You’ve now heard it so many times, you can probably repeat it in your sleep.

游客2024-04-08  1

问题     You’ve now heard it so many times, you can probably repeat it in your sleep. President Obama will no doubt make the point publicly when he gets to Beijing: the Chinese need to consume more; they need—believe it or not—to become more like Americans, for the sake of the global economy.
    And it’s all true. But the other side of that equation is that the U. S. needs to save more. For the moment, American households actually are doing so. After the personal-savings rate dipped to zero in 2005, the shock of the economic crisis last year prompted people to snap shut their wallets.
    In China, the household-savings rate exceeds 20%. It is partly for policy reasons. As we’ve seen, wage earners are expected to care for not only their children but their aging parents. And there is, to date, only the flimsiest (脆弱的) of publicly-funded health care and pension systems, which increases incentives for individuals to save while they are working. But China is a society that has long esteemed personal financial prudence (谨慎). There is no chance that will change anytime soon, even if the government creates a better social safety net and successfully encourages greater consumer spending.
    Why does the U. S. need to learn a little frugality (节俭) ? Because healthy savings rates are one of the surest indicators of a country’s long-term financial health. High savings lead, over time, to increased investment, which in turn generates productivity gains, innovation and job growth. In short, savings are the seed corn of a good economic harvest.
    The U. S. government thus needs to act as well. By running constant deficits, it is dissaving, even as households save more. Peter Orszag, Obama’s Budget Director, recently called the U. S. budget deficits unsustainable and he’s right. To date, the U. S. has seemed unable to see the consequences of spending so much more than is taken in. That needs to change. (Every time any official in Beijing deliberates publicly about seeking an alternative to the U. S. dollar for the $ 2. 1 trillion China holds in reserve, currency traders have a heart attack.) If Americans saved more and spent less, consistently over time, they wouldn’t have to worry about all that.  [br] How did the economic crisis affect Americans?

选项 A、They had to tighten their belts.
B、Their bank savings rate dropped to zero.
C、Their leadership in the global economy was shaken.
D、They became concerned about China’s financial policy.

答案 A

解析 由题干的 economic crisis 定位到第二段第四句。定位句的意思翻译过来就是:经历了去年的经济危机,人们不得不勒紧裤腰带。tighten their belts 是勒紧裤腰带的同义替换。故选项A正确。
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