外刊经贸知识选读2012年4月真题试题及答案解析（00096）

Once, when Japan faced pressure from abroad, it would either give in reluctantly or keep quiet and hope that the fuss would die down. No longer, it seems. The Clinton administration strongly believes in exerting such pressure. Its policy is to open some Japanese markets by setting import target—an approach to trade policy that supporters call “results-oriented”. This ugly term foreshadows uncertain consequences. Far from capitulating to this new thrust of American trade policy, Japan is taking a stand that could lead to a trans-Pacific confrontation.

One of the next challenges Asia will face is to cope with the down side of wealth.

The newly-industrialized countries are moving away from the labor-intensive sweatshops to the computer-aided workplaces.

The two driving forces of the new cycle of development in Asia are the rich middle class and infrastructure spending.

Passage 2

The numbers are surprising: millions of people getting off poverty in a generation, billions of dollars in wealth created every year. In the past two decades, two out of five Indonesians escaped poverty. Asian exports went from less than one-seventh of the world total to almost 30%. No wonder people call it the Asian Economic Miracle. But to the workers and 14-hour-a-day entrepreneurs, it was nothing magical. Just plain hard work, business sense, a taste for risks, and a bit of luck.Today, China, Japan, India, Indonesia and South Korea are among the world’s 12 largest economies. High-profile Asian businesses like Toyota, Samsung, Hongkong Bank and Singapore Airlines are now also global giants. And the growth formula of enterprise, investment and exports has crossed borders and waters. China and other socialist economies of Asia are following the trail blazed by Japan, the newly industrialized countries (NICs) and ASEAN.Now Asia is re-inventing the miracle. The affluent middle class created by the boom is taking over from exports as the main engine of growth. Also adding to the thrust is infrastructure spending to support future expansion. Asian investment and trade are developing new markets and production centers right inside Asia. Japan and the NICs are passing labor-intensive sectors like garment-making over to less developed nations and moving into advanced technology and services.Greater wealth has brought a down side. Many Asians have abandoned their traditional diets for many types of fat-laden foods. So, in addition to becoming taller, they are also becoming fatter. And they are growing more susceptible to diseases such as diabetes. Bad eating habits combined with stress have made cancer, heart disease and strokes into major killers.

The workers and entrepreneurs in Asia work 14 hours a day.

The economic development modes of the Asian countries are very different.

The writer thinks that McDonald’s hamburgers are not worth the money.

Companies should learn from artists and produce masterpieces.

The investment analysts who visited a UK engineering company were from Rolls Royce.

Nowadays, quality means consistency and cheap price.

Passage 1

The term “quality” is one of the most misused in the business world. What exactly does it mean? Our grandparents would have been in no doubt. Quality meant excellence: a thing was the best of its kind, and that was that. In business, however, the word has acquired a very different meaning: consistency, a lack of defects.Around 1970, it is said, a group of investment analysts visited a world-famous UK engineering company. They asked the questions of their trade: about profit margins, stock control and balance sheets. The company’s executives did not see the point of all this. Their products were the finest in the world. Why all these detailed questions about numbers?Rolls Royce, the company in question, duly went bust in 1973. The trouble with old-style quality was that it encouraged supply-driven management. The engineers would make the product to the highest possible standard and price it accordingly. If the public was so uncultured that they turned it down, so much the worse for the public. It was all very well for artists to produce masterpieces. The job of companies was to please the market.Quality has a third meaning: that of value for money. To qualify for that meaning, a product must be of certain standard; and it should convey a sense, not of outright cheapness, but of being sold at a fair price.The US fast foods group McDonald’s, for instance, talks of its ‘high quality food’. But at 99c or 99p, its hamburgers are as close to absolute cheapness as any person in the developed world could desire. They are also highly consistent. Eat a McDonald’s anywhere around the world and the results will be roughly similar. But as anyone who has eaten a really good American hamburger knows, a McDonald’s is also a long way from quality in its original sense.

Quality used to mean that a product was well-made and high-priced.

Passage 2

International trade by barter is, in fact, an inefficient and expensive means of doing business compared to trading with money. Observes David Yoffie, “To cover the additional costs it incurs in handling goods it is forced to take in countertrade, a multinational company simply boosts the price of the goods it sells.” Yoffie sees countertrade as a form of protectionism. “It can help one group and hurt another,” he says.On the other hand, Daniel Cecchin, director of Countertrade Services for Bank America World Trade Corp., asserts that the rise of countertrade provides practical solutions to the debt problems of the international monetary system.

39、What is the meaning of “barter” in its traditional form?

40、In what sense is countertrade seen as a form of protectionism?

41、According to Cecchin, what is the benefit of countertrade?

Passage 1

In 1961, when Gen. Park Chung Hee seized power in a military coup, yearly per capita income (hovered) at a (bare-bones) $100. Park committed Korea to exporting its way out of poverty, and his strategy was as simple as it was effective: shower the country’s fledging conglomerates with huge subsidies, government-based loans and official favors and turn them into the world’s suppliers of bargain-basement textiles, footwear and light industrial goods.The results have been dazzling. For two decades, Korea has sizzled along at an 8 per cent annual growth rate. Exports have surged from $119 million in 1964 to $29 billion last year. Per capita income, now $2,000, could reach $5,000 by the end of the century. Korea boasts a literacy rate of 95 per cent, a standard met by only a few of the most advanced Western nations. The once provincial capital of Seoul teems with energy and (sophistication).

36、What do “hover” and “bare-bones” mean in the passage?

37、Which countries in the world besides Korea have a literacy rate of 95 per cent?

38、In what sense is the underlined word “sophistication” used here? What might it refer to specifically and what does it have to do with energy?

直接投资

优先权

资本货物

产地证明书

双边条约

中国出口商品交易会

初级产品

市场份额

business cycle

供应过剩

收盘价

test market

intellectual property right

carbon tax

barrier-free market

real estate

per capita income

clearing agreement

exclusive contract

Generally, the first stage in the extraction of (crude) oil is to drill a well into the underground reservoir.

current account

The (advertisement) itself will pull your attention and immediately you will feel that you need it for your lifestyle.

The Chinese, who (constitute) 95 per cent of Hong Kong’s population, prefer brown eggs over white.

US protectionist measures helped (wreck) the world economy in the 1930s.

Make-up experts (steer) girls toward light colors, fragrances.

The only sour note has been struck by new energy tax (proposals) in the US and the EC.

The Government Printing Office provides free public (access) to full-text federal documents.

The news slowly (passed) through to everyone in the office.

It is (evident) that China’s economy is one of the fastest growing in the world.

There is an amazing amount of economic (friction) up and down the real estate industry.

China has the most (dynamic) economy in the world today.

His (robust ) strength was a counterpoise to the disease.

The expert argued that China could (surpass) both Japan and the United States to become the world largest economy in 2020.

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) is to (pay out) $356 million for project financing and trade operations.

There’s not much (prospect) of Mr Smith’s being elected as Congressman.