free-trade zone

tax breaks

certificate of origin

franchising

spot market

Analysis explains the recent rise in Japan's trade surplus as follows:because of therecession at home,Japan has seen a decline in expensive imports of luxuries,which were enormously fashionable during the second half of the 1980s.This effect has been compounded,thanks to slow growth elsewhere,by low prices for the international commodities that Japanese industry depends upon.Exports of Japanese machinery,on the other hand,withstood the downturn quite well because the Asian economies that buy them continued to boom.

Passage 1The slowdown of the industrial countries in 1991 partly originated in structural problems inherited from the 1980s.Slower growth in Europe in 1991 revealed that unemployment,for instance,was still a structurally problematic area.The unemployment rate in the four largest European economies was 7.8 percent in 1990,near the peak of the business cycle,and rose to 8.3 percent in 1991.Financial stress brought on by excessive debt in the household and corporate sectors was an example of another kind of structural problem,in particular for the economies of Japan and the United States.Financial institutions in these two countries adopted more conservative lending policies ,curtailing financing of higher-risk projects such as commercial construction and highly leveraged corporate transactions.A number of weaker institutions were also consolidated through bankruptcy,merger and reorganization.What does“structural problems”mean in the passage?

Passage 1The slowdown of the industrial countries in 1991 partly originated in structural problems inherited from the 1980s.Slower growth in Europe in 1991 revealed that unemployment,for instance,was still a structurally problematic area.The unemployment rate in the four largest European economies was 7.8 percent in 1990,near the peak of the business cycle,and rose to 8.3 percent in 1991.Financial stress brought on by excessive debt in the household and corporate sectors was an example of another kind of structural problem,in particular for the economies of Japan and the United States.Financial institutions in these two countries adopted more conservative lending policies ,curtailing financing of higher-risk projects such as commercial construction and highly leveraged corporate transactions.A number of weaker institutions were also consolidated through bankruptcy,merger and reorganization.Give some examples of structural problems in the developed countries.

Passage 1The slowdown of the industrial countries in 1991 partly originated in structural problems inherited from the 1980s.Slower growth in Europe in 1991 revealed that unemployment,for instance,was still a structurally problematic area.The unemployment rate in the four largest European economies was 7.8 percent in 1990,near the peak of the business cycle,and rose to 8.3 percent in 1991.Financial stress brought on by excessive debt in the household and corporate sectors was an example of another kind of structural problem,in particular for the economies of Japan and the United States.Financial institutions in these two countries adopted more conservative lending policies ,curtailing financing of higher-risk projects such as commercial construction and highly leveraged corporate transactions.A number of weaker institutions were also consolidated through bankruptcy,merger and reorganization.What do“consolidated”and“more conservative lending policies”mean?

Passage 2Zhangjiagang is a commercial hub of Jiangsu,the fastest-growing province in China.China has the most dynamic economy in the world today.Iis boom radiates from Guangdong,its richest province,but it has spread as far west as Xinjiang,where foreign investors are searching for oil and other natural resources.It is creeping inland,from Jiangsu to the cities of Chongqing and Wuhan,where businessmen from Hong Kong and Taiwan are starting to spend billions of dollars to build factories.And it has penetrated the northeast ,where the city of Shenyang,long a moribund center of state industry,is bustling with new private business.Back in Beijing, officials at China's State Council,or cabinet,are giddy with excitement and exhaustion.“We don't have enough people. We don't have enough time,”says one.“Things are moving too fast.”After a slowdown through 1990, China's economy bounced back mightily ,reaching a recent peak of 13 percent growth last year.Now,some Western experts are predicting that China could become the world's dominant economy early in the 21st century.What do the phrases“China's economy bounced back mightily"and "it has penetrated the northeast”mean?