复合题

Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1.

Text 4

As a young bond trader, Buttonwood was given two pieces of advice, trading rules of thumb, if you will: that bad economic news is good news for bond markets and that every utterance dropping from the lips of Paul Volcker, the then chairman of the Federal Reserve, and the man who restored the central bank’s credibility by stomping on runaway inflation, should be respected than Pope’s orders. Today’s traders are, of course, a more sophisticated bunch. But the advice still seems good, apart from two slight drawbacks. The first is that the well-chosen utterances from the present chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, is of more than passing difficulty. The second is that, of late, good news for the economy has not seemed to upset bond investors all that much. For all the cheer that has crackled down the wires, the yield on ten-year bonds—which you would expect to rise on good economic news —is now, at 4.2%, only two-fifths of a percentage point higher than it was at the start of the year. Pretty much unmoved, in other words.

Yet the news from the economic front has been by far than anyone could have expected. On Tuesday November 25 th , revises numbers showed that America’s economy grew by an annual 8.2% in the third quarter, a full percentage point more than originally thought, driven by the ever-spendthrift American consumer and, for once, corporate investment. Just about every other piece of information coming out from special sources shows the same strength. New houses are still being built at a fair clip. Exports are rising, for all the protectionist crying. Even employment, in what had been mocked as a jobless recovery, increased by 125,000 or thereabouts in September and October. Rising corporate profits, low credit spreads and the biggest-ever rally in the junk-bond market do not, on the face of it, suggest anything other than deep and long-lasting recovery. Yet Treasury-bond yields have fallen.

If the rosy economic backdrop makes this odd, making it doubly odd is an apparent absence of foreign demand. Foreign buyers of Treasuries, especially Asian central banks, who had been swallowing American government debt like there was no tomorrow, seem to have had second thoughts lately. In September, according to the latest available figures, foreigners bought only $5.6 billion of Treasuries, compared with $25.1 billion the previous month and an average of $38.7 billion in the preceding four months. In an effort to keep a lid on the yen’s rise, the Japanese central bank is still busy buying dollars and parking the money in government debt. Just about everybody else seems to have been selling. 

单选题 The advice for Buttonwood suggests that _____.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】文章开头提出两个建议， 其中之一“bad economic news is good news for bond markets”由此可知， 从经济领域和证券市场中一方的状况可以反推出另一方的状况， 所以D选项正确。 另一条建议“every utterance dropping from the lips of Paul Volcker, the then chairman of the Federal Reserve, and the man who restored the central bank’s credibility by stomping on runaway inflation, should be respected than Pope’s orders.”说明Paul Volcker说的话很有分量， 但是不能推断出他“enjoyed making comments”， 所以A错误。 由此句可知Volcker重建了央行的信誉， 可推知美国的中央银行在控制通货膨胀上也曾失利， 故B错误。 C选项文章未提及。
单选题 The word “passing” (Paragraph 1) most probably means _____.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】这个词的前文“But the advice still seems good, apart from two slight drawbacks.”表明这两条建议有两处细微的缺陷。 第一条就是想要听到现任美联储主席的话是很难的， 这种困难不是“微不足道的”， 此处是more than passing difficulty， 由此可知passing意为微不足道的， 故选D， negligible微不足道的。 instant立即的。trivial不重要的。 simple简单的。
单选题 Which of the following is responsible for the rapid economic growth in the US?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】根据文章第二段第二句“...revises numbers showed that America’s economy grew by an annual 8.2% in the third quarter, a full percentage point more than originally thought, driven by the ever-spendthrift American consumer and, for once, corporate investment.”可知美国经济第三季度呈现快速增长的原因是美国消费者和公司投资， 由此可知此题选A。
单选题 According to the last paragraph, most Asian central banks are becoming _____.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】文章最后一段第二句“Foreign buyers of Treasuries, especially Asian central banks, who had been swallowing American government debt like there was no tomorrow, seem to have had second thoughts lately.”提到一直以来作为美国国债最大的外国买家的亚洲中央银行最近改变了过去的做法， 由此可知他们认为这种做法是不谨慎的， 所以此题选C。
单选题 The phrase “keep a lid on” (Paragraph 3) most probably means _____.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】后文提到日本政府的具体做法为： 忙于购进美元并且把这些钱转为政府债务。 由此可知日本在限制日元的升值， 故选B。