翻译考试历年中级口译真题(6)_第5页

Questions 6-10

Before, whenever we had health, we stated discussing poverty. Why no now? Why is the current politics of wealth and poverty seemingly about wealth alone? Eight years ago, when Bill Clinton first ran for president, the Dow Jones average was under 3,500, yearly federal budget deficits were projected at hundreds of billions of dollars forever and beyond, and no one talked about the "permanent boom" or the "new economy." Yet in that more straitened time, Clinton made much of the importance of "not leaving a single person behind." It is possible that  similar "compassionate" rhetoric  might yet play a   role in the general election.

But it is striking how much less talk there is about the poor than there was eight years ago, when the country was economically uncertain, or in previous eras, when the country felt flush. Even last summer, when Clinton spent several days on a remarkable, Bobby Kennedy-like pilgrimage through impoverished areas from Indian reservations in South Dakota to ghetto neighborhoods in East St. Louis, the administration decided to refer to the effort not as a poverty tour but as a "new markets initiative."

What is happening is partly a logical, policy-driven reaction. Poverty really is lower than it has been in decades, especially for minority groups. The most attractive solution to it—a growing economy—is being applied. The people who have been totally left out of this boom often have medical, mental or other problems   for   which   no   one   has   an   immediate   solution.   "The   economy   has sucked in anyone who has any preparation, any ability to cope with modern life," says Franklin D. Raines, the former director of the Office of Management and Budget who is now head of Fannie Mae. When he and other people who specialize in the issue talk about solutions, they talk analytically and long-term: education, development of work skills, shifts in the labor market, adjustment in welfare reform. 

But I think there is another force that has made this a rich era with barely visible poor people. It is the unusual social and imaginative separation between prosperous America and those still left out. ... It's simple invisibility, because of increasing   geographic,   occupation,   and   social   barriers   that   block   one   group from the other's view.

6.   The main idea of the passage is that ______.
     (A) The county is enjoying economic growth
     (B) The poor are benefiting from today's good economy
     (C) We were more aware of the poor than we are today
     (D) There were many more poor people tan there are today

7.   The organizational pattern of the first two paragraphs of this passage is______.
     (A) order of importance
     (B) comparison and contrast
     (C) chronological order
     (D) classification and division

8.   In line 6 of the first paragraph, the word straitened means ______.
     (A) prosperous
     (B) difficult
     (C) relaxing
     (D) significant

9.   From this passage, we can conclude that ______.
     (A) the status quo of the rich and the poor has changed
     (B) the good and prosperous economy will soon end
     (C) poverty will be removed as a result of increased wealth
     (D) all people benefit from good economic conditions

10.According to the author, one important reason that we do not talk much about poverty is that ______.
     (A) no one knows what to do about it
     (B) poverty really is lower than in the past
     (C) no one has been left out of the current boom
     (D) the president is not concerned about the poor