News roundup from the Economist – answers
1 At newsstands
2 1) The falling dollar, 2) India’s muslims / moslems, 3) Afghanistan’s opium habit, and 4) polygamy in America
3 The dollar’s tumble (noun) or the tumbling (adjective) dollar.
4 It is at ‘a 20-month low’.
5 That the value of the dollar hadn’t dropped earlier / sooner than it has.
6 Its attractiveness is based on an illusion.
7 That America’s economy has outperformed other rich countries’ economies in recent years – the editorial suggests that this is untrue.
8 Its population growth.
9 In America
10 In the euro zone
11 1) Consumer spending and 2) dwindling savings, and 3) increased borrowing
12 That there’s a lot of scope (= room / opportunity) for improvement.
13 To spell doom (doom = death, destruction or any very bad situation that cannot be avoided).
14 No, not necessarily.
15 A gradual drop in the dollar’s value.
16 Because the fear of inflation becoming serious in America could lead to investors getting frightened, so withdrawing their investments, and this could bring about a world recession.
17 To be 1) in prison 2) unemployed, 3) illiterate and 4) poor
18 150 million moslems are missing out on India’s fast-rising economy
19 In old parts of big cities, eg Delhi, or in slums.
20 In the fast-growing new suburbs (where wealth is created and spent)
21 In the north and east
22 They are 1) poorer 2) less well-governed and 3) have fewer primary schools than in the south and west of the country.
23 ‘Rural Uttar Pradesh is home to about a fifth of muslims.’
24 He suggests that Muslims’ problems are more the consequence of geography than religion.
25 They found themselves deep in debt.
26 Soared
27 92%
28 They push up the exchange rate and other prices.
29 It is ‘not competitive’.
30 It would be devastating for the Afghan economy (unless this was accompanied by decades of development to stop the economy collapsing).
Or The Afghan GDP could slip (= deteriorate) by about 11%by 2010 if there were a complete ban on opium.
The economy is ‘badly hooked on heroin’ is a play on words. It indicates that this is a bad habit which will be difficult to change.