Text 4
When the governmenttalks about infrastructure contributing to the economy the focus is usually onroads, railways, broadband and energy. Housing is seldom mentioned.
Why is that? To someextent the housing sector must shoulder the blame. We have not been good atcommunicating the real value that housing can contribute to economic growth.Then there is the scale of the typical housing project. It is hard to shove forattention among multibillion-pound infrastructure project, so it is inevitablethat the attention is focused elsewhere. But perhaps the most significantreason is that the issue has always been so politically charged.
Nevertheless, theaffordable housing situation is desperate. Waiting lists increase all the timeand we are simply not building enough new homes.
The comprehensivespending review offers an opportunity for the government to help rectify this.It needs to put historical prejudices to one side and take some steps toaddress our urgent housing need.
There are someindications that it is preparing to do just that. The communities minister, DonFoster, has hinted that George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, mayintroduce more flexibility to the current cap on the amount that local authoritiescan borrow against their housing stock debt. Evidence shows that 60,000 extranew homes could be built over the next five years if the cap were lifted,increasing GDP by 0.6%.
Ministers should alsolook at creating greater certainty in the rental environment, which would havea significant impact on the ability of registered providers to fund newdevelopments from revenues.
But it is not justdown to the government. While these measures would be welcome in the shortterm, we must face up to the fact that the existing ￡4.5bn programme of grantsto fund new affordable housing, set to expire in 2015,is unlikely to beextended beyond then. The Labour party has recently announced that it willretain a large part of the coalition’s spending plans if returns to power. Thehousing sector needs to accept that we are very unlikely to ever return to eraof large-scale public grants. We need to adjust to this changing climate.
36. Theauthor believes that the housing sector__
[A]has attracted much attention
[B] involves certainpolitical factors
[C]shoulders too much responsibility
[D]has lost its real value in economy
37. It can belearned that affordable housing has__
[A]increased its home supply
[B]offered spending opportunities
[C] suffered government biases
[D]disappointed the government
38. Accordingto Paragraph 5,George Osborne may_______.
[A] allow greater governmentdebt for housing
[B]stop local authorities from building homes
[C]prepare to reduce housing stock debt
[D]release a lifted GDP growth forecast
39. It can beinferred that a stable rental environment would_______.
[A]lowerthe costs of registered providers
[B]lessenthe impact of government interference
[C]contribute to funding newdevelopments
[D]relievethe ministers of responsibilities
40. Theauthor believes that after 2015,the government may______.
[A]implement more policies to support housing
[B]review the need for large-scale public grants
[C]renew the affordable housing grants programme
[D]stop generous funding to the housing sector
Section III Translation
Directions:
Translate the following text from English into Chinese. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET 2. (15 points)
Most people would define optimism as endlessly happy, with a glass that’s perpetually half fall. But that’s exactly the kind of false deerfulness that positive psychologists wouldn’t recommend. “Healthy optimists means being in touch with reality.” says Tal Ben-Shahar, a Harvard professor, According to Ben- Shalar,realistic optimists are these who make the best of things that happen, but not those who believe everything happens for the best.
Ben-Shalar uses three optimistic exercisers. When he feels down-sag, after giving a bad lecture-he grants himself permission to be human. He reminds himself that mot every lecture can be a Nobel winner; some will be less effective than others. Next is reconstruction, He analyzes the weak lecture, leaning lessons, for the future about what works and what doesn’t. Finally, there is perspective, which involves acknowledging that in the ground scheme of life, one lecture really doesn’t matter.
【参考译文】
大多数人愿意把乐观定义为无尽的欢乐，就像一只总是装着半杯水的杯子。但那是一种绝不会为积极心理学家所推荐的虚假快乐。哈佛大学的Tal Ben-Shahar教授说，“健康的乐观主义，意味着要处于现实之中。”在Ben-Shahar看来，现实的乐观主义者，会尽最大努力做好一件事，而不是相信每件事都会有最好的结果医学全.在.线.提供. www.lindalemus.com。
Ben-Shahar 会进行三种乐观方面的练习。比如说，当他进行了一次糟糕的演讲，感到心情郁闷的时候，他会告诉自己这是人之常情。他会提醒自己：并不是每一次演讲都可以获得诺贝尔获，总会有一些演讲比其它演讲效果差。接着是重塑，他分析了这个效果不好的演讲，并且从那些起作用和不起作用的演讲中吸取教训为将来做准备。最后，需要有这样一种观点，那就是承认，在广阔的生命当中，一次演讲根本算不上什么。
