单选题   '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, countermeasures 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.
单选题     Why do consumers, businesses and investors retreat and panic in times of depression?______
 
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】由题干中的retreat和panic定位到首段第二句。 细节推断题。首段第一、二句指出经济萧条并不仅仅是严重的经济衰退，两者之间的区别在于在经济萧条中人们有着强烈的恐惧感，这是一种对未知的恐惧，而且这种恐惧大到足以引起人们的退却和恐慌。由此可见。消费者、商家和投资者会退却和恐慌的原因是对未知的恐惧，也就是不知道未来会发生什么，故答案为D。 [参考译文] “经济萧条”不仅仅是严重的经济衰退。经济萧条与严重的经济衰退的不同之处是其令人麻痹的恐惧感——对未知的恐惧大到足以使消费者、商家和投资者退却和恐慌。他们储蓄现金，拼命节省开支。他们出售股票和其他资产。通常，正常的自动调节机制能阻止经济衰退发展为深入持久的经济萧条，但令人震惊的信心缺失刺激着人们作出各种行为破坏自动调节机制。 奥巴马总统的经济顾问委员会主席Christina Romer对比了1929年的经济大萧条和2007年至2009年的经济衰退，发现后者对信心的最初打击大大超过前者。的确，股票价格从1929年9月到12月下跌了三分之一，但是当时只有较少的美国人拥有股票。而且，房产价格几乎没有下跌。从1928年12月到1929年12月，全部的家庭财富仅下降了3%。相比之下，2007年12月到2008年12月间的家庭财富的损失为17%。股票和房产持有得更广泛，下跌得更严重。因此受到重创的经济本应该自由跌落，以经济萧条告终。事实上，它的确是自由跌落了。消费者克制自己不去购买汽车、家用电器和其他大件物品。此类耐用品上的消费在2008年第三季度以12%的年速率下降，第四季度为20%。同时商家也将各种投资项目束之高阁。 正如Romer所指出的那样，巨大的衰退并没有引发经济萧条主要体现了政府采取的应对措施。商品、服务、劳务和有价证券的自由市场大都能进行自动调节，但是人们的恐慌感不断地加深，从而扼杀了这些稳定化的趋向。在这种情况下，只有政府能够从整体上保护经济，因为大多数的个人和公司陷入适得其反的自我保护中。 在20世纪30年代初期，政府由于未能履行这一职责，使经济衰退演变成了经济萧条。这次，学者们将会争论究竟哪项干预措施——美联储对失灵的信用制度的支持，银行债务担保，奥巴马的“激励”计划，银行的“压力测试”——最能够阻止历史重现。不管怎样，所有这些复杂的措施都有一个共同的心理目标：消除人们的疑虑，让他们相信经济的自由跌落会停止，从而遏制住会造成经济持久自由跌落的恐慌。 所有这些都能增加信心。但是消费者的消费情绪指数仍然很低，所有的反弹都出现在美国人对未来经济形势的评价上，而非现在。目前失业率(9.8%)糟透了，经济复苏力也不明确。这里还有一个从20世纪30年代得到的启示。虽然经济形势在1933年触底回升，但是大萧条直到二战才结束。有些政府政策有助于经济复苏，有些政策则有碍复苏。现今的好消息是糟糕的情况没有变得更差。
单选题     What does Christina Romer say about the current economic recession?______
 
 
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】由题干中的Christina Romer定位到第二段首句。 细节辨认题。定位句提到，奥巴马总统的经济顾问委员会主席Christina Romer通过对比1929年的经济大萧条和2007年至2009年的经济衰退，发现后者对人们信心的最初打击大大超过前者。故答案为B。
单选题     Why didn't the current recession turn into a depression according to Christina Romer?______
 
 
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】由题干中的current recession，depression 和Christina Romer定位到第三段。 推理判断题。文章第三段第一句提到，Romer指出，2007年严重的经济衰退并没有引发经济萧条，这主要体现了政府采取了应对措施。由此可见，目前的经济衰退不会演变成经济萧条是因为政府采取的应对措施行之有效，也就是政府进行了有效的干预，故答案为A。
单选题     What is the chief purpose of all the countermeasures taken?______
 
 
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】由题干中的purpose和countermeasures 定位到第四段末句。 细节辨认题。定位句提到，政府所采取的复杂的措施都有一个共同的心理目标；消除人们的疑虑，让他们相信经济的自由跌落会停止，从而遏制住会造成经济持久自由跌落的恐慌，故答案为B。
单选题     What does the author think of today's economic situation?______
 
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】由题干中的economic situation和选项中的worsen，rebound，worse定位到末段末句。 推理判断题。作者在文章末段概括了当前的经济形势，尽管政府采取的应对措施能够提升人们的信心，但是目前的情况很糟糕，人们的消费情绪指数很低，失业率高，经济复苏力也不明确，从20世纪30年代经济萧条的启示看，这场经济衰退可能会持续很长时间，目前的好消息是情况还未更糟，故答案为C。