Passage 2
Starting from the mid-1990s, the international financial crisis has hit almost the whole world. The global financial system is breaking apart and it is hurtling ever more national economies in the abyss( 深渊) with it. In order to earn foreign exchange, the economies are forced to dump the rest of their production onto the shrinking world market at bargain-basement prices. That is why the average prices of raw materials are currently at their lowest level since the mid-1970s. But it was not only the prices for raw materials that collapsed; collapsing prices and reduced demand has also hit trade in automobiles, ships, chemical products, and computer chips. Now it is hitting the core of the Western industrial countries, which are heavily export-dependent.
Looking at world economic developments from the west European point of view, the gale warnings are up. East Asia, which had accounted for more than half of the additional worldwide demand for industrial goods of all kinds since the beginning of 1990s, has largely dropped away as an importer.
The supposed land of economic miracles of the past year, the United States, which increased its imports from Germany in 1997 by 30%, is finally showing the traces of the global economic collapse. On Nov.8，1998, representatives of the US government threaten the European Union with trade war. They warned that a “protectionist fire ” would take hold in the United States if the European were not willing to massively reduce their trade surplus. US representatives had made similar threats against Japan one year before. The backdrop of these threats is, of course, the explosive growth of the US balance of payments deficit.
51.The trade war against Japan had successfully decreased the US’s trade deficit.
A、True
B、False
【正确答案】：B
【名师解析】:根据文章内容，美国政府在1998年11月8日对欧盟发出了贸易战的威胁，警告说如果欧洲不大幅减少贸易顺差，美国将采取保护主义措施。文章中提到，美国代表一年前也对日本发出了类似的威胁。然而，文章并没有提到这些威胁是否成功地减少了美国的贸易逆差。因此，选项51中提到的"贸易战对日本成功减少了美国的贸易逆差"这一说法在文中没有依据，所以答案是B. False。
