大学英语-大学英语四级阅读模拟题29.docVIP

大学英语四级阅读模拟题2 9 Directions : In this section, you are going to readapassage with 10 statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 . Surviving the Recession Americas recession began quietly at the end of 2007. Since then it has evolved into a global crisis. Reasonable people may disagree about whom to blame . Financiers who were not as clever as they thought they were? Regulators falling asleep at work? Consumers who borrowed too much? Politicians who thought 1 essly promoted home-ownership for those who could not afford it? All are guilty； and what a mess they have created. Since 2007 America has shed 5 million jobs . More than 15% of the workforce are jobless or underemployed—roughly 25 million workers . The only industries swelling their payrolls are health care, utilities and the federal government. The value of listed shares in American firms collapsed by 57% from its peak in October 2007 to a low in March this year, though it has since bounced back somewhat. Industrial production fell by 12.8% in the year to March, the worst slide since the Second World War. Mark Zandi , an economist at Moody s Economy. com, predicts that the recession will shrink Americas economy by 3.5% in total. For most executives, this is the worst business environment they ve ever seen. Times are so tough that even bosses are taking pay cuts. Median （中 位数的）pay for chief executives of SP 500 companies fell 6.8% in 2008 . The overthrown business giants of Wall Street took the biggest knock, with average pay cuts of 38% and median bonuses of zero. But there was some pain for everyone : median pay for chief executives of non-financial firms in the SP 500 fell by 2.7%. Nearly every business has a sad tale to tell. For example, Arn