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  3. The housing market has been for two years propping up consumers’ spirits while the rest of the economy lies exhausted on the flo

The housing market has been for two years propping up consumers’ spirits while the rest of the economy lies exhausted on the flo

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问题     The housing market has been for two years propping up consumers’ spirits while the rest of the economy lies exhausted on the floor, still trying to struggle to its feet. According to the National Association of Realtors, the national median existing-home price ended the year at $ 164, 000, up 7.1 percent from 2001. That’s the strongest annual increase since 1980.
    Although residential real estate activity makes up less than 8% of total U. S. GDP, a housing market like this one can make the difference between positive and negative growth. Most significantly, consumer spending is 66% of GDP, and the purchase of a new home tends to have an "umbrella effect" on the homeowner’s spending as he has to stock it with a washer/dryer, a new big-screen TV, and maybe a swing set for the yard.
    The main factor in housing’s continued strength is a classic economic example of zero-sum boom: the persistent weakness everywhere else. As the 2003 recovery continues to be more forecast than reality. Falling stock prices raised investor appeal for U. S. Treasury Bonds, which in turn, allowed most interest rates to drift even lower. But there are not many signs that there’s a bubble ready to burst.
    December’s new record in housing starts, for example, was nicely matched by the new record in new home sales. If you build it, they will buy and even if an economic pickup starts to reduce housing’s relative attractiveness, there’s no reason why modest economic growth and improved consumer mood can’t help sustaining housing’s strength. "The momentum gained from low mortgage interest rates will carry strong home sales into 2003, with an improving economy offsetting modestly higher mortgage interest rates as the year progresses," said David Lereah, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors.
    Just as housing has taken up much of the economic slack for the past two years, both as a comforting investment for fretting consumers and a driver of consumer spending itself, a big bump elsewhere in the economy in 2003 could be housing’s downfall. If stocks roar back this spring, capital inflows could steal from the bond market, pushing up long-term interest rates. or Alan Greenspan and the Fed could do the same to short-term rates, as a way to hit the brakes on a recovery that is heating up too fast. In other words, if everything possible goes wrong for housing, homeowners should have plenty to compensate them in terms of job security and income hikes.
The author draws a contrast between the housing market and the rest of the economy to show______
选项 A、the role of real estate activity.
B、the statistics on home prices.
C、the boom of housing market.
D、the degree of consumer spirits.
答案C
解析 题干问：“作者区分房产市场和经济的其他领域是为了说明……”。此题考察文章的背景主题部分，在第1自然段作者直接提出当房地产市场一直保持其强劲的势头时，经济的其他领域却在衰退，并且作者接着在第2自然段讲述了房地产市场的繁荣，因此选项C“房产市场的繁荣”为正确选项。而选项A“房地产活动的重要作用”，选项B“房价的统计数据”和选项D“消费者情绪高涨的程度”都不是作者区分房地产和经济的其他领域的目的。
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