单选题 It is nearly 25 years since The Economist cooked up the Big Mac index. It was devised in September 1986 as a fun way to explain "purchasing-power parity", by comparing the prices of hamburgers in different countries. But burgernomics has since provided serious food for thought. Some economists think the Big Mac index has been surprisingly accurate in predicting long-run movements in exchange rates. It has also provided a few hot tips (and some half-baked ones) for investors.
When the euro was launched in 1999, almost everybody reckoned it would immediately rise against the dollar. But the Big Mac index suggested that the euro was already overvalued. Soros Fund Management, a prominent hedge fund, later said that it sniffed at the sell smell coming from the Big Mac index, but resisted the temptation to bite. It was cheesed off when the euro promptly fell. Today, our burger barometer suggests that the euro is again overvalued against the other main currencies, and it highlights the euro area's internal problems, showing that Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain have lost competitiveness relative to Germany.
Burgernomics is also a handy check on whether governments are understating inflation. It supports claims that Argentina has been cooking the books: over the past decade, Big Mac prices there have, on average, risen by well over ten percentage points more each year than the official consumer-price index—a far bigger gap than in any other country. But bingeing on burgernomics can be unhealthy. American politicians cite the Big Mac index as proof that the yuan is massively undervalued. It is true that burgers are cheap in China, but so they should be in all emerging economies, because wages are much lower. If the index is adjusted for GDP per person, it shows that the yuan is now close to its fair value against the dollar.
Studies suggest that the Big Mac index fairly closely tracks the purchasing-power-parity rates calculated by more sophisticated methods. Yet whereas those fancier techniques require researchers to gather thousands of prices in each country and take two years to produce, the Big Mac index relies on a single product, so the results are almost instant.
Official economic statistics are published only after a lag and are subject to big revisions. This explains the popularity of some quirky but timely indicators. When Alan Greenspan was chairman of the Federal Reserve, he monitored several unusual measures. One favourite, supposedly, was sales of men's underwear, which are usually pretty constant, but drop in recessions when men replace them less often. The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street is perhaps too prim to inspect men's underpants. Instead, the Bank of England tracks data on internet searches for telltale terms. It has, for example, found that the trend in searches for "estate agents" can be a predictor of house prices.

单选题 What can we learn about the Big Mac index according to Paragraph 1?
A. It predicts the changes in Big Mac prices all over the world.
B. It shows purchasing-power parity based on burgers' prices.
C. It provides investors with absolutely reliable information.
D. It can help people to predict food prices.

单选题 The example of Soros Fund Management proved that
A. the Big Mac index's indication as to euro's value was trustworthy.
B. there were some obvious problems within the euro area.
C. euro's value increased as everyone expected.
D. the firm benefited a lot from the Big Mac index's predication.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。根据题干关键词Soros Fund Management定位到第二段。该段前两句表明，当欧元发行时，巨无霸指数显示人们对欧元的估价过高(the Big Mac index suggested that the euro was already overvalued)。接下来，第三、四句通过引用索罗斯基金管理公司的例子表明，他们虽然从巨无霸指数中嗅到应卖出欧元的气味，因担心会上当，抵挡住了该诱惑没有出售，所以当欧元价格突然下跌时，他们感到相当的失落。因此可推知，作者引用此例子来证明当时巨无霸指数正确表明了欧元的价值。故A项为正确答案。

单选题 The word "cooking" (Para. 3) most probably means
A. fabricating. B. indicating.
C. utilizing. D. predicting.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 含义题。根据题干定位到第三段第二句。cook在本句中是动词“烹饪”，books为“书，账本”，所以从字面意思来讲，cook the books为“把账本进行了烹调加工”之意。与此同时，冒号后面的句子是对Argentina has been cooking the books进行的解释：过去十年，阿根廷巨无霸汉堡包每年的价格增长平均要比官方的消费者价格指数高出十多个百分点——这一差距比世界上其他任何国家都要大。由此可推知，阿根廷官方所提供的经济数据是不真实的，cook the books为“篡改账目，做假账”。故A项“篡改，捏造”为正确答案。B项“表明”，C项“利用”，D项“预测”均不合题意。

单选题 The Big Mac index is superior to sophisticated methods in
A. its accuracy. B. its reliability.
C. its sample data. D. its efficiency.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。根据题干关键词sophisticated methods定位到第四段。该段的主旨是对巨无霸指数和更复杂精确的方法进行了对比。第一句指出两类方法算出的结果是十分接近的，紧接着第二句指出那些更精确的方法需要研究人员在每个国家收集几千种物品的价格，再用两年的时间进行分析计算才能得出结果。而巨无霸指数只依靠一种产品，所以几乎马上就能得出结果(the Big Mac index relies on a single product, so the results are almost instant)。由此可以推出，该方法效率高，故D项为正确答案。A项“准确性”，B项“可靠性”，C项“样本数据”均不合题意。

单选题 It can be inferred from the last paragraph that
A. official economic statistics are not as accurate as the unusual indicators.
B. sales of men's underwear can affect the development of economy.
C. the internet searches for some words can indicate the economic trend.
D. the Bank of England only uses official data to assess the economy.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 推断题。根据题干关键词the last paragraph定位到最后一段。除了巨无霸指数外，最后一段还介绍了另一些新奇却及时的指标。第三、四句介绍了Greenspan用男士内衣的销售量了解经济走势，最后三句话介绍了英格兰银行关注互联网上能说明问题的搜索信息，例如通过关注互联网上“房地产中介”的搜索情况来预测房价走势(the trend in searches for "estate agents" can be a predictor of house prices)。由此可知，通过了解某些词在网上的搜索情况，可以达到预测经济走势的目的。