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Text 1 Immigrants to New York used to be greeted with signs like "Help Wanted: No Irish Need Apply." But these days, newcomers from Dublin are more likely to be mobbed by luxury property developers trying to hawk them ＄1 million condos (a handful of new buildings in the city are marketed mainly to rich Irish). Manhattan, like other posh areas of America, is now full of homes meant for foreigners. One in five American real estate agents sold a house to an expatriate last year. The reason is obvious: From Rio to Riyad, dollar assets are a bargain. The shift, which has been coming for several years now and will be much discussed at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, is seismic. Since the end of World War Ⅱ, the dollar’s unique role as the international currency has afforded Americans a tremendously privileged place in the world. We filled most of the seats on transatlantic flights, and bought second homes abroad. Our currency was prized by central banks. Countries pegged their monies to the dollar. Commodities were priced in dollars. The strength of the greenback, and of the economy, underpinned US global hegemony in politics and culture. Big American banks like Citibank used to fund Third World governments--now those governments are buying Citibank on the cheap. Clearly, times have changed. The dollar--along with America’s economic place in the world-- has been on a well-documented downward spiral since 2002. Back then, a euro was worth 86 cents. Today, it buys ＄1.46. Of course, the euro’s relative youth makes talk of "historic lows" easy to dismiss. More telling is that the US Dollar Index, a futures contract reflecting the dollar’s strength against six other major trading currencies, hit the lowest mark in its 35-year history just before Christmas. The shift will of course have major ramifications. Countries are beginning to de-link their currencies from the dollar, as inflationary pressures make it difficult to implement effective local monetary policy. Large global creditors like the Chinese have announced their intent to scale back on dollar reserves. European Central Bank head Jean-Claude Trichet is grousing about "brutal" movements in the dollar-euro exchange rate slashing profits at Europe’s biggest firms. Just last week, Airbus CEO Tom Enders warned that a weak dollar threatened the long-term existence of the Continental aerospace giant. Japan’s new Prime Minister Yasuo Fukada worries that the plunging greenback will bring back deflation. And OPEC is studying the possibility of pricing oil in euros-- a move that would not only amount to a vote of no confidence from some of America’s largest creditors, but would also make energy much more expensive for the United States, compounding the economic troubles which led to a weak dollar in the first place. Venuezuelan president and Bush-basher Hugo Chavez recently gloated, "The empire of the dollar is crumbling." But that’s not quite right. The majority of the world’s financial assets and central bank reserves are still held in dollars. It will take years for the euro to become a real rival; the renminbi will rise over decades. Still, what’s clear is that we have entered a new era. The United States can no longer rule the world on credit. A rebalancing has begun. Which is true of Manhattan luxury homes
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A Small Event One afternoon in January 1989, Suzan Sharp, 43, and her 8-year-old son, David ,were walking hard across an icy parking lot, when Suzan’’s cane (手杖)slid on the ice . She 【51】 face fist into the mud . David 【52】 to her side . "Are you all right, Mom" 【53】 , Suzan put herself up. "I’’m okay, honey." she said. It had been nearly two years since Suzan had trouble walking. She was falling more 【54】 now. Every inch of ice was a 【55】 danger for her. " I could do something," the boy thought. David, too, was having 【56】 of his own. The boy had a speech defect. At school he 【57】 asked questions or read aloud. One day Davids teacher announced a 【58】 assignment. "Each of you is going to come up with an invention, "she said. This was for "INVENT AMERICA!", a national competition to encourage creativity in 【59】 . An idea hit David one evening. 【60】 only his mothers cane didn’t slip on ice ,he thought. "That’’s it!" David realized. "What if I fixed your cane to a nail stretched out of the bottom" he asked his mother. His mother told him," 【61】 it would scratch floors. " "It looks like a ball-point pen. You take your hand 【62】 the button and the nail returns back up." Hours later the cane was finished. David and his father, Jeff, 【63】 as Suzan used it to walk 50 feet across the 【64】 . "It works!" she said . In July 1989, David was declared national winner at the annual" INVENT AMERICA!" ceremony in Washington D.C.. As David began to make 【65】 appearances, he was forced to communicate more clearly. Today, David is nearly free of his cane which is waiting to be widely used. So the boy who once had trouble talking now hopes to start making canes for people who have trouble walking.
Questions 11 to 18 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
Passage ThreeQuestions 32 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.
Scientists have come up with a theory for why time flies when you are having fun and drags when you are bored. Scans have shown that (62) of activity in the brain change depending on how we focus on a task. Concentrating on time passing, as we do when bored, will (63) brain activity which will make it seem as though the clock is ticking more (64) . The research, by the French Laboratory of Neurobiology and Cognition, is published in the magazine Science. In the study, 12 volunteers watched an image while researchers (65) their brain activity using MRI(核磁共振成像) scans. Volunteers were given a (66) of tasks. In one they were told to concentrate simply on the duration of an image, in (67) they were asked to focus on the (68) , and in a third they were asked to concentrate on both duration and color. The results showed that a network of brain regions was (69) when more subjects were paid attention to duration. It is thought that if the brain is busy focusing on many aspects of a task, then it has to spread its resources thinly, and pays less (70) to time passing. Therefore, time passes without us really (71) it, and seems to go quickly. (72) , if the brain is not stimulated in this way, it concentrates its (73) energies on monitoring the passing of time. This may make time seem to (74) , but in fact it is probably a more accurate perception of reality. (75) the researchers found that the more volunteers concentrated on the duration of the images, the more (76) were their estimates of its duration.Lead researcher Dr. Jennifer Coull said many of the areas of the brain (77) in estimating time were the same that played a key role in controlling movement, and (78) for action. She said this overlap suggests that the brain may make sense of time as (79) between movements, in much the same way (80) musicians mark time with his foot, or (81) anticipate the sound of a starter’s pistol.
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