解答例へ

問題５　

5. 次の英文を読んで以下の問いに答えなさい。

New lamps for old : this is the world's favorite investment strategy for the new millennium.  The dot.com mania that has gripped American investors for the past year or two has now spread to stock markets everywhere.  (   A   ) precipitate has been the rush out of the "old economy" shares and into "new economy" ones that there are now, in effect, two different equity markets.  In one, for most technology stocks, share prices are still rising; in the other, for all other shares, however, there is almost a (  B  ) market. 

Investors are taking a huge gamble with tech stocks, based increasingly on fear as much as optimism: fear of rising interest rates, fear of missing out on the new thing, and fear of underperforming.  ₍₁₎And with so much nervousness around, if their prices show any signs of faltering, the fallout would hit out-of-favor and dot.com shares alike. 

Mary Meeker, of Morgan Stanley, the doyenne of Wall Street's dot.com share analysts, recently estimated that 70% of the Internet companies that have already ₍₁₎gone public will never make any money ???and over 90% are" fully priced" by investors. 

In past stockmarket bubbles, the end stages have often been characterized by a narrowing of the market, and a growing reliance on a shrinking number of spectacularly overvalued shares.  When the bubble bursts, it is these shares that fall hardest but ₍₃₎their demise typically knocks other prices down, too.  Ironically, the recent tough talks by Allan Greenspan about capping the growth of the American economy and its share prices by raising interest rates have, if anything, made investors even keener on tech stocks.  Since their revenues are growing by 40- 50% or more a year and their cost of capital is nearly zero, they are perceived (rightly or wrongly) as fairly (  C  ) to interest rates.  Some Wall Street analysts even claim that, in a world of rising interest rates, technology shares are a "safe haven."  Don't bet on this fairy tale having a happy ending.   

(1)    空欄(A)内に適切な1語を入れなさい．
(2)    空欄(B)内に適切な動物の名前を英語で入れなさい．
(3)    下線部(1)を日本語に訳しなさい。
(4)    下線部(2)と意味がもっとも近いものを選んで記号(イ-ニ)を丸で囲みなさい．
イ issued stock for sale to the general public        ロ　announced something hitherto kept secret
ハ started to seek publicity on the Web                ニ launched business activities on the Internet
(5)    下線部(3)の指す内容を日本語で説明しなさい．
(6)    空欄 ( C )にはいるもっとも適切なものを選んで記号(イ-ニ)を丸で囲みなさい．
イ inappropriate   ロ indifferent        ハ invincible        ニ　insensitive