托福Toefl作文模拟题附范文 第51篇:住在乡下是否比城市好

作者词汇基本功不错，建议今后多用学术词汇；作者有一定功底，可在平时练习中增加长难句的记忆；语言不流畅；连词使用偏少。

Volcker didn't make things easy for the new president. The two men had never met, and a few weeks after taking office, Reagan wanted to get acquainted. In order to avoid the appearance of summoning the Fed chairman to the White House, he asked if he could come see Volcker at the Fed—only to have Volcker send back word that such a visit would be "inappropriate." I was perplexed: I did not see how a visit by the president could compromise the Fed's independence. Nevertheless, Reagan persisted, and finally Volcker allowed that he would be willing to meet at the Treasury Department. The president's opening line at their lunch in Don Regan's office became part of the Reagan legend. He said mildly to Volcker, "I'm curious. People are asking why we need a Fed at all." I am told Volcker's jaw dropped; he had to regroup before coming back with a persuasive defense of the institution. This evidently satisfied Reagan, who went back to being his amiable self. He had communicated that the Federal Reserve Act was subject to change. The two men cooperated quietly from then on. Reagan gave Volcker the political cover he needed; no matter how much people complained, the president made it his practice never to criticize the Fed. And though Volcker was a Democrat, when his term ended in 1983, Reagan reappointed him. In late 1981, Reagan asked me to take the lead in dealing with a colossal headache that had been building for years: Social Security was running out of money. During the Nixon administration, when the program had seemed flush with reserves, Congress had taken the fateful step of indexing benefits to inflation. As inflation soared through the 1970s, so did the costof-living increases in people's Social Security checks. The system was in such financial straits that an added $200 billion was going to be needed as early as 1983 to keep the program afloat. The long-term prospects looked even worse.