作為一項考察綜合英語語言能力的考試，托福各單項之間并不是孤立的，備考過程中我們也不應該把單項復習孤立，從讀寫方面來看，托福閱讀和托福寫作的備考就可以結合起來，我們可以通過補充閱讀一些雙語素材，借鑒學習地道的西方寫作風格與思路，積累優秀詞匯詞組表達并運用到自己的托福寫作練習中。下面我們來看一篇托福雙語閱讀材料：Who will be the next head of the Federal Reserve?
美聯儲的下一任主席
利率競賽
美聯儲下任主席花落誰家?
The Economist Global Business Review
The Fed’s next chair
Rate race
Who will be the next head of the Federal Reserve?
LOOK only at unemployment and inflation, says Peter Conti-Brown, a historian of the Federal Reserve, and Janet Yellen is the Fed’s most successful boss of all time. The second indicator may be below target, but that is a blip compared with the recessions most Fed chairmen have endured. So it is perhaps not surprising that President Donald Trump is openly considering retaining Ms Yellen, a Democrat installed by Barack Obama, after her term ends in February 2018. Nor by historical standards is it odd: the Fed’s past three leaders were all reappointed by presidents from the other party. Yet Ms Yellen, whom Mr Trump criticised on the campaign trail, is not the leading candidate. PredictIt, a betting site, gives her a 28% chance of staying put. In front of her, with a 36% chance of appointment, is someone else Mr Trump is publicly weighing up: Gary Cohn (pictured on the left).如果只看失業率和通貨膨脹率，珍妮特·耶倫是美聯儲有史以來最成功的掌門人，研究美聯儲的歷史學家彼得·康迪-布朗(Peter Conti-Brown)這樣表示。第二個指標即通脹率可能低于美聯儲的目標，但這與大多數美聯儲主席經受過的經濟蕭條相比微不足道。因此特朗普總統公開表示正考慮留任由前總統奧巴馬任命、身為民主黨人的耶倫，也許就沒什么好令人驚訝的了。耶倫的任期將于2018年2月結束。從歷史慣例來看，耶倫留任也沒什么不尋常：美聯儲前三任主席都是由來自另一黨派的總統再次任命的。但是，曾被特朗普在競選活動中指摘過的耶倫并非首選對象。博彩網站PredictIt預測耶倫留任的概率為28%。而以36%的任命概率位列她之前的是特朗普公開考量的另一個人——加里·科恩(Gary Cohn，圖中最左者)。
Mr Cohn was until January the chief operating officer and president of Goldman Sachs. He left that role to become the president’s senior economic adviser. A domineering personality, he has amassed influence in the administration, outshining Peter Navarro, Mr Trump’s trade economist. Mr Cohn is often said to lead a “globalist” faction within the White House, against protectionists like Mr Navarro and Steve Bannon, another adviser.今年1月科恩辭去高盛集團總裁兼首席運營官的職務，轉而擔任總統的高級經濟顧問。專橫跋扈的科恩在政府中的影響力日益彰顯，風頭蓋過特朗普的貿易經濟學家彼得·納瓦羅(Peter Navarro)。科恩常被視為在白宮內領導著一個“全球主義”的小派系，與納瓦羅以及另一位經濟顧問史蒂夫·班農(Steve Bannon)等貿易保護主義者針鋒相對。
He would, however, make an unusual Fed chairman. He has no background in economics, even as a student. The previous chief to have been similarly unqualified was William Miller, who spent an unhappy year and a half in 1978 and 1979 presiding over low growth and soaring inflation. A happier comparison is to Marriner Eccles, chairman from 1934 to 1948. Like Mr Cohn—and unlike Miller—Eccles had been a successful financier. Also like Mr Cohn, he was close to the president who appointed him, Franklin Roosevelt. And his lack of economics training did not stop him from backing Keynesian stimulus after the Depression, even before Keynes himself had published “The General Theory”. Eccles made such a mark that the Fed’s headquarters are named after him.然而，如果科恩上臺，他將是一名非同尋常的美聯儲主席。科恩沒有經濟學背景，甚至學生時代也未學過經濟學。之前也有一名同樣資歷欠缺的美聯儲主席威廉·米勒(William Miller)。在他1978至1979年間一年半的糟糕任期里，美國經濟低迷，通脹飆升。另一個更令人鼓舞的比較對象是1934至1948年擔任美聯儲主席的馬瑞納·伊寇斯(Marriner Eccles)。有別于米勒，伊寇斯與科恩都曾是成功的金融家，此外兩人都與任命他們的總統關系密切。伊寇斯由羅斯福總統任命，他也欠缺經濟學背景，但這并不妨礙他在“大蕭條”之后支持凱恩斯主義的經濟刺激政策，那時凱恩斯本人甚至還未出版他的《通論》。伊寇斯留下了如此濃墨重彩的一筆，以至于美聯儲總部大樓都是以他的名字命名的。
Mr Cohn might find the Eccles building staid. It lacks the day-to-day energy of the White House or Treasury, let alone the buzz of the trading floor. Inside, staff quietly digest vast quantities of economic research to prepare for less-than-monthly monetary-policy decisions. Some wonder if Mr Cohn has an appetite for the minute analysis which, unlike the practice in most organisations, is carried out even by the Fed’s leaders. The chairman can, of course, lean on his staff. But one of Miller’s problems, says Mr Conti-Brown, was that he lost the respect of his better-trained colleagues.科恩可能會覺得伊寇斯大樓了無生氣。它缺乏白宮或財政部的日常活力，更別說像交易大廳那樣的喧鬧了。在大樓內，員工們悄無聲息地分析處理海量的經濟研究，為不到一個月就要進行一次的貨幣政策決策做準備。有人懷疑科恩是否對這樣細致入微的分析有興趣。和大多數機構的做法不同，在美聯儲，就連領導層也要做這項工作。主席當然可以倚仗員工來出力。不過康迪-布朗指出，米勒的問題之一就是他失去了比自己更加訓練有素的同事們的尊重。
The Fed’s chairman has to be confirmed by the Senate, and some doubt whether it would accept Mr Cohn. Despite the Republicans’ control of the chamber, Ms Yellen, given her record, may be a surer bet. Yet the praise for her record can be overdone. She has not been tested by many economic shocks. And the inflation shortfall—underlying inflation, currently 1.5%, has not hit the Fed’s 2% target during her tenure—was not entirely unforeseen. Larry Summers, the former treasury secretary whom she beat to the job, has been relentlessly advocating looser monetary policy to stoke more inflation. Ironically, Ms Yellen’s main charm for Mr Trump seems to be that she is “a low-interest-rate person”. In truth, she relies on the unemployment rate to guide her. While it was too high, she was doveish. Now it is just 4.3%, she seems comparatively hawkish.美聯儲主席的任命必須得到參議院批準，而一些人懷疑科恩得不到參議院的認可。盡管國會由共和黨控制，但從耶倫的履歷看，她似乎是更可靠的選擇。不過對耶倫的履歷或許有過譽之嫌。她沒有經歷過很多經濟沖擊的考驗。她任期內的通脹率不足(目前的基礎通脹率為1.5%，未達到美聯儲2%的目標)并不是完全無法預料的。曾在美聯儲主席角逐中輸給耶倫的前財政部長拉里·薩默斯(Larry Summers)一直堅持不懈地倡導更加寬松的貨幣政策以提升通脹。諷刺的是，對特朗普來說，耶倫最大的魅力似乎在于她是“一個主張低利率的人”。而事實上，失業率才是耶倫的行動指南。當失業率過高時，她是溫和的鴿派;目前失業率僅為4.3%，她的作風似乎又更偏鷹派。
The Cohn unknowns
科恩未知數
The interest-rate opinions of the favourite to succeed her are less clear. Mr Cohn thinks that monetary policy is a global endeavour, and that central banks may have been playing beggar-thy-neighbour. In March 2016 he told a conference that if every central bank suddenly raised interest rates by three percentage points, “the world would be a better place”. Yet he also said he was not sure Ms Yellen had been right to raise rates three months earlier. And he criticised the Fed’s recent forward guidance as confusing for the markets. He said it should worry more about what it does than what it says.作為接替耶倫的最熱門人選，科恩對于利率的觀點就不那么清晰。他認為貨幣政策需要全球共同的努力，而各國央行可能一直都在玩著損人利己的把戲。2016年3月，他在一次會議上表示，如果每個國家的央行都將利率驟然提高三個百分點，“世界將變得更美好”。但他同時也表示，自己不能確定耶倫三個月前加息的做法是否正確。他還批評美聯儲最近一次的“前瞻性指引”令市場困惑。他說，比起“所說”，美聯儲更應該擔心自己的“所做”。
The Fed is not only responsible for monetary policy. It is also the biggest regulator of banks. Here Mr Cohn is more in sync with Mr Trump’s deregulatory agenda. However, that may not matter much. The president recently nominated Randal Quarles, another critic of recent regulation, to be vice-chairman for supervision, a post left empty since it was created in 2010 (though in practice the job was done by Daniel Tarullo, who left the Fed in April). Whoever heads the Fed, Mr Quarles will probably take the lead on regulation.除了主管貨幣政策，美聯儲還是各家銀行最大的監管機構。就此職能而言，科恩與計劃放松金融監管的特朗普更能協同一致。然而，這可能也不大重要。總統最近提名了另一位對近年監管政策持批評態度的蘭德爾·夸爾斯(Randal Quarles)為美聯儲負責金融監管的副主席——該職位自2010年設立以來一直處于空缺狀態，不過這項工作實際上是由今年4月從美聯儲辭職的丹尼爾·塔魯洛(Daniel Tarullo)承擔了。無論誰就任美聯儲主席，夸爾斯都有可能負責金融監管。
Other candidates are in the frame. Kevin Warsh (pictured on the right), a former banker who was a Fed policymaker from 2006 to 2011, appears to be manoeuvring for the job. Republicans in Congress may favour John Taylor (in glasses), a Stanford academic who devised a mathematical rule that describes central banks’ actions and, like many Republicans, wants the Fed to follow such an algorithm.圖片中還有另兩名候選人。前銀行家、2006至2011年擔任美聯儲理事的凱文·沃什(Kevin Warsh，圖中最右者)似乎也有意角逐主席之位。國會中的共和黨人則可能更支持斯坦福大學學者約翰·泰勒(John Taylor，圖中戴眼鏡者)，他發明了一條數學規則來描述各國央行的貨幣政策行為。和很多共和黨人一樣，他希望美聯儲采用這樣一個規則。
The two outsiders have contrasting skills. Mr Warsh is a smooth-talking politician who may lack the intellectual firepower of past Fed chairs. Nobody can doubt Mr Taylor’s braininess. But he did not leave much of a mark on Washington during previous stints there, most recently at the Treasury during George W. Bush’s first presidential term. So he may lack the political nous the job demands. In any case, Mr Warsh and Mr Taylor may well both be too hawkish for Mr Trump. After the financial crisis, both opposed the Fed’s quantitative easing (QE)—ie, purchases of securities using newly created money—warning of a surge in inflation. In fact, inflation has mostly been too low since then.獲勝希望渺茫的沃什和泰勒各有所長。沃什是一個能言善道的政客，但可能缺乏歷任美聯儲主席的深厚學養。沒人能質疑泰勒的學識，但他之前在華盛頓任職期間鮮有建樹(最近一次是在小布什第一任期內任職財政部)，因此他可能缺乏該職位所需的政治智慧。無論如何，對特朗普來說，沃什和泰勒兩人很可能都過于鷹派。金融危機之后，他倆都反對美聯儲的量化寬松貨幣政策，即用新增貨幣購買證券。他們警告此舉會引發急劇的通貨膨脹。而實際上，從那時起，通脹率大多都過低。
No names spring to mind, but Mr Trump still has time to find a trained economist who is a Republican and yet tends towards Ms Yellen’s views on interest rates. Even such a conservative dove might shake up the Fed. Republicans have long complained about its $1.8trn portfolio of mortgage-backed securities, a result of QE. The central bank hopes to start unwinding QE soon, but its current plans would leave some mortgage-backed securities on its balance-sheet for more than a decade. A Republican chairman might make his mark by offloading these securities faster. But given the stability of Ms Yellen’s tenure, markets could be forgiven for wanting as few changes as possible.盡管目前還沒有名字跳將出來，但特朗普仍有時間去找到這樣一個人：一位訓練有素的經濟學家，是共和黨人，但在利率上傾向于耶倫的觀點。而即使這樣一個保守的鴿派人士仍有可能撼動美聯儲。長時間來，共和黨人對美聯儲量化寬松的產物——1.8萬億美元的抵押貸款證券投資組合——頗為不滿。美聯儲希望不久之后開始解除量化寬松，但它目前的計劃會讓一些抵押貸款證券在其資產負債表上留存十年以上。如果一位共和黨籍主席能夠更快速地清理掉這些證券，那他將一舉成名。但是考慮到耶倫任內的穩定性，市場希望盡可能少的變動也情有可原。
托福閱讀和寫作能力的提升都不適合短期突擊速成，想要提高托福綜合讀寫能力，我們需要盡可能多的利用各類英文材料或雙語材料，通過精讀積累亮眼表達，通過泛讀提高語感和英文敏感度。
