根据下列文章,请回答 6~10 题。
Text 2
Many phrases used to describe monetary policy, such as "steering the economy to a soft landing" or "a touch on the brakes", makes it sound like a precise science. Nothing could be further from the truth. The relation between interest rates and inflation is uncertain. And there are long, variable lags before policy changes have any effect on the economy. Hence the analogy that likens the conduct of monetary policy to driving a car with a blackened windscreen, a cracked rearview mirror and a faulty steering wheel.
Given all these disadvantages, central bankers seem to have had much to boast about. Average inflation in the big seven industrial economies fell to a mere 2.3% last year, close to its lowest level in 30 years,before rising slightly to 2.5% this July. This is a long way below the double-digit rates which many countries experienced in the 1970s and early 1980s.
It is also less than most forecasters has predicted. In late 1994 the panel of economists which The Economist polls each month said that America's inflation rate would average 3.5% in 1995. In fact,it fell to 2.6% in August,and is expected to average only about 3% for the year as a whole In Britain and Japan inflation is running half a percentage point below the rate predicted at the end of last year. This is no flash in the pan;over the past few years, inflation has been continually lower than expected in Britain and America.
Economists have been particularly surprised by favourable inflation figures in Britain and the United States, since conventional measures suggest that both economies, and especially that of America, have little productive slack.. America's capacity utilisation, for example, hit historically high levels earlier this year,and its jobless rate (5.6% in August) has fallen below most estimates of the natural rate of unemployment the rate below which inflation has taken off in the past.
Why has inflation proved so mild? The most thrilling explanation is, unfortunately, a little defective. Some economists argue that powerful structural changes in the world have up-ended the old economic models which were based upon the historical link between growth and inflation.
第 6 题 According to the text, making monetary policy changes______
A. is comparable to driving a car.
B. is similar to carrying out scientific work.
C. will not influence the economy immediately.
D. will have an immediate impact on the inflation rate.
It was claimed that the new laws passed during the Roosevelt Administration were
A. reducing the cost of farming.
B. conserving soil in the long-term interest of the nation.
C. lowering the burden of farmers.
D. helping farmers without shifting the burden onto other taxpayers.
根据下列文章,请回答 31~35 题。
Text 3
In Anglo-America there are three major ethnic groups. The first is the original Indian population, who today represents a minority group. The second is the descendants of European colonists who emigrated to the two countries before the end of the nineteenth century. These majority populations normally speak English, are highly-educated, and most of them are culturally homogeneous(同类的)in broad cultural values. A third group is made up of ethnic minorities, from Asia, Latin America, Africa, or parts of Europe who have either linguistic, religious, racial, or other cultural attributes that distinguish them from the majority population.
The United States has a varied ethnic minority pattern, without the dominance of one minority group in a specific geographical area. The largest ethnic group in America is the blacks, totaling an estimated 26 million in 1980, or 12 percent of the population. Unlike the French, the black population of the United States is not culturally and geographically isolated in one area. Slightly more than half of American blacks live in the South, and 49 percent reside in the East and the West. The black American speaks English, has a tendency to share the characteristics of competition,materialism,and individualism with other United States citizens, and has no distinctive religion.
The Spanish-speaking minority in America is reluctant to adopt the values of the dominant cultural group. There is increasingly a demand for bilingual (双语的)education to allow Spanish speaking children to use English in their educational programs. The existence of a large and growing minority population such as the Spanish-speaking Americans, who are increasingly committed to their own food and newspapers in Latin, is one of the issues facing Anglo-America in the future.The old concept of a melting pot is being replaced by the concept of a plural society.
第 31 题 From the context, we know that "attributes"(Para.1)means
A. similarities of ethnic groups.
B. qualifies belonging to ethnic minorities.
C. differences between ethnic minorities.
D. relationships among ethnic groups.