Passage 1
Finland’s finance minister recently made a bold promise to Europe’s 16m unemployed. His country’s presidency of the EU, which starts on July 1st, will be almost unique: it will be marked by no new job-creation schemes.
Europe’s unemployment, the central bankers declare, is nothing do with macroeconomic policy: it is solely a “structural” problem. This is nonsense. Some of Europe’s unemployment is cyclical, meaning that it could be cut by faster economic growth without sparking inflation. For example, Germany’s unemployment rate is 10.6%. The IMF estimates its structural rate at 8.9%. Faster growth could reduce the gap. Even so the bulk of Europe’s unemployment is structural. So is the European Central Bank right to say that macroeconomic policy cannot affect it?
Well actually, no. Europe’s high structural unemployment cannot be blamed on labor-market rigidities(僵化) alone. Its labor markets were as just as ossified 20 years ago, yet joblessness was then far lower. However, there is a danger that, when labor markets are gummed up, a cyclical rise in unemployment can turn into a structural one——making it impervious(不受影响的) to an economic upturn. For example, strict employment-protection laws make it hard for workers who lose their jobs to find new ones. The longer they stayed unemployed, the more their skill rust and the less employers are likely to hire them. Unable to compete effectively for jobs, they no longer help retrain pay demands: They have become “structurally” unemployed.
42.Finland’s presidency of the EU will solve the Europe’s unemployment.
A、True
B、False
【正确答案】：B
【名师解析】:芬兰的财政部长最近向欧洲的1600万失业者做出了一个大胆的承诺，即芬兰在7月1日开始的欧盟主席国任期内，将几乎不会推出新的就业创造计划。欧洲的中央银行家们声称，欧洲的失业问题与宏观经济政策无关，完全是"结构性"问题。但这种说法是错误的。欧洲的一些失业是周期性的，意味着通过更快的经济增长可以减少失业，而不会触发通货膨胀。例如，德国的失业率是10.6%，国际货币基金组织估计其结构性失业率为8.9%。更快的增长可以缩小这一差距。即便如此，欧洲的大部分失业是结构性的。那么，欧洲央行是否正确地认为宏观经济政策不能影响它呢？
实际上，不是的。欧洲的高结构性失业不能仅仅归咎于劳动市场的僵化。20年前，欧洲的劳动市场同样僵化，但那时的失业率要低得多。然而，存在一种危险，即当劳动市场受阻时，周期性的失业上升可能变成结构性的——使其对经济复苏不受影响。例如，严格的就业保护法律使得失业者很难找到新工作。他们失业的时间越长，技能就越退化，雇主就越不可能雇佣他们。无法有效竞争工作，他们就不再帮助提高工资要求：他们已经成为"结构性"失业者。
根据这段文字，芬兰的欧盟主席国任期不会解决欧洲的失业问题，因此题目中的陈述是错误的。
