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

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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.
The best title for the text is ______.

选项 A、The Decline of Economy
B、The Credit Rating by Moody’s
C、Britain’s Downgrade and Its Impact
D、Britain’s Deficit and Its Solutions

答案C

解析 主旨题即问文章中心大意或者最合适的标题,主旨题最有效的方法是将各段首句放一起。Para.1: We will safeguard Britain’s credit rating with a credible plan to eliminate the bulk of the structural deficit over a parliament, ...Para.2: Will the downgrade harm the economy? Para.3: It is hard to spot an immediate impact in Britain, either. Para.4: Pull back a little, though, and the picture is more worrying. Para.5: Several things are making investors prudent of British assets. A项:第二段首句提到economy,但文章重点讨论的内容并非经济,而是围绕英国在讨论,故选项A错误。B项:五段首句未提到Moody’s,可见Moody’s非文章讨论重点,故错误。C项:第一、三、五段均提到Britain,第二段提到downgrade,第三段提到impact,该项关键词都出现在各段首句中,故为答案。D项:该项同样出现Britain,deficit在第一段首句也提到,而solution一词并未涉及。故可以判断选项C为答案。
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