理工类A级:阅读理解decades of discredit
After two decades of discredit, Keynes prescriptions for state intervention when free markets stumble have returned to dominate the national agenda. For example, any solution to the problem of federal budget deficits will probably involve raising tax revenues and also stimulating employment, the traditional Keynesian priority. Another of the economic blueprints calls for hiking income taxes while encouraging investment through restored tax breaks for business. To offset higher taxes, neo-Keynesians revise the old remedy by lowering interest rates, spending less on public works and boosting productivity through the development and application of high technology. "The urgent need," says Harvards Summers, "is to balance the federal budgets and create jobs.”
To some extent, Keynesianism has come back into favor almost by default. Monetarists, let by University of Chicago Professor Emeritus Milton Friedman, espoused their single-minded program; Fend offinflation by strictly controlling the money supple and leave everything else to the free-market which on itsown produces as much growth and employment as an economy can sustain. While supply-siders like Arthur Laffer suggested deep tax cuts in the belief that they would unleash entrepreneurial energy and easeWashington’s stranglehold on the free market. But the two doctrines have proved unable either to staveoff or to explain the recession during the George Bush administration. Freemarket theories just failed tobuild a viable set of models.
Keynes also owes his comeback to an articulate group of young academics. Among the rising-star disciples are Harvard economist Jeffrey Sachs now knows as "Father of the Shock Therapy," and MITs Alan Blinder, current economic advisor to President Bill Clinton. "The traditional Keynesian reflex to reduce unemployment merely by pumping up spending," says Alan Blinder, "is gone forever." He aims at balancing the federal budget and raising investment primarily by increasing taxes. Sachs also argues that more than half of the deficit gap should be closed by tax increases. Both of them urge greater coordination among the G-7 on fiscal and monetary policy as the only way to head off a global recession.
词汇:intervention n.调停,干涉 espouse vt.信奉,采纳fiscal adj.财政的,会计的
36. What is the main subject of the topic?
A. The celebrated neo-Keynesians.
B. The discredit of Keynesianism.
C. The predominance of free-market theories.
D. The retroboon of Keynesianism.
37. According to the passage, what is NOT mentioned as the major point of neo-Keynesianism?
A. Slashing tax revenues.
B. Lowering interest rates.
C. Increasing taxes.
D. Raising investment.
38. The word "default" as used in sentence 1, paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to________.
A. an automatic selection
B. failure to pay debts
C. negligence
D. no competitors
39. According to the passage, who are the most notable apostles now spreading the economic gospel of John M. Keynes?
A. Alan Blinder and Jeffrey Sachs
B. Alan Blinder and Milton Friedman
C. Jeffrey Sachs and Arthur Latter
D. Milton Friedman and Arthur Latter
40. According to the passage, what do the neo-Keynesians urge to prevent a world wide recession?
A. Expansion of international trade.
B. Dismantling tariff barriers.
C. Financial coordination among big industrialized nations.
D. Global investment credit for plant-and-equipment purchases
参考答案:36. D 37. A 38. D 39. A 40. C