News Exercise #39

Questions:

1) The reporter said people are getting cars thanks to ‘sub-prime lending’. According to her, what is this? 0:22
2) How is this situation for the car dealer, Steve? 0:49
3) How did Steve describe the current situation? At 1:03 he said ‘I think we’re __________ from ___________ when __________, but we should __________.
4) At 1:13 how did the reporter explain what “nearly destroyed the financial system in 2007”?
5) What are auto shows attracting? 1:52
6) She finished with s rhetorical question: “What could possibly go wrong?” Why does she use a question with no answer?

Answers:
1) Loans to people with poor credit.
2) The reporter said that is was ‘a mixed blessing’, meaning both good and bad points. He said “On a micro way I’m very happy. But long term if something is not good, it’s not good.”
3) He use a mixed metaphor, which was a little confusing, but he said “I think we’re quite a distance from the point in time when the alarm bells have to go off, but we should be turning up the volume a little bit more and listening.”
4) “It was mortgage lending to people of higher risk of not repaying their debt that nearly destroyed the financial system in 2007.”
5) “Auto shows are attracting huge numbers of eager buyers who, in turn, are attracting huge numbers of risky loans.”
6)  The rhetorical question “What could possibly go wrong?” is a kind of sarcasm, meaning there is no need to answer because the answer is so obvious: many things could go wrong.