退之间的区别。第二段列举了很多数据和事例来比较2007-2009和1929这两个时期的经济表现。第三段指出2007-2009年的经济衰退没有最终导致经济萧条的主要原因是政府采取了一系列应对措施。第四段进一步指出20世纪30年代初期，由于政府没能扮演好经济干预这一角色，最终导致经济衰退演变成了经济萧条。同时本段还强调：政府的干预措施均有一个共同的目的：使人们恢复信心，相信经济不会无止境地下滑。最后作者总结说，虽然当前的经济形势非常糟糕，但是好消息是没有进一步恶化。
【参考答案】：
52. D) They don't know what is going to happen in the future.
53. B) Its initial blow to confidence far exceeded that of 1929.
54. A) The government intervened effectively.
55. B) To curb the fear of a lasting free fall.
56. C) It has not gone from bad to worse.
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