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  3. "We will safeguard Britain’s credit rating with a credible plan to eliminate the bulk of the structural deficit over a parliamen

"We will safeguard Britain’s credit rating with a credible plan to eliminate the bulk of the structural deficit over a parliamen

admin2018-03-01  55
问题     "We will safeguard Britain’s credit rating with a credible plan to eliminate the bulk of the structural deficit over a parliament," read the 2010 Conservative manifesto. Well, so much for that. The decision by Moody’s, one of the three big rating agencies, to downgrade Britain from Aaa to Aal on February 22nd was a colossal embarrassment. Moody’s now ranks Britain’s credit lower than that of Luxembourg or the Isle of Man.
    Will the downgrade harm the economy? In the past countries with lower credit ratings have had to pay higher borrowing costs. But neither America, which was downgraded in 2011, or France, which suffered a similar fate last year, has suffered much.
    It is hard to spot an immediate impact in Britain, either. Investors had expected the ratings agencies to act after last year’s autumn statement revealed that the government was struggling to reduce its deficit on schedule. The two other big ratings agencies—Fitch and Standard & Poor’s—both have Britain on "negative watch". Sterling dropped to a 32-month low against the dollar and reached its weakest level against the euro since October 2011.
    Pull back a little, though, and the picture is more worrying. So far the pound is the weakest major currency of 2013. It has fallen even farther than the yen, where the decline had the explicit backing of the Japanese prime minister. In the past few weeks gilt yields have been rising relative to the cost of borrowing of the German government, too.
    Several things are making investors prudent of British assets. As Moody’s noted in justifying its downgrade, the performance of the economy has been poor; figures released on February 27th showed that GDP had shrunk by 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2012 and is still 3% smaller than it was in the first quarter of 2008. Growth forecasts for the next few years were lowered in the autumn statement.
We can infer from the last two paragraphs that ______.
选项 A、yen has been the weakest currency of 2013
B、investors are now careful about Britain’s assets
C、Fitch noted that Britain’s economic performance was poor
D、statistics released on Feb 27th showed that GDP had grown
答案B
解析 根据选项A中的“the weakest currency of 2013”定位到第四段第二句：So far the pound is the weakest major currency of 2013. 文章提到的是“pound”，而非“yen”，故该项错误。根据选项B中的Britain’s assets定位到第五段首句：Several things are making investors prudent of British assets. 其中“prudent”=“careful”，故该选项为答案。根据选项C中的“economic performance”定位到第五段第二句：As Moody’s noted in justifying its downgrade, the performance of the economy has been poor. 是Moody’s noted而非Fitch noted，故该项错误。根据选项D中的“Feb 27th”和“GDP”两个词定位到第五段倒数第二句：...figures released on February 27th showed that GDP had shrunk by 0.3％...smaller than it was in the first quarter of 2008. 其中提到shrunk，即使看不懂，后面还提到smaller，都说明GDP是下滑而非选项所说的增长，故错误。综上所述，该题答案为选项B。
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