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来交做作业了， 文章选自The Economist
The American Economy Proceed with caution America’s economy looks setfor a good year. But investors should beware the treacherous(adj. 背叛的，叛逆的) path beyond 2011 Dec 29th 2010 
THE American stockmarket enters 2011 in a jolly mood. In the past fourmonths it has leapt by 20%, to heights last enjoyed when Lehman Brothers was agoing concern. Investors are likely to cheer a second consecutive year ofdouble-digit returns. This partly reflects growth elsewhere: American companies make a third oftheir profits outside the United States. But the most recent spurt（n.喷射,冲刺） has been driven by a sharp change in the outlook at home. At the end ofthe summer Wall Street worried that growth was grinding（v磨碎，碾碎） to a halt（n.暂停，中断）. The Federal Reserve was running out of monetaryammunition(n.军火，弹药，防御手段). The incremental contribution of Barack Obama’s $814 billion stimulus hadfaded and a gridlocked Congress seemed incapable of supplying new support. Bigbusiness was rattled by Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis. Wall Street’s bearssniffed deflation.
What has changed? In part it is simply a case of the underlying Americaneconomy turning out to be stronger than pessimists(n.悲观论者, 悲观主义者) imagined: consumer spending, business investment and jobcreation are all up lately. But policymakers have also done their bit. InNovember the Fed began a second round of “quantitative easing”—buying bondswith newly created money in order to push down long-term interest rates andstimulate lending. And in December Mr Obama and the Republicans agreed toextend George Bush’s tax cuts until the end of 2012 and to pump a further $300billion into the economy in 2011 through a payroll(
n. 薪水册)-tax cut and other measures.The deal should spur growth; it also got rid of the (until then very real)danger of inadvertent fiscal(adj.国库的) tightening tipping the economy back into recession. That is the mainreason why bond yields have risen with share prices. Bolder investors are lesswilling to accept rock-bottom yields in return for safety.
This bipartisanship(n.两党合作) will bankrupt us
Put these things together, and the American economy could grow by nearly4% in 2011: so Wall Street is right to be cheery on that score. But shareprices are meant to be based on more than just the next 12 months’ earnings,and the medium term is as treacherous as ever; perhaps more so.
Start by noting that the recovery is subdued(v.使缓和) by historical standards. This is not because of high interest rates or frail（adj.虚弱的, 脆弱的） businessconfidence, the sorts of things that a well-honed stimulus(n.刺激物, 促进因素) might quickly cure. Rather, households and banks areworking off the excess debts of a reckless decade. Monetary and fiscal easingshould make this less painful, but this deleveraging still has years to go.There will be more weak patches(n.补丁，一小片土地) like the summer of 2010, when investors’joy may quickly turn to gloom(n.阴暗, 阴沉).
Next, the new tax deal has made American’s long-term fiscal problems evenmore intractable(adj.倔强的，难管的). The payroll-tax cut may well not expire in a year’s time: it will be portrayed(v.描绘，描述) as a tax increase whenunemployment is still high. But the real problem is the Bush tax cuts.Optimists hope that their expiry in 2012 will allow a grand bargain to beagreed before then: the lower tax rates could be kept in exchange for a plan tostabilise the federal debt as a share of GDP by closing loopholes and cuttingspending. A good idea, but both Mr Obama and the Republicans are hellbent onfighting the next presidential election over the tax cuts (with Mr Obama keento let the cuts for the richest Americans lapse). Neither side has muchincentive to fix the problem before 2012 as part of a longer-term deal.
Much worse is what the deal says about the nature of bipartisanship intoday’s Washington. The Republicans and Democrats merely agreed to each other’shuge giveaways. Real bipartisan budgeting must involve far more painful things—increases in taxes and cuts in entitlements（n.权利）. The politics of cutting health care and pensions is getting worse. In2011 the first baby-boomers retire and the number of elderly voters will onlygrow. The Republicans claim they are ready to reform Social Security and thetax system. A wise Mr Obama would call their bluff by presenting a plan forboth in his budget. But don’t bet on it. The longer both sides drag their feet,the more likely a revolt in the bond market and a skint（adj.身无分文的, 穷光蛋的） Treasury squeezing American businesses for cash. Wall Street may be right about the economy in 2011. But the Americangovernment’s inability to sort out its finances in a credible way should unsettle（v.使不安） investors everywhere.
注：
难懂的单词均已在文中标注：
红色标记为GRE单词
绿色标记为非GRE单词
整篇文章讲的是在2010到2011跨年之际，美国经济恢复迅速，但由政府的两党合作而导致的潜在危机仍然存在。作者拿Wall Street和美国政府对经济局势的影响作对比，对Wall Street持正面态度，而对美国政府持负面态度。（个人鄙见，仅供参考）
合适Issue:
45"Governmentofficials should rely on their own judgment rather than unquestioninglycarrying out the will of thepeople whom they serve."
政府官员应该依靠自己的判断而不是不管三七二十一的遵从人民的意愿。
56"Governmentsshould focus more on solving the immediate problems of today rather than trying to solve theanticipated problems of the future."
政府应该把更多的注意力放在解决当务之急，而不是试图解决将来预期的问题上。
195"The goalof politics should not be the pursuit of an ideal, but rather the search forcommon ground andreasonable consensus."
政治的目的不应该是追求一种理想，而是寻求共同点和合理的一致。
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发表于 2011-1-29 15:54:47
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