单选题 "We will safeguard Britain's credit rating with a credible plan to eliminate the bulk of the structural deficit over a parliament," read the 2010 Conservative Manifesto. Well, so much for that. The decision by Moody's, one of the three big rating agencies, to downgrade Britain from Aaa to Aal on February 22nd was a colossal embarrassment. Moody's now ranks Britain's credit lower than that of Luxembourg or the Isle of Man.
Will the downgrade harm the economy? In the past countries with lower credit ratings have had to pay higher borrowing costs. But neither America, which was downgraded in 2011, or France, which suffered a similar fate last year, have suffered much.
It is hard to spot an immediate impact in Britain, either. Investors had expected the ratings agencies to act after last year's autumn statement revealed that the government was struggling to reduce its deficit on schedule. The two other big ratings agencies—Fitch and Standard & Poor's—both have Britain on "negative watch". Sterling dropped to a 32-month low against the dollar and reached its weakest level against the euro since October 2011.
Pull back a little, though, and the picture is more worrying. So far the pound is the weakest major currency of 2013. It has fallen even farther than the yen, where the decline had the explicit backing of the Japanese prime minister. In the past few weeks gilt yields have been rising relative to the cost of borrowing of the German government, too.
Several things are making investors prudent of British assets. As Moody's noted in justifying its downgrade, the performance of the economy has been poor; figures released on February 27th showed that GDP had shrunk by 0.3% smaller than it was in the first quarter of 2008. Growth forecasts for the next few years were lowered in the autumn statement.

单选题 We know from Paragraph 1 that Moody's is ______.

A.an agency that helps parliament to deal with deficit
B.a department that supervises other government sectors
C.an agency that involves and makes decision on credit rating
D.an organization that helps protect the country's credit rating

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。选项与原文对比。该题很简单。根据Moody's一词定位到第三行：The decision by Moody's, one of the three big rating agencies...我们知道Moody's和rating有关系，而C、D选项都涉及这个词，我们可以先排除A、B两项。再根据句中的decision一词，我们知道Moody's的作用是make decision做出决定，而非D选项的protect the country，故C正确。

单选题 Which of the following countries has NOT been downgraded?

A.the U.K.
B.the U.S.
C.France
D.Spain

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 推理题。选项与原文对比。该题并未在文章中明确提到。只能通过推理引申来判断。根据downgrade一词，首次出现在首段的downgrade Britain，即the U.K.，故我们第一个确定的是英国被降级了，而题目问的是没被降级的，故A可以排除。而在第二段提到But neither America, which was downgraded in 2011, or France...，从而我们可以知道美国和法国也被降级了，故D为答案。

单选题 The top three big rating agencies include the following EXCEPT ______.

A.M & G
B.Moody's
C.Fitch
D.Standard & Poor's

单选题 We can infer from the last two paragraphs that ______.

A.Yen has been the weakest currency of 2013
B.Investors are now careful about Britain's assets
C.Fitch noted that Britain's economic performance was poor
D.Statistics released on Feb. 27th showed that GDP had grown

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 推理题。选项与原文对比。A根据2013年定位到第四段第二句：So far the pound is the weakest major currency of 2013.文章提到的是pound，而非yen，故错误。B根据选项中的Britain's assets定位到第五段首句：Several things are making investors prudent of British assets.其中prudent=careful，故B选项为答案。C根据economic performance定位到第五段第二句：As Moody's noted in justifying its downgrade, the performance of the economy has been poor；原文是Moody's noted而非选项C的Fitch noted，故C错误。D根据Feb.27th和GDP两个词定位到第五段倒数第二句：figures released on February 27th showed that GDP had shrunk by 0.3% smaller than it was in the first quarter of 2008.其中提到shrunk(萎缩)，即使看不懂，后面还提到了smaller，这两个词都说明GDP是下滑而非选项所说的grown(增长)，故D错误。

单选题 The best title for the text is ______.

A.The Decline of Economy
B.The Credit Rating by Moody's
C.Britain's Downgrade and Its Impact
D.Britain's Deficit and Its Solutions

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 主旨题。选项与原文对比。主旨题即问文章中心大意或者最合适的标题，主旨题最有效的方法是将各段首句放一起，我们把各段首句挑出来：Para. 1:“We will safeguard Britain's credit rating with a credible plan to eliminate the bulk of the structural deficit over a parliament,”Para. 2：Will the downgrade harm the economy? Para. 3：It is hard to spot an immediate impact in Britain, either. Para. 4：Pull back a little，though，and the picture is more worrying. Para. 5：Several things are making investors prudent of British assets. A第二段首句提到economy，但文章重点讨论的并非经济，而是围绕英国在讨论，故A错误。B五段首句未提到Moody's，可见Moody's非文章讨论重点，故B错误。C第1、3、5段均提到了Britain(英国)，第二段提到了downgrade，第三段提到了impact，该项关键词都出现在各段首句中，故C为答案。D项同样出现了Britain，deficit在第一段首句也有提及，但solution一词并未涉及。