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  3. In 1929 John D. Rockefeller decided it was time to sell shares when even a shoe-shine boy offered him a share tip. During the pa

In 1929 John D. Rockefeller decided it was time to sell shares when even a shoe-shine boy offered him a share tip. During the pa

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问题     In 1929 John D. Rockefeller decided it was time to sell shares when even a shoe-shine boy offered him a share tip. During the past week The Economist’s economics editor has been-advised by a taxi driver, a plumber and a hairdresser that "you can’t go wrong" investing in housing—the more you own the better. Is this a sign that it is time to get out? At the very least, as house prices around the world climb to ever loftier heights, and more and more people jump on to the buy-to-let ladder, it is time to expose some of the fallacies regularly trotted out by so many self-appointed housing experts.
    One common error is that house prices must continue to rise because of a limited supply of land. For instance, it is argued that "house prices will always rise in London because lots of people want to live here". But this confuses the level of prices with their rate of change. Home prices are bound to be higher in big cities because of land scarcity, but this does not guarantee that urban house prices will keep rising indefinitely—just look at Tokyo’s huge price-drops since 1990. And, though it is true that a fixed supply of homes may push up house prices if the population is rising, this would imply a steady rise in prices, not the 20% annual jumps of recent years.
    A second flawed argument is that low interest rates make buying a home cheaper, and so push up demand and prices. Lower interest rates may have allowed some people, who otherwise could not have afforded a mortgage, to buy a home. But many borrowers who think mortgages are cheaper are suffering from money illusion.
    Interest rates are not very low in real, inflation-adjusted terms. Initial interest payments may seem low in relation to income, but because inflation is also low it will not erode the real burden of debt as swiftly as it once did. So in later years mortgage payments will be much larger in real terms. To argue that low nominal interest rates make buying a home cheaper is like arguing that a car loan paid off over four years is cheaper than one repaid over two years.
    Fallacy number three is a favourite claim of Alan Greenspan, chairman of America’s Federal Reserve. This is that price bubbles are less likely in housing than in the stockmarket because higher transaction costs discourage speculation. In fact, several studies have shown that both in theory and in practice bubbles are more likely in housing than in shares. A study by the IMF finds that a sharp rise in house prices is far more likely to be followed by a bust than is a share-price boom.
What is the relationship between the opening paragraph and the rest of the text?
选项 A、The deadly sins are singled out in the first paragraph and then denied by the author of the text.
B、A generalization is made in the opening paragraph and elaborated in the following paragraphs.
C、The unusual anecdotes are quoted in the first paragraph and then articulated in the following paragraphs.
D、A generalization is advanced in the opening paragraph and refuted in the following paragraphs.
答案B
解析 本题属于中心主旨题类型，测试考生把握全文整体结构和中心主旨的能力。本题的答案信息来源在首段的尾句和第二、三、五段的首句。首段的尾句讲：“到了揭露一些谬论的时候了……”；然后第二、三、五段分别具体阐述和分析了三个谬论。由此可以推断本题的正确选项是B“A generalization is made in the opening paragraph and elaborated in the following paragraphs”(第一段进行概括，在后面的段落对该概括进行阐述)。考生在阅读时要重视原文的整体结构，这样有利于理解原文。
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