Since the mid-1960s Southeast Asia has faced a potentially wide-ranging security threat. Well before the events of September 11,

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问题     Since the mid-1960s Southeast Asia has faced a potentially wide-ranging security threat. Well before the events of September 11, the region was enduring a slump in exports and a falloff in foreign investment as Western firms headed to China. Even Singapore’s economy, the region’s strongest, probably shrank by 2% in 2001, while Indonesia, the weakest player, is struggling to avert a new foreign debt crisis.
    Now the region is being seen overseas as a breeding ground for international terrorists. Foreign businesses have stopped sending execs to the region to explore new opportunities, while companies are beefing up security at their offices and homes. Clearly, the region’s governments need to show the world they can keep the peace. That requires achieving a tricky balancing act: Authorities must provide adequate security to foreign firms without being alarmist and scaring them off completely.
    Also vexing for Southeast Asian governments is how to deal with US offers of military assistance. Nations with large Muslim populations cannot afford to make open appeals to the US for help. Nowhere is this more true than in Indonesia, the most likely spot for A1 Qaeda to operate. Indonesia is resisting pressure from the US because it can ill afford a nationalist revenge.
    Southeast Asia’s ailing economies won’t easily weather another round of investor disenchantment. As it is, foreign businesspeople are becoming increasingly jittery. The perceived growth of radical Islam is clearly having a deleterious impact on the Indonesian economy. To be sure, the weak global economy is responsible for some of the dropoff in orders. But the numbers make grim reading. Indonesian exports fell from $3.6 billion in October to $3 billion in November, 2001, a drop of 16% in one month, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. Foreign direct investment plunged from $1.9 billion in November, 2001 to $630 million in December of the same year.
    Meanwhile, Indonesia’s domestic economy is feeling increasingly vulnerable. Wanandi, the CEO of an auto assembling company, believes the government is not doing enough! Like most Indonesians, Wanandi agrees that inviting in US troops is politically impossible. He is calling instead for the Indonesian military to be given greater powers to crack down on militant groups. "There is a lot of competition between the army and the police," he says. "That’s why a lot of bombing is going on. No one is being punished."
    The trouble is, the foe is maddeningly elusive. But until the threat fades, Southeast Asia will have to deal with declining foreign investment, jittery execs, and, in Indonesia, rising poverty and instability — the very environment in which terror groups thrive.
The word "deleterious" (Para. 4, Line 3) most probably means ______.

选项 A、harmful
B、noticeable
C、decreasing
D、benign

答案A

解析 作者在文章中指出,“The perceived growth of radical Islam is clearly having a deleterious impact on the Indonesian economy.”说明伊斯兰教极端主义组织的发展,显然会 对印度尼西亚的经济产生有害的影响。harmful“有害的”,最符合题意。noticeable“可以 注意到的”;decreasing“下降的,减少的”;benign“良性的,友好的”。
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