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Made in the USA: An Export Boom

In his State of the Union address two years ago, President Obama argued that in order to recover from the economic recession, one of the few things the U．S. needed to do was to export more goods around the world. That night, the president unveiled a new goal: to double U．S. exports over the next five years. It would be an increase that the president said would “support two million jobs in America.”

Most economists dismissed the promise at the time as something unrealistic, but two years later, the U．S. is on pace to meet that goal. American exports are up 34 percent since the president gave that speech, and the number continues to rise.

Competitive In A Global Market

Marlin Steel, a metal working business in Baltimore, makes parts that ship all across the world.“ We export to 36 countries，” owner Drew Greenblatt tells All Things Considered Host Guy Raz. “We're working around the clock, and we're growing.”

It's not just advanced manufacturing exports on the rise, but pork, cattle and all kinds of agricultural exports are up as well. Even American craft beer has found an export market.

Flying Dog CEO Jim Caruso says that increasingly, people all over the world are trying the beer from the Maryland-based brewery. Caruso says，“Even in those top beer-producing countries, a competitive American product is finding a market.”

Services Are Exports, Too

Another place exports are coming from is New York City—in particular, the 30^th floor of a Manhattan skyscraper on 5^th Avenue and 52^nd Street. That's where the consulting firm Kurt Solomon lies. It doesn't actually produce a product for export; it provides management advice and strategy.

“Four out of every five Americans is now employed in the service industry，” the nation's top trade official, Ron Kirk says, “Services are a significant part of our exports, and make up about a quarter of our exported goods.” These services can include everything from legal consulting, finance, information technology and even engineering.

And There Are Other Factors

So why has there been an increase of more than 30 percent for exports in almost everything? Part of the increase, at least for the manufacturing side, is due to better technology, says Tyler Cowen, an economist. “A lot of it is being driven by smart machines，” he tells Raz，“The U．S. has high wage rates, which is a disadvantage, but if machines are doing a lot of the work, that doesn't matter.”

China factors a lot in America's export economy, too. “Wages in China have been going up as the country becomes more productive. Thus China is losing the cheap labor advantage it has held for some time.” Cowen says.

Will Jobs Grow, too?

“Companies have become more productive by dismissing workers and lowering costs.” Cowen says, “So I don't view exporting as a way of creating a very large number of jobs, but it will create more profits.”

So not every business or worker is necessarily benefiting from the export boom in the U．S., and Cowen says that could ultimately lead to a polarization(两极) of economic outcomes.

Made In the USA: An Export Boom

短文改错　（每小题1分，满分10分）

We are now living in an information world that TV, cell phones and the Web are wide used. It seems that many people can not enjoy them without them. However, if I had to give up one of them, I will turn off the TV rather than switch off my cell phone and cut off the Internet. I could do without TV because few show take my fancy and there’re too many commercials. Besides, most programs on the TV are also available elsewhere. As for cell phones and the Web, they are more necessarily to me. I need a cell phone to keep touch with my friends and family, and almost all information can be gather on the Internet.

Something in chocolate could be used to stop coughs and lead to more effective medicines, say UK researchers.

Their study found that theobromine（可可碱）, found in cocoa, was nearly a third more effective in stopping coughs than codeine, which was considered the best cough medicine at present.

The Imperial College London researchers who published their results online said the discovery could lead to more effective cough treatment. “While coughing is not necessarily harmful it can have a major effect on the quality of life, and this discovery could be a huge step forward in treating this problem,” said Professor Peter Barnes.

Ten healthy volunteers were given theobromine, codeine or placebo, a pill that contains no medicine, during the experiment. Neither the volunteers nor the researchers knew who received which pill. The researchers then measured levels of capsaicin, which is used in research to cause coughing and as a sign of how well the medicines are stopping coughs.

The team found that, when the volunteers were given theobromine, the capsaicin needed to produce a cough was around a third higher than in the placebo group. When they were given codeine they needed only slightly higher levers of capsaicin to cause a cough compared with the placebo.

The researchers said that theobromine worked by keeping down a nerve activity(神经活动), which cause coughing. They also found that unlike some standard cough treatments, theobromine caused no side effects such as sleepiness.

1.According to Professor Barnes, theobromine ______.

A. cannot be as effective as codeine

B. can be harmful to people’s health

C. cannot be separated from chocolate

D. can be a more effective cure for coughs

2.What was used in the experiment to cause coughing?

A. Theobromine.                          B. Codeine.             C. Capsaicin.                    D. Placebo.

3.We learn from the text that volunteers in the experiment _____.

A. were patients with bad coughs

B. were divided into the three groups

C. received standard treatments

D. suffered little side effects

4.Which of the following would be the best title for the text?

A. Codeine: A New Medicine

B. Chocolate May Cure Coughs

C. Cough Treatment: A Hard Case

D. Theobromine Can Cause Coughs

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Some of us fail to learn that pain is the body’s way of informing the mind ______ we are doing something wrong, not necessarily ______ something is wrong.

A. that, what                         B. that, that                   C. what, that                           D. what, what

While income worry is a rather common problem of the aged, loneliness is another problem that aged parents may face. Of all the reasons that explain their loneliness, a large geographical distance between parents and their children is the major one. This phenomenon is commonly known as "Empty Nest Syndrome”（空巢综合症）．

In order to seek better chances outside their countries, many young people have gone abroad, leaving their parents behind with no clear idea of when they will return home. Their parents spend countless lonely days and nights, taking care of themselves, in the hope that someday their children will come back to stay with them. The fact that most of these young people have gone to Europeanized or Americanized societies makes it unlikely that they will hold as tightly to the value of duty as they would have if they had not left their countries. Whatever the case, it has been noted that the values they hold do not necessarily match what they actually do. This geographical and cultural distance also prevents the grown-up children from providing response in time for their aged parents living by themselves.

The situation in which grown-up children live far away from their aged parents has been described as "distant parent phenomenon", which is common both in developed countries and in developing countries. Our society has not yet been well prepared for "Empty Nest Syndrome".

1.According to the passage, the loneliness of aged parents is mainly caused by __________.

A．their earlier experience of living alone

B．the poor living conditions in their native countries

C．the common worry that they have not saved much money

D．the distance between where parents live and where their children live

2.Many young people have gone abroad, leaving their aged parents behind, to __________.

A．realize their dreams in foreign countries

B．seek a better place for their aged parents

C．live in the countries with more money

D．continue their studies abroad

3.If young people go abroad, __________.

A．they do not hold to the value of duty at all

B．they can give some help to their parents back home

C．they cannot do what they should for their parents

D．they believe what they actually do is right

4.From the last paragraph, we can infer that __________.

A．the situations in the developed and developing countries are different

B．"Empty Nest Syndrome" has arrived unexpectedly in our society

C．children will become independent as soon as they go abroad

D．the aged parents are not fully prepared for "Empty Nest Syndrome"

5.The society discussed in the passage is most probably __________.

A．France           B．America           C．China             D．Britain