1·In the last few decades of the 20th century, living standards went up and economic depressions were largely averted in the US.
在20世纪的最后几十年里，美国的生活水平提高了，经济萧条在很大程度上得以避免。
2·Before the 1930s all economic downturns were commonly called depressions. The term "recession" was coined later to avoid stirring up nasty memories.
1930年前，人们将各种经济低迷一并称作萧条，为了避免不愉快的回忆才创造出“经济衰退”这个说法。
3·The popular response to vivid accounts of past depressions is partly psychological, but it has a rational base.
对于过往萧条的生动叙述，人们的通常反应大部分是心理上的，但这也建立在一个理性的基础上。
4·Before the 1930s all economic downturns were commonly called depressions.
上世纪30年代以前，所有的经济低迷都称作萧条。
5·Our conjecture was that depressions would be closely connected to stock-market crashes (at least in the sense that a crash would signal a substantially increased chance of a depression).
由此我们得到的推测是：萧条应该是与股市崩溃紧密联系的(至少在某种意义上股市崩溃预示着发生萧条的可能性增加了)。