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  3. As state and federal authorities announced the details of their $26 billion mortgage settlement with big banks on Thursday, mill

As state and federal authorities announced the details of their $26 billion mortgage settlement with big banks on Thursday, mill

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问题     As state and federal authorities announced the details of their $26 billion mortgage settlement with big banks on Thursday, millions of American homeowners were hoping that this time they would finally get relief.
    The bulk of the settlement, about $20 billion, would go to one million American homeowners who would have their mortgage debts reduced or their loans refinanced at a lower interest rate. It also includes $1.5 billion for roughly 750,000 people who lost their homes to foreclosure between 2008 and 2011, with each receiving between $1,500 and $2,000.
    Economists do not expect a big boost for the economy, in part because the banks have three years to distribute the aid. Some experts questioned whether the accord would do much to stabilize the housing market and its glut of millions of foreclosed homes.
    Critics also pointed to the fact that millions of mortgages owned by the government’s housing finance agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, would not be covered under the deal, excluding about half the nation’s mortgages.
    "The effect of this settlement will be catalytic," Shaun Donovan, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, said in an interview. He predicted it would spur more loan modifications through existing government programs as well as principal reductions—when loan debt is written down for borrowers who owe more than what their home is worth—as well as additional mortgage relief provided by banks.
    Advocates for homeowners facing foreclosure expressed cautious optimism after the settlement was announced on Thursday morning in Washington. "We’re hopeful," said Joseph Sant, a lawyer at Staten Island Legal Services’ homeowner defense project. "But we had a lot of programs that are good on paper. What will make the difference is that it’s vigorously enforced."
    President Obama declared the deal the largest federal-state settlement in the nation’s history.
    "No compensation, no amount of money, no measure of justice is enough to make it right for a family who’s had their piece of the American dream wrongly taken from them," he said. "And no action, no matter how meaningful, is going to by itself entirely heal the housing market. But this settlement is a start."
    Banks stocks were mixed in trading on Thursday, but shares of Bank of America rose 0.62 percent to $8.18, its highest level since September. Much of the money to pay for the settlement has already been reserved, and investors expect the settlement to remove at least one legal worry for Bank of America.
    More than just an attempt to aid consumers and stabilize the housing market, government officials cast the settlement as an effort to finally hold banks accountable for their misdeeds, more than three years after the mortgage collapse brought on a full-scale financial crisis.
                                        From The New York Times, February 12, 2012
What is the passage mainly about?
选项 A、bank misdeeds
B、housing market
C、mortgage plan
D、financial crisis
答案C
解析 本题为主旨题。文章开篇提到了美国出台的住房援助计划，之后提到了计划的部分细节和一些经济学家们对此效果的看法，这些都是围绕援助计划进行的，所以选项C合适。
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