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  3. Britain’s housing market is like food in a microwave, says Spencer Dale, the chief economist at the Bank of England. It can " tu

Britain’s housing market is like food in a microwave, says Spencer Dale, the chief economist at the Bank of England. It can " tu

admin2016-03-21  20
问题     Britain’s housing market is like food in a microwave, says Spencer Dale, the chief economist at the Bank of England. It can " turn from lukewarm to scalding hot in a matter of a few economic seconds". Since the crisis the bank has gained new tools to control the market’s temperature. Now that the heat is rising, it may soon start testing them out.
    Until last year house prices were rising predominantly in prosperous central London boroughs. That was largely because of an influx of cash-rich buyers, says Neal Hudson of Savills, an estate agency. People saw posh property in the capital as a shelter from economic turmoil abroad. Elsewhere in Britain, the housing market was slow. Potential buyers struggled to find mortgages. Falling real wages, economic uncertainty and the memory of declining house prices during the crisis curbed Britons’ passion with property.
    That changed in 2013. Prices rose by 6. 8% in the year to January, according to the Office for National Statistics. They are still increasing fastest in London—up 13.2% compared with last year— but the inflation has spread to outer boroughs. In Brent, an unfashionable part of north-west London, prices have risen 31% in a year, according to a report from Nationwide, a building society. It recorded substantial increases in every part of Britain.
    These higher prices are a problem for first-time buyers, but they are not yet unsustainable. Nationally, house prices remain 16% below their pre-crisis peak, adjusted for inflation. Prices are high relative to wages, but that is not surprising. Successive governments have failed to free enough land for new housing development, while preserving plenty of greenbelt. Borrowing costs have fallen over recent decades, in part because of a global excess of savings, making it easier for Britons to sustain large mortgages.
    Even so, the housing market is notoriously prone to bubbles. In January Mark Carney, the bank’s governor, warned MPs of the dangers of "inferred expectations"—people rushing to buy on the assumption that prices will continue to surge. Hints of that are visible. People increasingly think house prices will keep climbing. Even though the government’s "Help to Buy" schemes, which subsidise higher-risk mortgages, are probably having only a moderate direct impact, publicity surrounding them has fed a broader assurance that prices can only go up.
The author’s attitude towards the housing market seems to be______.
选项 A、optimistic
B、apprehensive
C、indifferent
D、ambiguous
答案B
解析 能体现作者对住房市场观点的是最后一段。该段首句指出：Even so，the housingmarket is notoriously prone to bubbles．“即便如此，住房市场还是很可能出现泡沫”。文章接着指出：In January Mark Carney，the bank’s governor，warned MPs of the dangers of“inferredexpectations”…其中warned the dangers of…“警告……的危害”和首句的“出现泡沫”都体现出作者的担忧。故该题答案为[B]apprehensive“担忧的”。
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