高级商务英语阅读5-t-Japan goes from dynamicto disheartened

Unit 5

Japan Goes From Dynamic to Disheartened

Exercises

1. Answer the questions on the text:

1)What were the two major factors comprising Japan’s economic bubble in the

1980’s?

# speculative stock

# property bubbles

2)What were the methods Japanese government adopted to stimulate its

economy, but turned out to be a failure?

# budget deficits

# flood of easy money

3)What does “economic Godzilla” mean in the text?

It means economic giant with enormous power. It is so quoted because it is a Japan cultural icon.

4)What are the reasons that the U.S. would not follow Japan’s suit, according

to some economists?

# the greater responsiveness of the American political system

# Americans’ greater tolerance for capitalism’s creative destruction

5)What are the specified steps in the “deflationary trap”?

Demand decreases→supply decreases→unemployment/reluctance in investing→less spending→less demand.

6)What are the factors contributing to Japan’s even dimmer future?

# the wo rld’s largest government debt (around 200% of GDP)

# a shrinking population

# rising rates of poverty and suicide

7)Why do people today refer to the Japanese youth as “herbivore s”?

Because: under the background of long-term economic stagnation, younger generation of Japan become pessimistic and fatalistic, and they lack ambitions that their parents once valued and become mildly tempered and behaved in both career and sex.

8)What do you think of Japan’s real estate industry?

During the period of deflation, property keeps losing its value, and people then refuse to buy new houses and house-owners are burdened with large sums of loan.

They have to come up with different ways to cut expenses, which sabotages people’s expectations towards a better future.

9)Why is Mr. Kaiami expecting inflation to come back again?

Because the Japanese economy has been depressed and sluggish for so long. If inflation comes back he expects to see vibrancy of the Japanese economy again. 10)According to the article, how would you explain “destructive destruction”?

On the contrary to creative destruction, which describes the chaotic changes that occur when a new product (i.e., technology) or service is introduced into the market, and entrepreneurs can make great profit by innovation, destructive destruction here means people’s pessimistic expectation renders them making their living by cutting expenses and selling current property rather than risking creating new fortune.

11)What can we learn from this article to enlighten China’s economy?#####

China must be alert to Japan’s lessons, not to bubble its economy by overinvesting in certain fields like real estate and securities. In the period of fast growth, China must both stress the proper use of entity capital like resources, finance, technology and labor, and value the social capital composed of social trust, morals and interpersonal relationship.

2. Fill in each blank of the following sentences with one of the phrases in the list given below:

1)I have discovered that paying down your loan can result in being cash poor when

a need or emergency arises.

2)The road to recovery is a long one, so the politicians must wake up to the

recession, accept it and get us where we need to go.

3)All signs point to Apple’s iPad sales as the recovery of tablet PCs and future

spending boom.

4)During this urgent period, journalists were told to hold back on some stories in

case they might do damage to the delicate administration.

5)According to some analysts, BP Plc's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will drive

down rental prices for deep- sea drilling vessels by about 20 percent.

6)Consolidation is likely to increase since no one player controls more than 10

percent of the market, there’s a golden opportunity for big fish to gobble up smaller businesses.

7)According to a survey, teachers and lawyers are put in the most overtime, they

toil for ten hours a week unpaid.

8)They also added that they would not surrender the future of their children to a

few people who are bent on enslaving them for life.

9)China's top legislature is to deliberate about the draft amendment to the personal

income tax law, a major move that is meant to narrow the widening gap between the country's rich and poor.

10)We must bridge the gap between the supply and demand of power if we are to

achieve higher rates of economic growth on a sustainable basis in the next decade.

3. Match the terms in column A with the explanations in column B:

A B

1) budget deficit a) A procedure which, in certain jurisdictions,

allows an inpidual to declare bankruptcy. 10

2) stagnation b) The highest-ranking corporate administrator

in charge of total management of an

organization. 9

3) price war c) The amount by which a government,

company, or inpidual's spending exceeds its

income over a particular period of time. 1 4) speculative stock d) A procedure with rapid increases in

valuations of real estate until they reach

unsustainable levels relative to incomes and

other economic elements, followed by a

reduction in price levels. 8

5) deflation e) Commerce money that can be borrowed at

a low interest rate. 7

6) gross domestic product f) A period of time in which an economy

experiences difficulties and achieves little or

no growth. 2

7) easy money g) Market situation in which (usually two)

Powerful competitors try to usurp each

other's market share by progressively

reducing prices until one of them retreats, at

least temporarily. 3

8) property bubble h) The …… 此处隐藏：8481字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……