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House-price falls are gathering momentum and are spreading across the UK, according to a monthly poll of surveyors which on Monday delivered its gloomiest reading for nearly 12 years.
Fifty-six per cent of surveyors contacted by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reported price falls in the three months to October. Only 3 per cent saw prices rise in their area, compared with 58 per cent as recently as May.
There was further evidence of slowing activity in the property market as the number of sales per surveyor dived to a nine-year low. Unsold stock on agents’ books has increased 10 per cent since the summer. Ian Perry, Rics’ national housing spokesman, said it was now very clear that buyers were unsettled by higher interest rates.
The Bank of England raised rates five times to 4.75 per cent over the last year to cool the property boom.
But he also blamed comments by Mervyn King, the Bank’s governor,
A. the present house price falls are at most a momentary phenomenon.
B. the property market is experiencing its most depressing time over the decade.
C. 58 percent of surveyors contacted started to encounter house price falls in May.
D. Rics' widely-followed headline indicator began to fall since Dec. 1992.
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House-price falls are gathering momentum and are spreading across the UK, according to a monthly poll of surveyors which on Monday delivered its gloomiest reading for nearly 12 years.
Fifty-six per cent of surveyors contacted by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reported price falls in the three months to October. Only 3 per cent saw prices rise in their area, compared with 58 per cent as recently as May.
There was further evidence of slowing activity in the property market as the number of sales per surveyor dived to a nine-year low. Unsold stock on agents’ books has increased 10 per cent since the summer. Ian Perry, Rics’ national housing spokesman, said it was now very clear that buyers were unsettled by higher interest rates.
The Bank of England raised rates five times to 4.75 per cent over the last year to cool the property boom.
But he also blamed comments by Mervyn King, the Bank’s governor,
A. the house-price falls may continue for a while.
B. people's uncertainty about the market is ungrounded.
C. there was always exception to the rule of rising prices.
D. people are certainly ready to buy more than befor
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The entertainment industry and technology companies have been warring for years over the dazzling ability of computers and the Internet to copy and transmit music and movies.
A crucial battle ended this week with a ruling by America’s Supreme Court in favour of copyright holder and against two companies that distribute peer-to-peer (P2P) software, which lets users share files online with others. The court’s decision, though ostensibly a victory for content providers, is. nevertheless unlikely to stamp out file sharing—much of which will continue from outside America—or stop the technological innovation that is threatening the current business models of media firms.
The court was asked to decide whether two firms, Grokster and StreamCast, were liable for copyright infringement by their customers. Two lower courts had said that the firms were not liable, citing a 1984 ruling in favour of Sony’s Betamax video record
A. piracy to some extent be advocated.
B. content providers promote tech innovation.
C. all entertainment firms protect the copyright.
D. better fee-based services be offered to combat piracy.
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