Globally, recovery is going slightly better than expected, according to the IMF, which released its latest World Economic Outlook today. After shrinking by 0.6% last year, the global economy is likely to expand by 4.2% in 2010, 0.3% faster than the IMF projected in January. But economic performances will continue to vary widely around the world. Much of the upward revision to global growth can be attributed to a better outlook for the American economy. The IMF revised its forecast for American economic expansion in 2010 up 0.4%, to 3.1%. There was no change, by contrast, for the euro area, which already faced a poorer growth outlook. The Euro area economy may only grow by 1% in 2010 and 1.5% in 2011. And much of the job of expansion will be handled by Germany and France, while southern European growth continues to lag. Spain’s economy will continue to shrink in 2010.
But the outlook is brightening for many emerging economies, including those in central and eastern Europe, for which growth forecasts were revised up by 0.8%. Developing Asia is enjoying a strong recovery, and the IMF indicated that both India and Brazil are likely to perform much better this year than initially anticipated, notching (赢得) growth rates of 8.8% and 5.5%, respectively.
The report suggested that planned stimulus measures for 2010 should be fully implemented, given the fragility of recovery, but it also noted that sovereign debt worries will become more severe as the year progresses. Debt issues are likely to prove especially problematic in Europe, which has the highest debt ratios and the slowest expected growth rates. The stressed southern European nations are in a damned-if-they-do-damned-if-they-don’t position. If little action is taken on debt, rising debt costs will choke of an already weak recovery. If aggressive action is taken, the blow to aggregate demand will likewise undermine growth.
Around the world, trade and production have recovered strongly, but employment remains well below prerecession levels in most countries. Labour market weakness is helping to keep inflation expectations in check; the IMF forecasts consumer price increases in developed nations of 1.5% in 2010 and 1.4% in 2011. But the return to strong growth is boosting commodity prices once more. Oil prices may increase by 30% in 2010, said the IMF, a rise 7% larger than projected in January.
The overall picture is of a remarkable turnaround in global fortunes, given the depth of the recession. The year’s performance is much better than many would have dared to hope early last year. But in parts of Europe, the future is somewhat less certain, and because that uncertain future could lead to sovereign debt crises that could potentially rattle financial markets, world leaders should remain vigilant.

A:fragility of recovery B:unemployment C:debt issues D:decrease of productivity

Home prices slid in November, raising questions about whether the housing recovery is robust enough to maintain a sustained turnaround. From October to November, home prices fell 0.2% after (1) 0.1% in October, according to a report Tuesday by Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller’s home price index. (2) five of the 20 metro areas (3) by the index saw price increases for the month.
On a(n) (4) basis, prices were 5.3% lower in November than in November 2008. Prices were the same as in late 2003. "What we’ve seen (5) the past couple of months is that the pace of (6) has fallen down," says Maureen Maitland of Standard & Poor’s. "Some markets have (7) Is that because we haven’t (8) the foreclosure (回赎权的取消) cycle Because of unemployment We’re not seeing the (9) we were seeing in the last summer months. "
Metro areas that have seen a retreat in home prices (10) Seattle, Charlotte, Las Vegas and Tampa. All four (11) gains they made in recent months (12) . (13) , for the 20-metro index, the annual rate of decline is improving. That (14) , with other recent housing reports that show prices (15) or accelerating, could point to (16) the housing market is starting to (17) its footing, some economists say. Existing home sale prices were $178 300 in December, which is 1.5% higher than December 2008, according to a report this week by the National Association of Realtors. That was the first year-over-year (18) in median price since August 2007.
"The most (19) thing we can say is not only the market is stabilizing, but we’ve seen that housing demand is strong," says Bernard Baumohl, with the Economic Outlook Group. "Housing probably will continue to climb upwards through the summer, (20) it could slip a little as the tax credit expires. /

A:recognition B:recourse C:recovery D:relapse

It’s a cliche—but true—that a huge obstacle to a stronger economic recovery is the lack of confidence in a strong recovery. If consumers and businesses were more confident, they would be spending, hiring and lending more freely. Instead, we’re deluged with reports suggesting that, because the recession was so deep, it will take many years to regain anything like the pre-crisis prosperity. Just last week, for example, the McKinsey Global Institute released a study estimating that the country needs 21 million additional jobs by 2020 to reduce the unemployment rate to 5 percent. The study was skeptical that this would happen. Pessimism and slow growth become a vicious cycle.
Battered confidence most obviously reflects the ferocity and shock of the financial collapse and the ensuing recession, including the devastating housing collapse. But there’s another, less appreciated cause: disillusion with modern economics. Probably without realizing it, most Americans had accepted the fundamental promises of contemporary economics. These were: First, we know enough to prevent another Great Depression; second, although we can’t prevent every recession, we know enough to ensure sustained and, for the most part, strong recoveries. These propositions, endorsed by most economists, had worked themselves into society’s belief structure.
Embracing them does not preclude economic disappointments, setbacks, worries or risks. But for most people most of the time, it does preclude economic calamity. People felt protected. If you stop believing them, then you act differently. You begin shielding yourself, as best you can, against circumstances and dangers that you can’t foresee but that you fear are there. You become more cautious. You hesitate more before making a big commitment-buying a home or car, if you’re a consumer; hiring workers, if you’re an employer; starting a new business, if you’re an entrepreneur; or making loans, if you’re a banker. Almost everyone is hunkered down in some way.
One disturbing fact from the McKinsey report is this: The number of new businesses, a traditional source of jobs, was down 23 percent in 9,010 from 2007; the level was the lowest since 1983, when America had about 75 million fewer people. Large corporations are standoffish. They have about $2 trillion of cash and securities on their balance sheets, which could be used for hiring and investing in new products.
It’s not that economics achieved nothing. The emergency measures thrown at the crisis in many countries exceptionally low interest rates, "stimulus" programs of extra spending and tax cuts—probably averted another Depression. But it’s also true that there’s now no consensus among economists as to how to strengthen the recovery. Economists suffer from what one of them calls "the pretense-of-knowledge syndrome." They act as if they understand more than they do and presume that their policies, whether of the left or right, have benefits more predictable than they actually are. It’s worth remembering that the recovery’s present slowdown is occurring despite measures taken to speed it up.
So modern economics has been oversold, and the public is now disbelieving. The disillusion feeds stubbornly low confidence.
A mistaken idea of modern economics is that

A:confidence and economic recovery are closely related. B:beliefs in economic recovery need to be constantly boosted. C:economic depressions never happen when people are confident. D:sustained growth can be ensured with proper economic measures.

The recovery of demand for microchips is______.

A:contrary to expectations B:far from certain C:not so quick as expected D:at a record-breaking speed

Home prices slid in November, raising questions about whether the housing recovery is robust enough to maintain a sustained turnaround. From October to November, home prices fell 0.2% after (1) 0.1% in October, according to a report Tuesday by Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller’s home price index. (2) five of the 20 metro areas (3) by the index saw price increases for the month.
On a(n) (4) basis, prices were 5.3% lower in November than in November 2008. Prices were the same as in late 2003. "What we’ve seen (5) the past couple of months is that the pace of (6) has fallen down," says Maureen Maitland of Standard & Poor’s. "Some markets have (7) Is that because we haven’t (8) the foreclosure (回赎权的取消) cycle Because of unemployment We’re not seeing the (9) we were seeing in the last summer months. "
Metro areas that have seen a retreat in home prices (10) Seattle, Charlotte, Las Vegas and Tampa. All four (11) gains they made in recent months (12) . (13) , for the 20-metro index, the annual rate of decline is improving. That (14) , with other recent housing reports that show prices (15) or accelerating, could point to (16) the housing market is starting to (17) its footing, some economists say. Existing home sale prices were $178 300 in December, which is 1.5% higher than December 2008, according to a report this week by the National Association of Realtors. That was the first year-over-year (18) in median price since August 2007.
"The most (19) thing we can say is not only the market is stabilizing, but we’ve seen that housing demand is strong," says Bernard Baumohl, with the Economic Outlook Group. "Housing probably will continue to climb upwards through the summer, (20) it could slip a little as the tax credit expires. /

A:recognition B:recourse C:recovery D:relapse

You go looking for a book to buy as a present for a child, and you will be spoiled for choice, even in a year such as this, when there is no new Harry Potter by Ms. J. K. Rowling. And her wizard is not alone: the past decade has been a productive one for good children’s books, which has set off an enormous number of films and in turn led to increased sales of classics such as The Lord of the Rings and so forth.
Yet despite the abundance in excellent books, reading is increasingly unpopular among children in Britain. According to the National Foundation for Educational Research, in 1997, 23% said they didn’t like reading at all. In 2003, 35% did. And around 6% of children leave primary school each year unable to read properly.
Maybe the declining popularity of reading is the fault of the increasing availability of computer games. Maybe the books boom has affected only the top of the educational pile. Either way, Gordon Brown, the chancellor, plans to change things for the bottom of the class. In his pre-budget report, he announced the national implementation of Reading Recovery, a scheme to help the children who are struggling most.
Reading Recovery is aimed at six-year-olds, who receive four months of individual daily half-hour sessions with a specially trained teacher. An evaluation published earlier this year reported that children on the scheme made 20 months’ progress in just one year, whereas similarly weak readers who received no special help made just five months, progress, and so ended the year even further below the level expected for their age.
At more than ￡2, 000 per pupil, Reading Recovery is not cheap. But it may be a sound investment. The KPMG Foundation, a charity that has been paying for Reading Recovery in some schools, reckons that each child who leaves primary school unable to read will go on to cost the taxpayer at least ￡50, 000 in specialist teaching in secondary schools, dealing with truancy, paying benefits to adults who are more likely to be sick and jobless, and the consequences of increased crime.
International research tends to find that by the time British children leave primary school they are reading well by international standards, but read less often for fun than that elsewhere. The inspectors said that when they asked why it is good to be able to read, children were more likely to say that it would help them to do well in tests or get a good job than that reading was enjoyable.
This matters not only because children who are keen on reading can look forward to lifelong pleasure, but because loving books is an excellent predictor of future educational success. According to the OECD, being a regular and enthusiastic reader is more of an advantage than having well-educated parents in good jobs.
In Paragraph 5, the author mainly discusses

A:the payoffs of the Reading Recovery. B:the profitability of the investment in Reading Recovery. C:the consequences of children’s reading problem. D:the social and financial cost of Reading Recovery.

The medical world is gradually realizing that the quality of the environment in hospitals may play a significant role in the process of recovery from illness. As part of a nation-wide effort in Britain to bring art out the galleries and into public places, some of the country’s most talented artists have called in to transform older hospitals and to soften the hard edges of modern buildings. Of the 2 500 National health Service hospitals in Britain, almost 100 now have significant collections of contemporary art in corridors, waiting areas and treatment rooms.
These recent initiatives owe a great deal to one artist, Peter Senior, who set up his studio at a Manchester hospital in north-eastern England.
The quality of the environment may reduce the need for expensive drugs when a patient is recovering form an illness. A study has shown that patients who had a view on to a garden needed half the number of strong pain killers compared with patients who had no view at all or only a brick wall to look at during the early 1970s. he felt the artist had lost his place in modern society, and that art should be enjoyed by a wider audience.
A typical hospital waiting room might have as many as 5 000 visitors each week. What better place to hold regular exhibitions of art Senior held the first exhibition of his own paintings in the out-patients’ waiting area of the Manchester royal Infirmary in 1975. Believed to be Britain’s first hospital-artist, Senior was so much in demand that he was soon joined by a team of six young art school graduates.
The effect is striking. Instead of the familiar long, barren corridors and dull waiting rooms, the visitors experience a full view of fresh colours, playful images and restful courtyards.
After the improvement of the hospital environment, patients ______.

A:no longer need drugs in their recovery B:are not wholly dependent on expensive drugs C:need good-quality drugs in their recovery D:do not use pain killers in their recovery

? ?下面有3篇短文，每篇短文后有5道题，每题后面有4个选项。请仔细阅读短文并根据短文回答其后面的问题，从4个选项中选择1个最佳答案。
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A:no longer need drugs in their recovery B:are not wholly dependent on expensive drugs C:need good-quality drugs in their recovery D:do not use pain killers in their recovery

The recession may have spread across the global economy, but recovery efforts haven’t taken the edge off the mortgage meltdown (熔毁) that helped start it all. In fact, many American real estate markets may be at risk of even worse declines.
What does the author say about the present recession

A:It has affected the global economy. B:Recovery efforts have functioned. C:It was triggered by mortgage crash. D:It is similar to the one in 2001.