The weak American dollar and strong European and Asian currencies helped make Tokyo and London the most expensive cities in the world, according to a recent survey. American cities were absent from the top 10, with the most expensive U. S. city, New York, dropping two spots from last year to 12 in the survey of 144 urban areas conducted by Mercer Human Resource Consulting. Moscow ranked in third place, with Osaka, and Hong Kong rounding out the top five most expensive cities. The survey, drawn up twice a year, ranks cost of living for foreign workers, not local residents, and is used primarily by multinational companies to determine pay for expatriate employees. "The euro appreciated (升值) more than 11 percent in the last six months. " said Marie-Laurence Sepede, senior researcher at Mercer. "So that made European cities go up and U.S. cities drop. " Sepede noted that while U.S. cities got cheaper in relation to those in Europe and Asia, the rankings among: American cities remained similar to previous years, with Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco all placing high on the list. Also not able was the climb of Australian and New Zealand cities up the list, a shift caused by those nation's strong currencies. Sydney moved from 67 last year to 20 this year, and Auckland, New Zealand climbed 35 places to 80. The rest of the top 20 remained fairly constant, although Paris, Vienna, Austria and Istanbul, Turkey made their first appearances so high in the rankings. The survey took into consideration 250 criteria, including the cost of utilities, food and entertainment. While the survey looked at a range of living standards, Sepede said the study was most representative of the expenses of people working for big international corporations and maintaining fairly high standards of living. Mercer said the continued appreciation of the euro against the U. S. dollar could eventually force companies to move employees and reorganize. "Mainly, the depreciation(贬值) of the dollar makes it cheaper to send employees to American cities," said Jackie Barber, a spokeswoman for the survey.
单选题
New York is one of the top ten most expensive cities in the world last year. A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 本题给出的信息是正确的。文章第一段提到：“American cities were absent tom the top 10，with the most expensive U. S. city，New York，dropping two spots from last year to 2”今年的调查显示，纽约作为关国消费水平最高的城市只排到了全世界的第12位，比去年的名次下降了2位，由此可知，去年纽约的排名是第10位，在前10名行列。
单选题
According to a recent survey, two of the top five most expensive cities are from Asia. A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned
单选题
The survey is a useful reference for multinational companies. A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 本题给出的信息是正确的。文章第二段第一句话提到：“……is used primarily by multinational companies to determine pay for expatriate employees.”由此可见，这个针对外国雇员所做的调查主要是帮助跨国公司决定派驻国外工作人员的薪酬，因此这份调查对于跨国公司来说显然是有用的参考资料。
单选题
The war in Iraq made many American cities drop in ranking. A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned