听力原文： Now European finance ministers are expected to reprimand the Irish government today after they meet in Brussels. They've been alarmed by December's budget in the Irish Republic which cut taxes and increased government spending. The other European countries fear this will stoke up inflation and undermine the stability of the Euro, the single currency.
Finance ministers from the European Unions 15 states are holding their regular monthly meeting in Brussels. They've been given the tricky task of handing out some public criticism to the government of the country with the most successful economy, the Irish Republic. In the last five years Ireland has boomed growing by an average eight percent a year, unemployment has reached its lowest level for 20 years and commodity prices in Dublin became more expensive than in London.
Why do other European countries criticize Ireland?
A．They worry that the Irish Republic's budget plan will undermine the stability of European Unions.
B．EU countries fear that Irish Republic's finance plan will cause inflation.
C．Other countries will have to cut taxes.
D．Other EU countries must increase government spending, too.
第1题：
此题为判断题(对，错)。
第2题：
Taxes provide most of the government’s _________．
A．revenues
B．expenses
C．profits
D．rewards
第3题：
此题为判断题(对，错)。
第4题：
PartA 2. The National Association of Securities Dealers is investigating whether some brokerage
houses are inappropriately pushing individuals to borrow large sums on their houses
to invest in the stock market. Can we persuade the association to investigate would-be privatizers of Social Security? For it is now apparent that the Bush administration’s privatization proposal will amount to the same thing: borrow trillions, put the
money in the stock market and hope.
Privatization would begin by diverting payroll taxes, which pay for current Social
Security benefits, into personal investment accounts. The government would
have to borrow to make up the shortfall. This would sharply increase the government’s debt. “Never mind”, privatization advocates say, “in the long run, people would
make so much on personal accounts that the government could save money by cutting retirees’
benefits.Even so, if personal investment accounts were invested in Treasury bonds,
this whole process would accomplish precisely nothing. The interest workers would receive on,
their accounts would exactly match the interest the government would
have to pay on its additional debt. To compensate for the initial borrowing,
the government would have to cut future benefits so much that workers would gain nothing at all.
However, privatizersclaim that these investments would make a lot of
money and that, in effect, the government, not the workers, would reap most of those gains,
because as personal accounts grew, the government could cut benefits.
We can argue at length about whether the high stock returns such schemes assume are realistic
(they arent), but lets cut to the chase: in essence, such schemes
involve having the government borrow heavily and put the money in the stock market. That’s because the government would, in effect, confiscate workers’gains in their personal accounts by cutting those workers’ benefits.
Once you realize whatprivatization really means, it doesn’t sound too responsible, does it? But the details make it considerably worse. First,
financial markets would, correctly, treat the reality of huge deficits today as a much more
important indicator of the governments fiscal health than the mere promise that government could save money by
cutting benefits in the distant future. After all, a government bond is a legally binding
promise to pay, while a benefits formula that supposedly cuts costs 40 years from now is nothing
more than a suggestion to future Congresses.
If a privatization plan passed in 2005 called for steep benefit cuts in 2045,
what are the odds that those cuts would really happen? Second,
a system of personal accounts would pay huge brokerage fees. Of course, from Wall Street’s point of view that’s a benefit, not a cost.
第26题：According to the author, “privatizers”are those_____.
[A] borrowing from banks to invest in the stock market [B] who invest in Treasury bonds
[C] advocating the government to borrow money from citizens [D] who earn large sums of money in personal
accounts
第5题：
what is the first official language of the irish republic?
A. English.
B. Gaelic.
C. Irish.
D. Celtic.
第6题：
What is TRUE about the Irish Republic's economy?
A．It was the most successful among the EU countries.
B．It has increased 8% in the last five years.
C．The unemployment rate has reached its lowest level for 5 years.
D．The commodity prices have decreased greatly in the country.
第7题：
nowadays the british foreign policy is largely shaped by its participation in______.
A. the European Economic Community
B. the Commonwealth
C. the United Nations，the EU，NATO，etc.
D. a European federal government
第8题：
Ireland had long been dominated by Britain, but Irish desire for an independent Irish state was never lost.In late 19th century, there was a campaign in parliament called “home-rule”- Irish political control of Irish affairs.()
此题为判断题(对，错)。
第9题：
today free education provided by the irish government covers all public universities，as is common in most of the countries of europe. ()
第10题：