Text 4
The housing market has been for two years propping up consumers’ spirits while the rest of the economy lies exhausted on the floor, still trying to struggle to its feet. According to the National Association of Realtors, the national median existing-home price ended the year at $164,000, up 7.1 percent from 2001. That’s the strongest annual increase since 1980.
Although residential real estate activity makes up less than 8% of total U. S. GDP, a housing market like this one can make the difference between positive and negative growth. Most significantly, consumer spending is 66 % of GDP, and the purchase of a new home tends to have an "umbrella effect" on the homeowner’s spending as he has to stock it with a washer/ dryer, a new big-screen TV, and maybe a swing set for the yard.
The main factor in housing’s continued strength is a classic economic example of zero-sum boom: the persistent weakness everywhere e
A. the boom of real estate activity.
B. the statistics on home prices.
C. the role of housing market.
D. the degree of consumer spirits.
Passage Two
American has long been considered the land of opportunity by those from other countries. Americans, too, believe that the United States provides almost limifiess opportunity for those who want to open businesses on their own.
Today, Americans are still fond of trying their hand at becoming small business people, even though only one out of two survives the first two years. Many of these people start their businesses for the wrong reasons: to get away from the paper work of their present jobs or to exchange the responsibility of their present jobs for freer life styles. But more, not less, paper work and responsibility come with ownership of a small business. John Shuttleworth, owner of the recently successful life-ecology news magazine Mother Earth, reports having had to work sixty hours straight in order to bring out the first issue.
John Shuttleworth waited years after conceiving the idea for Mother Earth before he attempted to put out
A. 225,000
B. 50%
C. 95%
D. 450,000
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