Eventually, the Levitts built 140,000 houses, clustered in Levittowns on Long Island and near Philadelphia for some of the 16 million returning veterans. In the 1950s, the houses grew slightly, to 800 square feet, and came equipped with carports and built-in 12.5-inch Admiral TVs. Clearly no one considered multiple televisions, or that they would be frequently replaced。

　　The Levittown houses were concentrated on the East Coast, but they influenced suburban development throughout the United States, though elsewhere houses were built manually, as they would be after the postwar building boom. The standard two-bedroom house with an expandable attic became the norm for more than a decade, even as family size mushrooomed。

　　But like much of American society, the middle-class home began to grow over time. The average size of an American house in 1950 was 983 square feet. Slowly, though, both more square footage and more amenities became part of the American dream, so that by 2004 the average home topped 2,300 square feet。

　　What does all that space bring? Small, out-of-the-way bedrooms like those in the Levittown houses’ “expandable attics” can be used when children are at home or guests arrive, and the open plan of their main living spaces has become the kitchen/family room that is the center of the American home today. But many of the “must-have” elements in 2010, like formal living and dining rooms, are redundant. In an era of economic austerity and a seemingly permanent energy crisis, can “less is more” become popular again?

　　Sadly, many of the small, architect-designed houses of the postwar period have been demolished to make way for McMansions. But those that remain, and those we know about from blueprints and photographs, have much to teach us — about the efficient use of space for storage, integrated indoor and outdoor space and the way careful design can facilitate natural ventilation. When you think about how many rooms you actually use, it seems obvious that various ideas from that optimistic era could make the next decade a happier, saner one than the overstuffed times we’ve just lived through。

　　Text 4文章取自The Economist(经济学家)2010年7月10日，原文标题为Staring into the abyss; The future of Europe.。文章属于经济类题材，讲的是欧盟统一的货币体系，它的现状，各国对其的看法以及评价。文章涉及到一些专业词汇和文化背景知识，在做题时还是有一定的难度。

　　点击查看原文：

　　Staring into the abyss; The future of Europe

　　As the euro-zone crisis spooks governments, opinions are diverging dramatically about what the union is for

　　WILL the European Union make it? The question would have sounded outlandish not long ago. Now even the project's greatest cheerleaders talk of a continent facing a "Bermuda triangle" of debt, demographic decline and lower growth。

　　As well as those chronic problems, the EU faces an acute crisis in its economic core, the 16 countries that use the single currency. Markets have lost faith that the euro zone's economies, weaker or stronger, will one day converge thanks to the discipline of sharing a single currency, which denies uncompetitive stragglers the quick fix of devaluation。

　　Yet the debate about how to save Europe's single currency from disintegration is stuck. It is stuck because the euro zone's dominant powers, France and Germany, agree on the need for greater harmonisation within the euro zone, but disagree about what to harmonise。

　　Germany thinks the euro must be saved by stricter rules on borrowing, spending and competitiveness, backed by quasi-automatic sanctions for governments that stray. These might include threats to freeze EU funds for poorer regions and EU mega-projects, and even the suspension of a country's voting rights in EU ministerial councils. It insists that economic co-ordination should involve all 27 members of the EU club, among whom there is a small majority for free-market liberalism and economic rigour; in the inner core alone, Germany fears, a small majority favour French dirigisme。

　　A "southern" camp headed by France wants something different: "European economic government" within an inner core of euro-zone members. Translated, that means politicians meddling in monetary policy and a system of redistribution from richer to poorer members, via cheaper borrowing for governments through common Eurobonds or outright fiscal transfers. Finally, figures close to the French government have murmured, euro-zone members should agree to some fiscal and social harmonisation: eg, curbing competition in corporate-tax rates or labour costs。

　　It is too soon to write off the EU. It remains the world's largest trading block. At its best, the European project is remarkably liberal: built around a single market of 27 rich and poor countries, its internal borders are far more porous to goods, capital and labour than any comparable trading area. It is an ambitious attempt to blunt the sharpest edges of globalisation, and make capitalism benign。

　　The problem is that the "European social model" has become, too often, a synonym for a very expensive way of doing things. It has also become an end in itself, with some EU …

　　从今年考研英语二的文章来看，阅读部分文章均是摘自美国专业刊物，特别是The Economist(经济学家)，如果平时没有一定的阅读积累，做起来还是比较困难的。所以对于后面的考生来说，在平时多阅读一些这样的期刊杂志，积累一些经济、文化方面的专业词汇还是很有必要的。

　　B部分

　　文章取自The Observer(观察家报)，文章标题为UK doctors declare war on junk food(英医学界号召打击垃圾食品)。选的是大纲中第一种备选题型：多项对应。背景知识：英国两家皇家医学院的院长敦促政府对不健康食物的广告和赞助宣传进行限制。他们建议英国政府对垃圾食品征收“脂肪税”，同时向儿童发出同“吸烟有害健康”同等级的垃圾食物食用警告。

　　点击查看原文：

　　UK doctors declare war on junk food

　　Leading doctors in Britain will today demand tough government action to curb the nation's addiction to unhealthy food, and so help halt spiralling rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease。

　　Senior medical figures want to stop fast-food outlets opening near schools, restrict the advertising of products high in fat, salt or sugar and limit sponsorship of sports events by fast-food producers such as McDonald's。

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