【文章內容簡介】 tand, at least to some extent. During the 1997年全國碩士研究生入學統(tǒng)一考試英語試題 9 discussion of rock singing verses at last month‘s stockholders‘ meeting, Levin asserted that ―music is not the cause of society‘s ills‖ and even cited his son, a teacher in the Bronx, New York, who uses rap to municate with students. But he talked as well about the ―balanced struggle‖ between creative freedom and social responsibility, and he announced that the pany would launch a drive to develop standards for distribution and labeling of potentially objectionable music. The 15 member Time Warner board is generally supportive of Levin and his corporate strategy. But insiders say several of them have shown their concerns in this matter. ―Some of us have known for many, many years that the freedoms under the First Amendment are not totally unlimited,‖ says Luce. ―I think it is perhaps the case that some people associated with the pany have only recently e to realize this.‖ Text 5 Much of the language used to describe moary policy, such as ―steering the 1997年全國碩士研究生入學統(tǒng)一考試英語試題 10 economy to a soft landing‖ or ―a touch on the brakes,‖ makes it sound like a precise science. Nothing could be further from the truth. The link between interest rates and inflation is uncertain. And there are long, variable lags before policy changes have any effect on the economy. Hence the analogy that likens the conduct of moary policy to driving a car with a blackened windscreen, a cracked rear view mirror and a faulty steering wheel. Given all these disadvantages, central bankers seem to have had much to boast about of late. Average inflation in the big seven industrial economies fell to a mere % last year, close to its lowest level in 30 years, before rising slightly to % this July. This is a long way below the doubledigit rates which many countries experienced in the 1970s and early 1980s. It is also less than most forecasters had predicated. In late 1994 the panel of economists which The Economist polls each month said that America‘s inflation rate would average % in 1995. In fact, it fell to % in August, and expected to average only about 3% for the year as a whole. In Britain and Japan inflation is 1998年全國碩士研究生入學統(tǒng)一考試英語試題 11 running half a percentage point below the rate predicted at the end of last year. This is no flash in the pan。 over the past couple of years, inflation has been consistently lower than expected in Britain and America. Economists have been particularly surprised by favorable inflation figures in Britain and the United States, since conventional measures suggest that both economies, and especially America‘s, have little productive slack. America‘s capacity utilization, for example, hit historically high levels earlier this year, and its jobless rate (% in August) has fallen bellow most estimates of the natural rate of unemployment the rate below which inflation has taken off in the past. Why has inflation proved so mild? The most thrilling explanation is, unfortunately, a little defective. Some economists argue that powerful structural changes in the world have upended the old economic models that were based upon the historical link between growth and inflation. 1998 年全國碩士研究生入學統(tǒng)一考試英語試題 1998年全國碩士研究生入學統(tǒng)一考試英語試題 12 Text 1 Few creations of big technology capture the imagination like giant dams. Perhaps it is humankind‘s long suffering at the mercy of flood and drought that makes the ideal of forcing the waters to do our bidding so fascinating. But to be fascinated is also, sometimes, to be blind. Several giant dam projects threaten to do more harm than good. The lesson from dams is that big is not always beautiful. It doesn‘t help that building a big, powerful dam has bee a symbol of achievement for nations and people striving to assert themselves. Egypt‘s leadership in the Arab world was cemented by the Aswan High Dam. Turkey‘s bid for First World status includes the giant Ataturk Dam. But big dams tend not to work as intended. The Aswan Dam, for example, stopped the Nile flooding but deprived Egypt of the fertile silt that floods left all in return for a giant reservoir of disease which is now so full of silt that it barely generates electricity. 1998年全國碩士研究生入學統(tǒng)一考試英語試題 13 And yet, the myth of controlling the waters persists. This week, in the heart of civilized Europe, Slovaks and Hungarians stopped just short of sending in the troops in their contention over a dam on the Danube. The huge ple