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Passage 2 With euro hills and coins now circulating across much of Europe, the European Monetary Union is fully in place. The post-World War Ⅱ European leaders’ dream of an economically and politically unified continent is one large step closer to realization, and membership in the monetary union could easily grow to 20 or more countries from the current 12 as the larger European Union expands to the east. A fully operational European Monetary Union does not come, however, with a guarantee of success. There is one enormous problem: This union creates a single monetary policy for a group of quite different national economies that often experience divergent business-cycle patterns. As long as business-cycle conditions differ significantly among European Monetary Union countries, there is no way for the central bank’s policies to avoid creating serious problems for some members. The patterns of economic ups and downs remain far more diverse in the European Monetary Union countries, and it is not clear that this will change soon. The designers of the monetary union thought that the imposition of a single monetary policy, combined with free trade among the members, would cause cyclical conditions to converge quickly, producing a unified group of economies. A 1997 agreement also limits the power of the individual nations in the European Monetary Union to use government spending or tax cuts to ease national downturns. They can be fined if they run budget deficits of more than 3 percent of their gross domestic products. No fines have been levied yet, but the threat is there. Even if the economies of the original European Monetary Union members become more similar in their cyclical behavior, it will take far longer for the convergence to include the new member nations expected to come in within the next 10 or 15 years. The chances for consensus on the Governing Council, however thin now, will become far more distant with more members representing divergent national economies. And the larger nations, like Germany, France and Italy, might well resent the power of representatives from much smaller nations to outvote them on monetary policy. All of this does not mean that the European Monetary Union is likely to fail. But clearly the arrival of the euro as the standard currency does not guarantee the union’s success. From the passage, we can infer that ______.

A. all European nations are eager to become members of the European Monetary Union
B. there is much uncertainty for the success of the Euro
C. the euro will make critical contributions to a unified European
D. it is not a wise idea to have the euro as a standard currency in such a hurry

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Questions 14 -16 are based on the following passage. You now have 15 seconds to read questions 14 -16. The money which enables these companies to go ahead with their projects is ______.

A. repaid to its original owners as soon as possible
B. raised by the selling of shares in the companies
C. exchanged for part ownership in The Stock Exchange
D. invested in different companies on The Stock Exchange

Questions 17 -20 are based on the following passage. You now have 20 seconds to read questions 17 -20. Which information is INCORRECT about APEC

A. It was founded when Asian economy is in blossom.
B. It makes decisions according to the wish of most member countries.
C. It aims at free trade and investment.
D. New Zealand is one of its member countries.

In the _____ this book, we are given the reason why it has been republished.

The way people hold to the belief that a fun-filled, painfree life equals happiness actually reduces their chances of ever attaining real happiness. If fun and pleasure are equal to happiness, then pain must be equal to unhappiness. But in fact, the opposite is true: more often than not things that lead to happiness involve some pain. As a result, many people avoid the very attempts that are the source of true happiness. They fear the pain inevitably brought by such things as marriage, raising children, professional achievement, religious commitment (承担的义务), self improvement. Ask a bachelor (单身汉) why he resists marriage even though he finds dating to be less and less satisfying. If he is honest he will tell you that he is afraid of making a commitment. For commitment is in fact quite painful. The single life is filled with fun, adventure, excitement. Marriage has such moments, but they are not its most distinguishing features. Couples with infant children are lucky to get a whole night’’s sleep or a three-day vacation. I don’’t know any parent who would choose the word "fun" to describe raising children. But couples who decide not to have children never know the joys of watching a child grow up or of playing with a grandchild. Understanding and accepting that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one of the most liberating realizations. It liberates time: now we can devote more hours to activities that can genuinely increase our happiness. It liberates money: buying that new car or those fancy clothes that will do nothing to increase our happiness now seems pointless. And it liberates us from envy: we now understand that all those who are always having so much fun actually may not be happy at all. What is the author trying to tell us

A. Happiness often goes hand in hand with pain.
B. One must know how to attain happiness.
C. It is important to make commitments.
D. It is pain that leads to happiness.

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