Text 2 When Europe caught America's flu

考试题库2022-08-02  29

问题 Text 2 When Europe caught America's flu after 2008,bond markets picked off the euro's weakest members one by one.Greece,Portugal,Ireland and Spain were forced into bail-outs.Italy,the euro's third largest economy,tottered.Emergency funds were created,and the European Central Bank(ECB)implied it would create unlimited quantities of cash if needed,and the euro limped on.Today,growth is picking up and unemployment falling.But no one believes that the euro,which lacks the political and fiscal institutions typical of a currency area,can remain half-built forever.Investors are uncertain of its future,and governments have piled on debt since the last crisis,shrinking the space available to respond to the next one.The case for reform is much-talked about.The creation of the euro in 1999 denied its members the option of restoring competitiveness by devaluing.Labour-market mobility and fiscal transfers,which smooth the effects of shocks in other currency areas,were limited by rules and by culture.Bail-outs and belt-tightening were the prescribed solution for governments hit by sudden capital stops,which annoyed everyone:creditors resented opening their wallets;debtors contracted an acute case of austerity fatigue.The currency turned from an instrument of convergence between countries to a wedge driving them apart.Just compare Germany's unemployment rate with Greece's.All this created a legacy of mistrust that haunts the euro zone today.That helps explain why,despite this endless talk of troubles,conversations about euro-zone reform have gone nowhere.Indebted countries like Italy have grown addicted to the ECB's cheap money,ignoring pleas from Mario Draghi,the bank's president,to use the time he has bought them to reinvent their economies.Hardliners like Germany are more convinced than ever of the need for strict rules on spending and structural reform.Anxious officials wonder where the political impetus for a debate on the euro's future might come from.If the euro area is capable of taking advantage of good conditions,best to build confidence slowly.Start with the incomplete banking union,which still lacks a common deposit-insurance scheme(thanks to German objections),and a backstop for its resolution fund.The much-celebrated capital-markets union,which aims to reduce European firmsJ reliance on banks for finance,is only getting off the ground.Improving cross-border financial flows matters as much as the more contentious fiscal risk-sharing.In time,that might open the way to more radical changes.They will require the sort of political courage for which the euro zone has never been known,but it could turn out to be less painful than some suspect:polls find record support for the single currency among voters,and a surprising appetite for reform.Like self-hating addicts,governments have shivered in the euro zone's halfway house for too long,hooked up to Mr Draghi's monetary medicine and convincing themselves that they deserve no better.It is time to move on.Italy and Germany are mentioned in Paragraph 3 to____A.illustrate the reason euro-zone reform sees little progressB.recall the devastating impact of the financial crisisC.show the eventual failure of the ECB's rescue plansD.stress an urgent need for tighter rules on structural reform

选项 A.illustrate the reason euro-zone reform sees little progress
B.recall the devastating impact of the financial crisis
C.show the eventual failure of the ECB's rescue plans
D.stress an urgent need for tighter rules on structural reform

答案 A

解析 [信息锁定]第三段首先指出欧元区被不信任感笼罩,而这种不信任感导致关于欧元区改革的对话几无进展。随后以意大利、德国两个国家为代表说明,指出欧元区各国互不信任,阻碍改革进程:债务国坐享救助资金.不愿改革;强硬派国家则主张改革应该严格化。由此可见,A.正确。[解题技巧]B.偏离事例核心内容,事例介绍了以意德两国为代表的债务国和强硬派对于改革的不同态度,重点在于“如何应对危机”,而非“危机的影响”。C.和D.都错将事例中的细节当作写作目的.其中C.源于③句”意大利等债务国只享受欧洲央行提供的救助资金,却不改革重建经济”,且rescue)ia ns涵盏过广.evcniual failure也过于绝对;D.由④句德国等强硬派的改革主张而来,但此处强凋欧元区国家问的不信任感:强国因不信任弱国而要求出台强硬规定,而这并非作者对欧元区改革的建议。
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