The biggest obstacle may be the insistence of many developing countries that they will block further liberalization until their gripes over the Uruguay round are addressed. They want their obligations in areas such as intellectual property, investor protection, subsidies and antidumping to be eased. They argue that the Uruguay round has failed to deliver expected benefits in such areas as agriculture and textiles.
Though by no means a monolithic block, the developing countries share a feeling that whatever the promise of liberalization at the WTO, rich countries will conspire to keep their markets closed. Indeed, the EU insists that freeing trade should be controlled, steered and managed according to the concerns of EU citizens. That is in keeping with a view, widespread on the continent, that a protectionist trade policy is a price readily paid for political objectives.
However great these obstacles are, they could be overcome if America were still leading the drive for freer world trade. With its economy doing well, greater access to foreign markets seems a less pressing priority. The Clinton administration is unwilling to make politically painful concessions required to achieve that aim. So there is a possibility that the Seattle round will turn out to be a fiasco. If that happens, it will encourage the anti-WTO groups to go on the offensive. America, the EU and Japan would increasingly be tempted by managed trade.
1. The WTO's transparent and non-discriminatory rules require all member countries to
A exchange domestic markets for foreign markets.
B make concessions in foreign trade.
C adopt the most effective route to free trade.
D enforce trade policies evenhandedly.
2. The difference between America and the EU is over
A e-commerce. B WTO transparency. C agenda. [D]tariffs.
3. The developing countries threaten to block further liberalization because they
A are now conspiring to keep their markets closed.
B want their problems and complaints to be dealt with first.
C cannot afford to deliver benefits in agriculture and textile.
D want no obligations in intellectual property and antidumping.
4. Managed trade in the last sentence probably means
A market management.
B trade protectionism.
C trade concession.
D market priority.
5. The author of the passage seems to be about the prospect of globalization and free trade.
A optimistic B doubtful C impartial [D]. vague
Unit 11
Directions
Read the following text Answer the questions below each text by choosing A,B,C or D. Mark your answer on ANSWER SHEET 1 (40 points)
Text 1
When the American economy was running full-tile two years ago, few places were as breathlessly delighted as Seattle. Its port was thronged with ships bringing goods from Asia. The Boeing company could barely keep up with demand for its airlines. Microsoft was hiring hordes of software engineers. After each rain shower, another internet millionaire sprang up. Here was a city that had it all-Old Economy, New Economy, Not-Yet-Invented-Economy.
Now it has all gone sour. The past 12 months have been a non-stop succession o disappointments. Boeing’s headquarters decamped to Chicago. The internet economy popped alike a balloon in a nail factory, taking with it once-companies such as drugstore.com barely hanging on. And an already troubled Boeing was hit even harder after September 11th both by a steep drop in airliner orders and by losing a $200 billion Joint Strike Fighter contract to Lockheed Martin.
Washington State, battered by what is happening in Seattle, now has the highest unemployment rate in the U.S. ---6.6% compared with 5.4% in the country as a whole. Right behind it is next-door Oregon, another former boom state, with 6.5% of its workforce out of a job, the country’s second-worst figure. In Oregon, manufacturing’s collapse has caused the loss of nearly 30000 jobs in a year, those hit range from freightliner, a maker of heavy lorries, to high-tech companies such as Intel and Fujitsu.
What makes the current plunge so painful is that every part of the economy seems to have stepped into an open manhole at the same time. Three years ago, when Boeing began to remove more than 2000 people that Boeing expects to lay off by the middle of 2002 have to compete with unemployed workers not just from the high-tech industry but from construction work and even the retail sector. Portland now has more jobless than the other parts of Oregon the opposite of how things were years ago.
Even worse, the pacific north-west’s downturn, as well as being deeper than the rest of the country, may also last longer. One reason for fearing this is Boeing’s continuing woes. Nowadays Boeing accounts for less than 5% of employment in the Seattle are, down from 9% two decades ago. But it remains the foundation on which the rest is built. Its network of suppliers and subcontractors gives it a far stronger multiplier effect than, say, Microsoft, which is more an island of prosperity than a center of a web. The chances are that Boeing will not really bounce back until the assumed revival in air travel persuades airline companies to start buying plenty of aircraft again. And that may not be until 2003.
1. by “After each rain shower, another internet millionaire sprang up”(paragraph 1), the text probably means .
A. many people get rich quickly and easily with the new economy.
B. it takes only the time between showers for someone to become boss
C. Seattle’s development is sudden like rain showers
D Seattle has as many business millionaires as its rain showers
2. what can be inferred in the passage concerning Boeing
A its headquarter has been moved from Chicago to Seattle.
B it’s to be blamed for the economic depression in Washington.
C Boeing itself is having a hard time.
D It’s expected to have a revival in the year 2003.
3 what does the text imply about “homegrocer.com” and “drugstore.com”
A they are neither promising companies.
B they are affiliated to large companies.
C they are dealing in medical products.
D they are also affected by the economic crisis.
4. what is special about this economic downturn in Seattle
A all sectors have entered recession at the same time.
B the lay-off workers have found jobs elsewhere.
C the old economy is hit harder than other economies.
D the low employment rate will last longer than in Oregon.
5. we can infer from the last paragraph that .
A Microsoft has a strong multiplier effect on the economy.
B Boeing is crucial for the survival of other companies
C Seattle area’s employment rate has fallen considerably
D the economic foundation of Seattle is Boeing’s continuing prosperity.
Text 2
There is no question that some “greenwashing” is going on in the corporate world. Bayernwerk, a Bavarian utility, began selling “Aqua power” last year when Germany began to let customers choose their electricity supplier. Bayernwerk markets Aqua power as 100 percent green, renewable hydroelectric energy. But any customer who signs up gets power from the same mix of sources as before hydro, gas coal and nuclear. Nothing changes except some accounting, and there is no net benefit to the environment. There is a benefit thought, to Bayernwerk, which charges more for Aqua Power and has been swamped with orders for it.
Greenwashing takes many forms. “Companies often advertise themselves as environmentally friendly even though they might have some pretty hideous environmental records,” says Jill Johnson of the group Earth Day2000. California’s PG&E, the utility that settled out of court after the real Erie accused it of polluting groundwater, runs pro-environmental ads. But PG&E is due in court in November on changes of polluting wells in a second California town. “PG&E has a very good environmental track record,” says spokesman Grey Pruett, citing recycling and waste reduction. Weyerhaeuser, the timber company, cuts old-growth trees in Canada but trumpets the 100 million tree seedlings it will plant this year.
Overall, the greening of corporate America is real and has not been as hard to achieve as some environmental activists imagined. That is especially true for greenhouse gases and climate change, the focus of Earth Day2000. “Now there is more recognition by company that there may be an economic advantage to reduce emission of greenhouse gases.” says Paul Portney, president of the Think Tank Resource for the Fortune. More and more companies are changing the way they heat and light their buildings and design their factories to reduce greenhouse gas emission as well as their energy bills. (Energy-efficiency upgrades can save a company roughly $1 per square foot of office or factory space every year.) The reductions often exceed those called for in the 1997 international agreement on greenhouse warming called Kyoto Treaty, whose goal of reducing greenhouse emission 7 percent from their 2000 levels is deemed so threatening to the economy by many oil, coal and chemicals companies that the White House does not dare to submit it to the Senate for ratification.
1 The “Aqua Power”, sold by the German utility Bayernwerk, is
[A] green energy [B] less expensive
[C] ordinary electricity [D] not popular
2 By “greenwashing “, the author of the passage probably means
[A] reducing and recycling waste
[B] advertising green product
[C] planting tree seedlings
[D] appearing pro-environmental
3 The reduction on greenhouse gas emissions, called for in the Kyoto Treaty , turned out to be
[A] too dangerous for the US economy
[B] unrealistic for the year 2000
[C] good for oil, coal and chemical company
[D] not too difficult to achieve in US
4 Companies like PG&E and Weyerhaeuser tried to promote their environment image because they
[A] realize its economic advantage
[B] would like to be environmentally friendly
[C] would defend themselves against charges
[D] know the importance of sustainable growth
5 The author wrote this passage probably to show that
[A] most companies have a good environmental track record
[B] actions are truly taken by companies to protect the environment
[C] the real motive of companies’ actions is self-centered
[D] serious damages usually occur beneath the surface
Text 3
Islamic terrorism may be a distant threat for Shearer Lumber Products, a timber company based in Idaho. But eco-terrorism is a very real one. In November, the earth liberation front(ELF), and underground organization, gave warning that it had “spiked” trees in the Nez Perce national forest to protest against logging. (Spiking involves hiding metal bars in tree trunks, thereby crippling chain saws and, potentially, hurting people) More such attacks are expected. How do they fit into America’s war on terrorism
The nation’s forests have seen a sharp increase in violent incidents-equipment vandalized, people intimidated-over the past ten years. Shearer now carefully inspects every tree before cutting and has been using metal detectors to check every trunk being processed. Yet Ihor Mereszczak, of the Nez Perce Forest Service, says it has been hard to get the FBI’s attention, and investigations have got nowhere.
The ELF is only one thread in a web of underground radical environmentalists. Its aim is inflicts as much financial pain as possible on organizations or people who, by its lights, are exploiting the environment. The ELF, though made up of anonymous cells, nonetheless operates a website offering tips on how to cause fires with electric timers. Until recently, it also had a public spokesman.
Together with the animal liberation front(ALF), which operates along the same lines, the ELF is estimated to be responsible for over $45m-worth of damage in North America over the past few years. In 1998, it caused fires that did $12m-worth of damage in Vail, Colorado, to made the point that the ski resort’s expansion was threatening places where lynxes live. Earlier this year, the ELF burned down the offices of a lumber company in Oregon. Since September 11th, the ALF and ELF have claimed responsibility for starting a fire at a primate research center in New Mexico, releasing mink from an Iowa fur farm, and firebombing a federal corral for wild horses in California.
Are they terrorists The two groups reject the label, claiming to take all precautions against harming “animals, whether humans or not”. But earlier this year Louis Freeh, the FBI’s boss, listed both organizations among the most active domestic terrorist groups. Scott McInnis, the Republican congressman whose district includes Vail, argues it is only a matter of time before somebody gets hurt, he now expects the FBI to put in more resources.
The House subcommittee on forests, which Mr. McInnis heads, will hold a hearing on eco-terrorism in February. But he has annoyed some mainstream green groups by asking them to denounce the ELF’s and ALF’s methods. Greenpeace, for instance, says that its disapproval is self-evident, and resents being asked to express it. Mr. McInnis still wants their answer by December 1st, but the war on eco-terrorism is off to a rocky start.
1. What did the Earth Liberation Front do to Shearer Lumber Products
A hurt its employees.
B crippled its equipments.
C hid metals in its trees.
D protested against its spiking.
2. We can infer from paragraph 3&4 that
A Shearer has cut too many trees
B metal detectors were used to find terrorists
C ELF recently has appointed a spokesman
D environmental standards of ELF are strict
3 An objective of ELF is to
A inflict financial pains on companies
B stop expansion of ski resort
C protect animal habitats
D burn animal research centers
4 both ELF and ALF rejected being labeled “terrorists” because
A they have no intention to hurt people
B FBI’s officials are difficult to convince
C a hearing is not held on their self-defence
D other green groups refused to condemn them
5 which of the following is the best title for the text
A The Green Threat
B Protecting Forests
C Earth’s Liberation
D Terrorism Defeated
Text 4
The marvelous telephone and television network that has now enmeshed the whole world, making all men neighbours, cannot be extended into space. It will never be possible to converse with anyone on another planet. Even with today’s radio equipment, the messages will take minutes-sometimes hours-on their journey, because radio and light waves travel at the same limited speed of 186000 miles a second.
Twenty years from now you will be able to listen to a friend on mars, but the words you hear will have left his mouth at least three minutes earlier, and your reply will take a corresponding time to reach him. In such circumstances, an exchange of verbal messages is possible-but no a conversation.
