单选题 Millions of American consumers helped spend the economy back to a decent pace of growth in the last few months. But some of them did so against their own long-term self-interest. That could be you, if you temporarily gave up on the idea of saving any money, opting instead to head to the mall, the car dealer or Las Vegas.
The fourth quarter reversed some of the progress the country has made since 2007 in boosting the personal saving rate which is the percentage of income people hold back as savings. But the recent decline in people's ability or willingness to save stirs fears that we're reverting to the bad old days, failing to do enough to build adequate financial cushions for the inevitable future shocks. Luckily for the Fed and the economy, for the last two years a saving rate mostly between 5% and 6% has produced enough spending to drive a recovery while also allowing at least some portion of households to fund larger nest eggs.
The way the government measures the saving rate is simplistic, which is to say it's imperfect. The Bureau of Economic Analysis adds up gross personal income each month, subtracts taxes, then subtracts gross personal spending. What isn't spent is presumed to be saved.
One weakness of the government's methodology is that it can overstate spending on big-ticket items and thus understate the saving rate. But another common criticism of the saving rate in the 1990s and last decade isn't heard much anymore, the fact that it fails to take into account other accumulated savings, such as real estate appreciation and capital gains on stock holdings.
Also not evident from the saving rate is the number of people who've been forced to cash in assets to survive the recession and its aftermath. A Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey late last year of the so-called mass affluent found that 28% had tapped long-term assets to meet short-term needs in 2010. That's the role savings is supposed to play in an emergency, but it's no comfort if you're draining retirement funds in what are supposed to be your working years.

单选题 Personal saving rate is the proportion of ______.
A. people's spending to their wage
B. people's savings to their income
C. personal savings to gross national savings
D. personal consumption to national reserve

单选题 The recent drop in personal saving rate has caused the panic that ______.
A. people are unwilling to save money in the future
B. people's life will step backward to the good old days
C. not enough money is saved to get through recessions
D. little progress will be made in financial development

单选题 The phrase "nest eggs" (Line 7, Para 4) most probably refers to ______.
A. money saved for future use
B. eggs used for hatching bird
C. money consumed at leisure
D. interest obtained from saving

单选题 What do we know about the government's measurement of the saving rate?
A. It is a simple and perfect method.
B. It includes every form of savings.
C. The number of people forced to cash in assets is shown.
D. Personal spending is needed to measure the saving rate.

单选题 What do people do in time of crisis according to the last paragraph?
A. Purchasing most big-ticket items at full price.
B. Cashing in long-term assets for short term needs.
C. Drawing out retirement funds when still working.
D. Accumulating savings by investing a lot in stocks.