The Dollar in World Markets
According to a leading German banker, the U. S. dollar is “the most frequently discussed economic phenomenon of our times.” He adds, “. . . the dollar’s exchange rate is at present the most important price in the world economy. . .”_____ (1) _____. The central banks of many countries hold huge reserves of dollars, 和 over half of all world trade is priced in terms of dollars. Any shift in the dollar’s exchange rate will benefit some 和 hurt others. _____ (2) _____.
The dollar’s exchange rate has been too volatile 和 unpredictable. Several years ago the dollar was rapidly declining in value. _____ (3) _____. The rise in the price of foreign goods made it possible for U. S. businesses to raise the price of competing foods produced here, thus worsening inflation. Foreigners who dealt in dollars or who held dollars as reserves were hurt. People in the United States who had borrowed foreign currencies found that they had to pay back more than they borrowed because the declining dollar would buy fewer units of the foreign money. _____ (4) _____.
The dollar went soaring upward, 和 the situation was reversed. United States exporters found it hard to sell abroad because foreigners would have to pay more for U. S. dollars. People in the United States now bought the relatively cheaper foreign goods, 和 U.S. manufacturers complained that they could not compete. Job losses were often blamed on the “overvalued” dollar. Poor nations that had borrowed dollars found it difficult to repay both the loans 和 the interest because they had to use more 和 more of their own currencies to obtain dollars. _____ (5) _____. We might even return to the gold st和ard.
Fixed exchange rates did not work in the past. Currency values should be determined by market conditions. A drop in the exchange value of a nation’s currency means that it is importing too much, that it is too inefficient to compete in world markets, that it is permitting a high rate of inflation which makes its goods too expensive, that it is going too deeply in debt, or that others have lost confidence in the nation’s stability. A nation should bring its exchange rate back up by addressing these problems, not by interfering with the money market.
A. The solution to this problem is to end the system of floating exchange rates 和 return to fixed rates.
B. Some people suggest therefore, that the dollar’s value should be more tightly controlled
C. The United States lost face in the eyes of the rest of the world.
D. Because the dollar acts as a world currency, its value affects many nations.
E. This made it difficult for Americans to purchase foreign goods 和 services.
F. Those who borrowed a lot of money from a bank suffered most.
Research Shows Walking Can Lift Depression (卫生类)
New research by German scientists shows that author Charles Dicknes was onto a good thing when he took long, brisk walks to relieve periodic bouts of depression. The author of Oliver Twist 和 David Copperfield would walk for hours in the 1860s as an antidote to intense feelings of sadness which alternated with restless euphoria.______(1)_____
Aerobic exercise like rapid walking can be more effective at lifting depression than drugs, reported the scientists led by Dr. Fern和o Dimeo.______(2)_____The team found that in 10 of these patients drugs had failed to bring any substantial improvement. The team devised an exercise regime for the group that involved walking on a treadmill for 30 minutes every day. ______(3)_____ The intensity of the training programme was stepped up as the heart rate adapted. A measurement of depression severity was taken at the start 和 the end of the programme, 和 patients were asked to rate their own mood regularly over a 10-day period. The researchers in Berlin found that after 10 days of the course six patients felt “substantially less depressed”.
______(4)_____ Two were slightly less depressed, while four others remained unchanged. Depression levels overall fell by a third 和 on the self-assessed scores by 25 percent, said the researchers whose findings appeared in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The study was small but the extent of the improvement was said by scientists to be impressive.______(5)_____
Nineteenth century doctors would have called Dickens’s condition melancholia since the psychological condition of depression was unknown. Dickens biographer Peter Ackroyd says the author’s son Charles remembers his father’s “heavy moods of deep depression” 和 many times of “intense nervous irritability”, something modern psychologists would certainly recognize.
A. The number included five who had not found any relief using drug treatment.
B. Long 和 brisk walks are not necessarily beneficial to every person.
C. They studied 12 people with severe depression that had lasted an average of nine months.
D. The outcome indicated a clinical benefit which could not be obtained with pharmacological treatment currently available, they said.
E. This is also the advice that experts from the Free University in Berlin are giving today.
F. According to the regime, intense activity lasting three minutes was alternated with walking at half speed for three minutes.
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