Text 2 When Europe caught America's flu

资格题库2022-08-02  30

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.According to Paragraph 2,bail-outs and belt-tightening____.A.eventually cause harm to all the member countriesB.fail to work due to inconsistent euro rulesC.have eased unemployment in Germany and GreeceD.are proved to be more effective than devaluation

选项 A.eventually cause harm to all the member countries
B.fail to work due to inconsistent euro rules
C.have eased unemployment in Germany and Greece
D.are proved to be more effective than devaluation

答案 A

解析 [信息锁定]第二段④句指出紧急救助和勒紧裤腰带(即紧缩政策)令所有国家不满:经济较好的债权国要出血,经济较差的债务国被要求实施紧缩政策,患上“紧缩疲劳”急症。可见,这一配套政策最终有损所有成员国的利益,A.正确。[解题技巧]B.“该配套政策无法奏效”与④句相符,但“欧元区规定前后不一”是对③句信息“受规定及文化限制”的过度臆测。C.源自末句(⑥句).该句例证⑤句“欧元变为离间各国的楔子”,可推知,(龙头)德国与(吊车尾)希腊的失业率差距大到增大欧元区离心力的地步.失业问题不仅没有缓解.反而加重。D.将②句“欧元区禁止成员国使用贬值手段”主观臆断为“货币贬值手段效果不佳”,且忽视了④句“紧急救助和勒紧裤腰带让所有人不满”。
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