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  3. In the first years of the 21st century, no area of the American economy has excited more emotion than the property market. First

In the first years of the 21st century, no area of the American economy has excited more emotion than the property market. First

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问题     In the first years of the 21st century, no area of the American economy has excited more emotion than the property market. First came the excitement of soaring prices. Then spirits came crashing down with the subprime crisis, and now homeowners are agonizing over how far values could fall. An even bigger story, however, may be yet to come.
    America should be bracing itself for the end of the "generational housing bubble", according to a new study by Dowell Myers and SungHo Ryu of the University of Southern California. As the country’s 78 million baby-boomers retire, the report argues, the housing market will change dramatically. For three decades baby-boomers have helped push prices up: they settled down, and then bought bigger houses and second homes. But as the first of them celebrate their 65th birthdays in 2011, this may change. The old sell more homes than they buy. The ratio of old to working-age people is expected to grow by 67% over the next two decades. Will the younger generation be able to buy all the homes on the market?
    Young adults make up the bulk of new demand, with most purchasing homes when they reach their early 30s. The flood of elderly people selling their homes, Mr. Myers suggests, may lead to a drawn-out buyers’ market. Prices may fall further as younger people, perceiving a downturn, delay purchasing.
    This phenomenon will unfold differently across the country. Some states will begin the sell-off later than others. In 15 southern and western states—including the retirement magnets of Florida and Arizona— the elderly do not become net sellers until their 70s. Expensive states such as California and the cold states of the mid-west and northeast are likely to lose them more quickly. The mismatch between buyers and sellers may be most acute in the rustbelt, where numbers of young people and immigrants are rising slowly, if at all, says William Frey of the Brookings Institution, a think-tank.
    Of course, there may be other outcomes. Suburbs, which swelled with the baby-boomers, may begin to decline. If the building industry contracts, home prices may remain more stable. Or developers may switch to serving the old, building more compact housing near amenities. Towns may make new efforts to attract immigrants, who already accounted for 40% of the growth in homeownership between 2000 and 2006. Among these unknowns, one thing is more certain: the housing market is about to enter a long period of transition. The youngest baby-boomers will not turn 65 until 2029.
The word "drawn-out" (Para. 3) most probably means _____.
选项 A、prolonged
B、declined
C、delayed
D、enlarged
答案A
解析 语义理解题。定位到第三段。此题可以根据其字面意思“拉长的”，以及上下文进行推断。本段提出老龄人口卖房高潮的到来可能导致买方市场的长期存在。段落末提出年轻一代可能延迟购置行为，故推断此形容词与时间有关，A项最贴切，表示长时间的。
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