“The word ‘protection’ is no longer taboo (禁忌语)”. This short sentence, uttered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy last month, may have launched a new era in economic history. Why? For decades, Western leaders have believed that lowering trade barriers and tariffs was a natural good. Doing so, they reasoned, would lead to greater economic efficiency and productivity, which in turn would improve human welfare. Championing free trade thus became a moral, not just an economic, cause.
These leaders, of course, weren’t acting out of unselfishness. They knew their economies were the most competitive, so they’d profit most from liberalization. And developing countries feared that their economies would be swamped by superior Western productivity. Today, however, the tables have turned—though few acknowledge it. The West continues to preach free trade, but practices it less and less. Asian, meanwhile, continues to plead for special protection but practices more and more free trade.
That’s why Sarkozy’s words were so important: he finally injected some honesty into the trade debates. The truth is that large parts of the West are losing faith in tree trade, though few leaders admit it. Some economists are more honest. Paul Krugman is one of the few willing to acknowledge that protectionist arguments are returning. In the short run, there will be winners and losers under free trade. This, of course, is what capitalism is all about. But more and more of these losers will be in the West, Economists in the developed world used to love quoting Jonoph Schumpeter, who said that ‘creative destruction” was an essential part of capitalist growth. But they always assumed that destruction would happen over there. When Western workers began losing jobs, suddenly their leaders began to lose faith in their principles, Things have yet to reverse completely. But there’s clearly a negative trend in a Western theory and practice.
A little hypocrisy (虚伪) is not in itself a serious problem. The real problem is that Western governments continue to insist that they retain control of the key global economic and financial institutions while drifting away from global liberalization. Lock at what’s happening at the IMF (International Monetary Fund). The Europeans have demanded that they keep the post of managing director. But all too often, Western officials put their own interests above everyone else’s when they dominate these global institutions.
The time has therefore come for the Asians-who are clearly the new winners in today’s global economy-to provide more intellectual leadership in supporting free trade: Sadly, they have yet to do so. Unless Asians speak out, however, there’s a real danger that Adam Smith’s principles, which have brought so much good to the world, could gradually die. And that would leave all of us, worse off, in one way or another.
1.It can be inferred that “protection” (Line 1, Para.1) means（  ）.
2.The Western leaders preach free trade because （  ）.  
3.By “the tables have turned” (Line 3-4, Para. 2) the author implies that （  ）.  
4.The Western economies used to like the idea of “creative destruction” because it （  ）.  
5.The author uses “IMF” was an example to illustrate the point that（  ）.

powerful 

puzzle 

regulate 

Now that members of Generation Z are graduating college this spring — the most commonly-accepted definition says this generation was born after 1995, give or take a year — the attention has been rising steadily in recent weeks. GenZs are about to hit the streets looking for work in a labor market that’s tighter than it’s been in decades. And employers are planning on hiring about 17 percent more new graduates for jobs in the U S. this year than last, according to a survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Everybody wants to know how the people who will soon inhabit those empty office cubicles will differ from those who came before them.
If “entitled” is the most common adjective, fairly or not, applied to millennials (those born between 1981 and1995), the catchwords for Generation Z are practical and cautious. According to the career counselors and experts who study them, Generation Zs are clear-eyed, economic pragmatists. Despite graduating into the best economy in the past 50 years, Gen Zs know what an economic train wreck looks like. They were impressionable kids during the crash of 2008, when many of their parents lost their jobs or their life savings or both. They aren’t interested in taking any chances. The booming economy seems to have done little to assuage this underlying generational sense of anxious urgency, especially for those who have college debt. College loan balances in the U.S. now stand at a record $1.5 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve.
One survey from Accenture found that 88 percent of graduating seniors this year chose their major with a job in mind. In a 2019 survey of University of Georgia students, meanwhile, the career office found the most desirable trait in a future employer was the ability to offer secure employment (followed by professional development and training, and then inspiring purpose). Job security or stability was the second most important career goal (work-life balance was number one), followed by a sense of being dedicated to a cause or to feel good about serving the greater good.
That's a big change from the previous generation. “Millennials wanted more flexibility in their lives,” notes Tanya Michelsen, Associate Director of YouthSight, a UK-based brand manager that conducts regular 60-day surveys of British youth, in findings that might just as well apply to American youth. “Generation Z are looking for more certainty and stability, because of the rise of the gig economy. They have trouble seeing a financial future and they are quite risk averse.”

（1）Generation Zs graduating college this spring（  ）.

（2）Generation Zs are keenly aware（  ）.

（3）The word “assuage” (line 9, para 2) is closet in meaning to（  ）.

（4）It can be learned from Paragraph 3 that Generation Zs（  ）.

（5）Michelsen thinks that compared with millennials, Generation Zs are（  ）.

compose

foundation 

highly 

instinct 

myth