To state the extremely obvious, the chief economist of the Bank of England, Andrew Haldane, is an intelligent man. His speeches

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问题     To state the extremely obvious, the chief economist of the Bank of England, Andrew Haldane, is an intelligent man. His speeches on subjects as varied as how to reform economics and the importance of the voluntary sector have been model interventions—both serious and slightly disruptive. Yet when Mr. Haldane writes a newspaper column that claims the post-Covid economy is "poised like a coiled spring", as he did last week, he risks looking not only silly but, worse, choking the debate over the future of the UK.
    To be sure, his argument rests on firm logic. Many workers have spent the past year still employed but with few outlets to spend their incomes, so have built up around £125bn in household savings. And indeed the recent economic news from the UK and elsewhere has been better than hoped.
    Yet this is not a normal recession. Too much rests on factors completely out of the hands of chief executives, finance ministers and central bankers. Mr. Haldane has already sat this class.
    Last summer, he forecast the UK would quickly rebound from its lows, in a recovery shaped like a V. Not long after, the country went into its second lockdown. That V turned into a W. The unknowns about this virus, its mutations and their tendency to spread suggest a need for caution and openness to a wide range of outcomes, rather than unrealistic enthusiasm.
    Take the most recent unemployment reports, which suggest wages are rising strongly even as joblessness goes up. Sounds like good news—while also making zero sense. Another explanation might be that low-paid workers are dropping out of the labor market, distorting the data towards high earners. That would be terrible news, but we can’t be sure either way. Or look at the latest study from University College London, showing that this pandemic and its lockdowns have left Britons feeling gloomy. No surprise there, except the usual life-satisfaction score is 7.7 out of 10, while it is now around 5.5—a worryingly large drop. Some may come bouncing out of lockdown ready to socialize, but others may feel lasting isolation.
    Today, just as the new US government turns against this austerity, key economic policymakers in the UK are preparing for a big belt-tightening. Overconfident projections such as Mr. Haldane’s only encourage that outcome. And consider the recovery that even this self-confessed optimist promises: the well-off spending extravagantly while the less fortunate face unemployment or struggle with the fallout from a lack of schooling and tightly squeezed public services. Is this the best we can do?
According to the last paragraph, the author views current measures with

选项 A、indifference
B、confidence
C、tolerance
D、skepticism

答案D

解析 根据the last paragraph和the author views current measures with定位到最后一段,第一句到第三句描述了当前的各种措施,第四句介绍了作者对此的看法:这是我们能做的最好的了吗?说明作者对于当前的举措持有怀疑的态度,所以正确答案为选项[D]“怀疑的”。
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