Stock prices tumbled on Wall Street and across much of the rest of the world yesterday. They were driven sharply lower by worries over slowing economic growth in the United States and worsening borrowing conditions that could make everything from huge corporate buyouts to buying a new home more difficult. Major stock market gauges -- including the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index -- were down more than 2 percent.

   It was the worst one-day decline on Wall Street since markets plunged worldwide in late February after an investing scare in Shanghai, and it occurred amid the biggest volume of trading on the New York Stock Exchange in five years. Losses were comparable throughout Europe, and larger in many developing countries. ''The preconditions for a shock are in place,'' said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. ''Until very recently investors were very nonchalant about risks.''

   Stock markets have been volatile in recent weeks. Continued strong profits for many companies and an economic boom in Asia have helped push oil prices higher. Meanwhile, however, there are various signs of weakness in the American economy and new difficulties in borrowing for many homeowners and companies that are highly leveraged or have poor credit.

   The plunge came a day after the private equity firm buying Chrysler from DaimlerChrysler said it would complete the transaction for the automaker despite an inability to borrow the money in credit markets, as had been planned. Banks will hold those loans, as they will for a similar deal involving Alliance Boots, a British pharmacy chain. Shares of DaimlerChrysler fell $4.11, to $88.91.'' There is fear, but not a fear of recession,'' said Bill Gross, chief investment officer of the Pacific Investment Management Company, known as Pimco, a large bond management firm. ''The fear is directed toward the question of who will be willing to lend $200 billion to provide takeout financing for previously announced private equity deals.''

   Yesterday, the Dow industrials plunged 311.50 points, or 2.3 percent, to 13,473.57, while the S.& P. 500 dropped 35.43 points, or 2.3 percent, to 1,482.66. The Nasdaq composite index was down 48.83 points, or 1.8 percent, to 2,599.34. The S.& P. is still up 4.5 percent for the year, while the Dow is 8.1 percent higher. But the S.& P. has fallen 4.5 percent since reaching a record last week. In the last hour or so of trading, the major Wall Street indexes recovered about a third of their steepest losses for the day. Losses of more than 2 percent were recorded in Spain, France and Germany, while Britain, Argentina, Mexico and Brazil fell more than 3 percent. Asian markets fell less yesterday, closing before the worst selling began, but opened down sharply on Friday.

   注（1）：本文選自New York Times，07/27/2007

   注（2）：本文習(xí)題命題模仿對象：第1、2題分別模仿2000年真題Text 3第1題和Text 4第3題，第3題模仿2004年真題Text 4第1題，第4題模仿2001年真題Text 1第2題，第5題模仿1999年真題Text 1第4題。

   1． The passage is mainly_______.

   [A] a review of the current condition of the American and world stock market

    [B] an introduction of the world stock market

    [C] a survey of the stock deal of DaimlerChrysler

    [D] about the ups and downs of stock prices

   2． Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?

    [A] Currently it is more difficult for Americans to borrow money from banks for house purchase.

    [B] The losses from stock markets are similar in U.S. and some developing countries.

    [C] Investors were worried about the potential risks in stock market before yesterday.

    [D] Economic boom in Asia prevent its stock market from falling.

   3． If you were an investor, you might be able to earn money if _______.

   [A] you held the shares of DaimlerChrysler

    [B] you purchased new shares when the stock market opened yesterday.

    [C] you bought and sold shares at the last one or two hours before closing

    [D] you didn’t trade any shares yesterday.

   4． We can infer from the text that _______.

   [A] The Chrysler transaction will turn to be a failure.

    [B] The banks hold the loans because of Alliance Boots.

    [C] Bill Gross thinks the fear is from the huge amount of money.

    [D] The difficulty of borrowing leads to the shrinking prices of shares of DaimlerChrysler.

   5． The writer’s attitude towards the current stock market is_______.

    [A] biased

    [B] objective

    [C] pessimistic

    [D] optimistic

   篇章剖析

      本篇文章是一篇說明文，介紹了美國股市昨日下跌的情況。第一段開門見山地說明了股市大跌的事實(shí)及其原因，第二、三段則進(jìn)一步展開說明了股市比較近的狀況，影響股市的各種負(fù)面因素等。第四段用了一個具體的市場交易事例來說明股市不穩(wěn)定導(dǎo)致的后果，并引用了經(jīng)濟(jì)專業(yè)分析師的評論。比較后兩段綜述了美國各大指數(shù)以及世界各地股市的漲跌情況，引用了大量的數(shù)據(jù)。

   詞匯注釋

   tumble [`tQmbl] vi. 倒坍; 崩潰; 下跌   volatile [`vRl[tail] adj.可變的, 不穩(wěn)定的

   buyout [`bBi9BUt] n. 全部買下         boom [bu:m] n.繁榮

   gauge [^BUdV] n. 方法, 估量, 判斷    transaction [trAn`zAkF[n] n. 交易, 事務(wù)

   plunge [plQndV] vi. 投入, 跳進(jìn), 陷入  pharmacy [`fB:m[si] n. 配藥業(yè), 制藥業(yè)    

   scare [skZ[] n. 驚恐, 恐慌, 恐懼      recession [ri`seF[n] n. 經(jīng)濟(jì)衰退, 不景氣

   precondition [`pri:k[n`diF[n] n. 前提, 先決條件       takeout [`tei9aut] n. 資產(chǎn)外帶

   nonchalant [`nRnF[l[nt] adj.不關(guān)心的, 若無其事的     index [indeks] n. 指數(shù)

   難句突破

   The plunge came a day after the private equity firm buying Chrysler from DaimlerChrysler said it would complete the transaction for the automaker despite an inability to borrow the money in credit markets, as had been planned.

   主體句式  The plunge came a day after the … firm … said …

   結(jié)構(gòu)分析  這是一個復(fù)雜句，主句為The plunge came，但在a day after后面的結(jié)構(gòu)比較復(fù)雜。首先，buying Chrysler from DaimlerChrysler是用來修飾he private equity firm，因此后面這個長句的基本結(jié)構(gòu)就是the firm said。said后面跟的是一個間接引語，這個長句的主體是it would complete the transaction for the automaker，之后的despite表示一個轉(zhuǎn)折的意思，而as had been planned是用來形容borrow the money in credit markets的。

   句子譯文  股市大跌的前一日，從戴姆勒-克萊斯勒購買克萊斯勒企業(yè)債的這家私有證券公司聲稱，盡管現(xiàn)在從信貸市場借錢的進(jìn)程不像原計劃的順利，但其仍將為這家汽車制造公司完成交易。

   題目分析

   1．A. 主旨題。判斷文章主旨要從文章整體來把握。文章第一段就指出美國股市昨日大幅下跌，接下來的幾段都在介紹下跌的狀況、原因、相關(guān)因素，并且詳細(xì)介紹了各個股票指數(shù)的一系列數(shù)據(jù)，比較后一段又描述了世界其他地區(qū)股市情況，可見全文都是在說明美國和世界股市的現(xiàn)狀。

   2．A. 細(xì)節(jié)題。根據(jù)文章第一段第二句，“從大公司收購到普通人購買房屋等各種事情都變得更加困難”，答案顯而易見。其余三個選項(xiàng)均與文章意思相反。

   3．C. 細(xì)節(jié)題。根據(jù)文章第五段比較后一句，“在昨日收盤前的一小時左右時間里，華爾街的各種主要指數(shù)在一天的狂跌之后上漲了約三分之一的幅度”，所以在比較后一兩個小時內(nèi)進(jìn)行買賣的投資者有可能會獲利。

   4．D. 推理題。根絕文章第四段第一、二句話談到借錢不順利，銀行不愿意貸款等情況，因此導(dǎo)致了克萊斯勒收購案進(jìn)展受到了一定的阻礙。這一消息的結(jié)果影響到了公司的股價，緊接著第三句話就是談到了戴姆勒-克萊斯勒股票價格的下跌�？梢妰烧咧�間是有因果聯(lián)系的。

   5．B. 態(tài)度題。作者的態(tài)度可以通過材料的選擇和措辭來判斷�？v觀全文，作者基本上都在描述事實(shí)和引用各種數(shù)據(jù)、言論，并沒有發(fā)表自己的看法。可見，作者對于股市現(xiàn)狀的態(tài)度是非�？陀^的。

   參考譯文

    華爾街以及世界許多地區(qū)的股票價格昨日都經(jīng)歷了大幅大跌。急劇下跌的主要原因是在與公眾對美國經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展速度放慢的焦慮，以及惡化的信貸狀況，因而導(dǎo)致了從大公司收購到普通人購買房屋等各種事情都變得更加困難。幾個主要的股市指標(biāo)—包括道·瓊斯工業(yè)平均價格指數(shù)和標(biāo)準(zhǔn)普爾五百種股份指數(shù)—都下挫了兩個百分點(diǎn)以上。

    自二月底上海投資危機(jī)導(dǎo)致全球股市下跌以來，這是華爾街經(jīng)歷過的一天內(nèi)比較大幅度的下跌，而現(xiàn)在正是紐約證券交易所五年來交易規(guī)模比較大的時候。歐洲股市也遭遇了相當(dāng)規(guī)模的損失，但一些新興國家股市的損失則更為嚴(yán)重。“股市振蕩的預(yù)警早已出現(xiàn)，”穆迪經(jīng)濟(jì)網(wǎng)首席經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家馬克·贊第說道，“但是直到不久前，許多投資者仍然對于風(fēng)險視若無睹�！�

    幾周以來股市一直跌宕起伏。亞洲許多公司持續(xù)的高盈利報告和經(jīng)濟(jì)的迅速發(fā)展推動了油價的進(jìn)一步上漲。但與此同時，已有各種信號顯示出美國經(jīng)濟(jì)的疲軟、房屋購買的信貸困難、以及許多公司受到了高估或者擁有不良的信用記錄。

   股市大跌的前一日，從戴姆勒-克萊斯勒購買克萊斯勒企業(yè)債的一家私有證券公司聲稱，盡管現(xiàn)在從信貸市場借錢的進(jìn)程不像原計劃那么順利，但其仍將與這家汽車制造公司完成交易。許多銀行都不愿意發(fā)放貸款，就像他們也不愿意為一樁涉及英國醫(yī)藥經(jīng)銷連鎖商聯(lián)合博姿公司的交易放款一樣。戴姆勒-克萊斯勒的股票價格已從88.91美元猛跌到4.11美元。“這是一種恐慌，但不是對于經(jīng)濟(jì)衰退的恐慌。” 太平洋投資管理公司（即Pimco 公司，一家大型債券管理公司）首席投資官比爾"格羅斯說到，“恐慌來源于人們質(zhì)疑誰會愿意為這個先前宣稱的私人證券交易提供2000億美元的資產(chǎn)外帶。”

   昨日，道·瓊斯工業(yè)指數(shù)狂瀉311.50點(diǎn)，收盤13.473.57點(diǎn)，下跌了百分之2.3，而標(biāo)準(zhǔn)普爾下跌了35.43點(diǎn)，收盤1.482.66點(diǎn)，跌幅為百分之2.3。納斯達(dá)克綜合指數(shù)下跌了48.83點(diǎn)，收盤2.599.34點(diǎn)，跌幅為百分之1.8。標(biāo)準(zhǔn)普爾全年仍上升了4.5個百分點(diǎn)，道·瓊斯工業(yè)指數(shù)則多出8.1個百分點(diǎn)。但是自從上周創(chuàng)造新紀(jì)錄以后，標(biāo)準(zhǔn)普爾下降了4.5個百分點(diǎn)。在昨日收盤前的一小時左右時間里，華爾街的各種主要指數(shù)在一天的狂跌之后又上漲了約三分之一的幅度。

   西班牙、法國、德國的股市損失超過了兩個百分點(diǎn)，而英國、阿根廷、墨西哥和巴西的股市則下降了超過三個百分點(diǎn)。亞洲市場昨日并沒有經(jīng)歷嚴(yán)重的下跌，在比較差交易開始前就已收盤，但周五卻已開始下滑。