If the inflation rate in the United States is higher than that in Germany and productivity is growing at a slower rate in the United States than it is in Germany, in the long run, _________

This quarter saw the lowest point in the inflation rate and the unemployment continued to fall．

For a given real interest rate, an increase in the inflation rate reduces the after-tax real interest rate.()

__________ There are more households living in actual poverty than there are households below the poverty line. A recent report states that as much as 30% of Americans have trouble making ends meet and other advocates have made supporting claims that the rate of actual poverty in the US is far higher than that calculated by using the poverty line. While the poverty line is updated for inflation every year, the basket of goods used to determine what constitutes being deprived of a socially acceptable minimum standard of living has not been updated since 1955.

A.The issue of understating poverty is especially pressing in the states with both a high cost and a high poverty rate such as California.

B.The poverty line lost all connection over time with current consumption patterns of the average family.

C.Many sociologists and government officials have argued that poverty in the US is understated.

D.The official poverty line today is essentially what it takes in today's dollars to purchase the same poverty-line level of living half a century ago.

The flat tax intends to do away with the complicated tax code and tax form. in the United States.

A．Y

B．N

C．NG

名义利率与实际通货膨胀率之间的差距常被称为滞后实际利率(相对于超前实际利率或预期实际利率而言)。图15-1显示了1976～1980年，瑞士的滞后实际利率通常为正，而美国却一般为负。假设在这些年中，两国的居民均可对通货膨胀进行准确预期，那么你认为在1976～1980年国际汇率市场中美元对瑞士法郎的比价如何?1981～1982年呢?你可用历史数据来验证你的假设(可参阅国际货币基金组织《国际金融统计资料》(InternationalFit～twial Statistics))。

  The difference between the nominal interest rate and the actual inflation rate is often called the ex post real interest rate(as opposed to the ex ante，or expected real interest rate)．Figure 15-1 shows that between 1976 and 1980，the ex post real interest rate in Switzerland was usually positive while that in the United States was usually negative．Assume that people were able to forecast inflation accurately in both countries during these years．What would you guess about the dollar's strength against the Swiss franc in the foreign exchange market between 1976 and 1980? What do you think happened to the dollar/Swiss franc exchange rate in 1981-1982? Check your answer by looking up the history of the exchange rate．(See，for example．the International Monetary Fund's publication，International Financial Statistics．)

  

In which of the following cases was the inflation rate 12 percent over the last year?

A.One year ago the price index had a value of 110 and now it has a value of 120.

B.One year ago the price index had a value of 145 and now it has a value of 163.

C.One year ago the price index had a value of 120 and now it has a value of 132.

D.One year ago the price index had a value of 134 and now it has a value of 150.

Think all of Kansas is flat) Think again. The Flint Hills. in the eastern part of the state, fan out over 183 miles from north to south, stretching 30 to 40 miles wide in parts, the land folding into itself, then popping up in gentle bumps, with mounds looming far off on the horizon. Seemingly endless, the landscape offers up isolated images--a wind-whipped cottonwood tree, a rusted cattle pen, a spindly windmill, an abandoned limestone schoolhouse, the metal-gated entrance to a hilltop cemetery.

Proud of the region's beauty, Kansas has seen to it that 48 miles of its Highway 177, leading through the heart of the hills, are designed the Flint Hills National Scenic Byway. This stretch starts about 50 miles northeast of Wichita and leads north to the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, one of the few place left in the United States where a visitor can see the grasses that once covered so much of the American heartland.

While up to a million head of cattle graze each summer in the Flint Hills' rolling pastures, they're long gone from Wichita, a metropolitan area of half a million people, at the confluence of two narrow curving rivers. But when a strong dusty wind blows through, it's a reminder of the city's roots as a wild cow town.

The Flint Hills Scenic Byway winds through almost treeless rolling land where bison once roamed; they have been replaced by prairie chicken, great blue herons, coyote, deer, collared lizards, bobcats and, of course, cattle.

The route starts in the tiny ranch town of Cassoday (population 130), where the dirt Main Street has a few weathered 19th-century wooden buildings housing an antiques store and a cafe popular with cowboys, truck drivers and bikers. It then goes through a handful of small towns and past the tallgrass prairie preserve to Council Grove, a former staging area on the Santa Fe Train.

But what this ribbon of a highway offers most is wide-open space. For dramatic effect, visit at sunset when the sky is awash in reds, purples and blues.

Of late, tourist amenities have been beefed up in Flint Hills, especially in Chase County, made famous by William Least Heat-Moon's 1991 book "PrairyEarth." In Cottonwood Falls, with about 1,000 residents, the two-block shopping district is dominated by the grand Chase County Courthouse, the oldest country courthouse (1873) still in use in Kansas. Made of native honey-hued limestone with a red mansard roof, it resembles a small chateau.

In small shops along Broadway Street, a bumpy road paved in red brick, you can find Western gear at Jim Bell & Son, antiques and art at the Gallery of Cottonwood Falls, and bison burger and chicken-friend steak dinners ( $ 6.95) at the Emma Chase Care. One of the town's biggest annual events took place last month, the weeklong Prairie Fire Festival, paying tribute to the annual controlled burning, to clear out old dry grass and promote new growth, an astonishing sight of flames sweeping through the hills. But near Cottonwood Falls, there are guided tours of the high open hills available now on foot, horseback, 1bur-wheel all-terrain vehicle and 19th- century covered wagon.

Kansas Flint Hills Adventures offers two-hour tallgrass prairie interpretive tours, wildflower tours and trail rides led by a naturalist who expounds on local history, cowboy culture, American Indian traditions, plants and animals.

Wanna-be cowboys can help out with the chores (or not) at the Flying W Ranch, a 10,000-acre, fifth-generation, working cattle ranch to the west of the byway, off Route 50 in the one-building town of Clements. It offers modern bunkhouse lodging, chuck wagon meals, trail rides, longhorn-roping demonstrations and sunset rides in a 1959 Ford wheat truck.

In the summer and early fall, weekend pioneers can pick up the Flint Hills Overland Wagon Train in Council Grove. Riders camp overnight and are duly fed several "pionee

A．is part of the Highway 177

B．starts from Wichita, a metropolitan area of half a million people

C．leads through rolling pastures where bison and cattle roam

D．winds through a few small towns and the Tallgrass Prairie National Prcscrve to Cassoday

Alaska

1 In 1959 Americans welcomed Alaska into the Union as the 49th state, symbolizing a change of attitude from that held in 1867, when the peninsula was purchased from Russia. Then, most Americans had little interest in 1,500,000 square kilometers "of icebergs and polar bears" - beyond Canada's western borders, far from the settled areas of the United States.

2 In those sections of the state which lie above the Arctic Circle, Alaska still is a land of icebergs and polar bears. Ice masses lie buried in the earth, which is permanently frozen to a depth of 90 or more meters. From early May until early August, the midnight sun never sets on this flat, treeless region, but the sun cannot melt the icy soil more than two - thirds of a meter down.

3 Alaska is America's largest state, but only about 325,000 people live there. According to estimates, 800,000 hectares of its land area are fit for plowing but only about 640,000 hectares are being cultivated.

4 Arctic Alaska has been the home of Eskimos for countless centuries. It is believed that the Eskimos moved there from Mongolia or Siberia, probably crossing Bering Strait, named for Vitus Bering, the Danish sea captain who discovered Alaska on his voyage for Russia in 1741. The Eskimos are the state's earliest known inhabitants5. Russian fur traders established settlements but, by the time Alaska was sold to the United States, most of the traders had departed.

5 In 1896 gold was discovered near the Klondike River in Canada just across the Alaskan border. Thousands of Americans rushed to the region on their way to Klondike; some never returned. Alaska was never completely cut off again, although even today transportation is a major problem. There are only two motor routes from the US mainland, and within the state, every town has its own airfield. Planes fly passengers, mail and freight to the most distant villages.

6 The gold that changed life so suddenly for Alaska was soon ended, and although many stories about mining camps have become part of American literature, the gold from Alaskan earth contributed less to economic progress than the fish from Alaskan waters. The fish caught in a single year range in value from $80 million to $90 million. Fur-bearing animals are plentiful in the forests and streams, and valuable fur seals inhabit the waters. After fishing, the state's chief industry is lumber and the production of wood pulp. In recent years, Alaska's single most important resource has become oil. The state also has large deposits of coal, copper, gold and other minerals.

A Rich Resources of the State

B Connections with the Outside World

C Transportation Problem

D The Natives of the Land

E Cold Climate

F Land and Population

Paragraph 3 ______