Text 2 When Europe caught America's flu

题库2022-08-02  40

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.The author indicates in Paragraph 4 that_____.A.the euro zone should wait for a better time for reformB.the reform should start with the completion of a banking unionC.Germany has made great contributions to euro zone reformD.the capital-markets union is yet to be established

选项 A.the euro zone should wait for a better time for reform
B.the reform should start with the completion of a banking union
C.Germany has made great contributions to euro zone reform
D.the capital-markets union is yet to be established

答案 B

解析 [信息锁定]第四段作者提议欧元区利用经济复苏的机会逐步推进改革:首先应完善银行业联盟;增加跨境资本流动;提高财政的风险分担功能。可见,B.正确。[解题技巧]A.将首句“欧元区应趁着良好经济形势开展改革”内涵之意“现在就应开始改革”曲解为”当前时机不成熟”。C.源f§②句.与原文文意“德国阻碍了银行业联盟的完善”相悖。D.把③句“资本市场联盟才刚刚起步”偷换为“尚未建立”。
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