Neither a rising standard of living nor balanced trade, by itself, establishes a country's ability to compete in the international marketplace. Both are required simultaneously since standards of living can rise because of growing trade deficits and trade can be balanced by means of a decline in a country's standard of living.

到底选哪个，文章是什么意思呀?

Neither a rising standard of living nor balanced trade, by itself, establishes a country’s ability to compete in the international marketplace. Both are required simultaneously since standards of living can rise because of growing trade deficits and trade can be balanced by means of a decline in a country’s standard of living.

If the facts stated in the passage above are true, a proper test of a country’s ability to be competitive is its ability to

(A) balance its trade while its standard of living rises

(B) balance its trade while its standard of living falls

(C) increase trade deficits while its standard of living rises

(D) decrease trade deficits while its standard of living falls（A）

(E) keep its standard of living constant while trade deficits rise

既不是因为生活水平的提高，也不是因为贸易平衡，建立一个国家在国际市场竞争的能力。两者同时需要.......

这题看阅读，nither .... nor ....., both are required simultaneously ,既不是因为...，也不是因为...，是因为同时需要两者，正确答案A其实就是改写第一句。

谢谢，偶明白了。

其实是by itself 比较 simultaneously；neithor，，nor比较both； 我受后面一句的干扰比较大，老是再想rising of life standard 和 balanced trade的内部逻辑关系，把前面一句话给忘了。