外刊经贸知识选读2009年7月真题试题及答案解析（00096）

The primary message for people who are interested to invest in the stock market is that they should ignore market timing and buy stocks for the long term. This strategy is simple and yet effective because stocks give good returns over a long period of time.The simplest strategy is the Buy—&—Hold strategy. One does not need to do anything no matter what happens after the initial investment is made. For example, you have $100 and you then decide to keep $60 in savings and use the remaining $40 to buy stocks. Whether the stock market goes up or down, you do not use your savings to buy more stocks or sell stocks to put money back into savings.

The transition of China from an agricultural nation to an industrial country will be very slow and difficult.

The low cost labor force enabled China to have a great competitive edge over some of its Asian neighbors.

Though China’s economic boom started in Guangdong Province, it has far-reaching influence on the other parts of the country.

The word “shoulders” in “Migrant workers crowd the narrow shoulders” means “streets”.

Passage 2

If there is a road to China’s future, Highway 204 out of Shanghai is it. Along its two dusty lanes, local tracks and buses jockey with Cadillacs driven by financiers from Taiwan and Hong Kong investors. Migrant workers crowd the narrow shoulders. Factories line the highway, producing sneakers, toys, plastics, clothes, aircraft components and medical equipment. Eventually industry gives way to ricefields, which is being dug up to build still more factories. Cranes turn overhead as dump trucks and cement mixers nose onto the road. Outside the town of Jiading, one tractor-trailer leaves Asia’s largest container plant every three minutes, carrying goods bound for the Shanghai docks. The traffic on Highway 204 is so thick that the trip from Shanghai to Zhangjiagang—only 115 kilometers away—takes five hours.Zhangjiagang is a commercial hub of Jiangsu, the fastest-growing province in China. China has the most dynamic economy in the world today. Its boom radiates from Guangdong, its richest province, but it has spread as far west as Xinjiang, where foreign investors are searching for oil and other natural resources. It is creeping inland, from Jiangsu to the cities of Chongqing and Wuhan, where businessmen from Hong Kong and Taiwan are starting to spend billions of dollars to build factories. And it has penetrated the northeast, where the city of Shenyang, long a moribund center of state industry, is bustling with new private business, from trading companies to prostitution. Back in Beijing, officials at China’s state council, or cabinet, are giddy with excitement—and exhaustion. “We don’t have people, we don’t have time,” says one. “Things are moving too fast.”Former World Bank chief economist Larry Summers recently argued that China could surpass both Japan and the United States to become the world’s largest economy by 2020.A farfetched prediction? U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman said China may replace Japan in importance to the U.S. as an economic partner. Japan recognizes the rise of China. As a warning shot in an intensifying rivalry, Tokyo last week put punitive import tariffs on Chinese steel.Expansion has transformed places like Jiangsu Province, where GDP grew 26 percent last year. Six years ago Zhangjiagang was part of another town and did not even have its own name. Now it’s China’s seventh largest port and a tumultuous construction zone of half-built office buildings and hotels.For China’s newly-rising enterprises, profits are up throughout the region—thanks largely to low wages. Last year the BeiBei Company in Zhangjiagang cleared $14 million on exports of 10 million pairs of shoes to U.S. department stores. At the BeiBei plant, women huddle over a conveyor belt in frigid temperatures, gluing rubber sneakers together. Typically, Chinese workers in a plant like this make about 34 cents an hour, compared with $3.50 for Korean workers, according to South Korean estimates. That gives China a huge competitive advantage.

The traffic on Highway 204 is very slow according to the author.

The Chairman of Ford thinks that Ford is in a better strategic position than GM and Chrysler.

There is not any drawback for GM and Chrysler to ask for Government’s financial support.

Passage 1

Ford Motor Co., despite losing more than $26 billion over the last two years, still has no intention of asking for government assistance but will instead draw down 10.1 billion in existing credit lines. “It’s a very volatile market,” says Ford Chairman Alan Mulally. “It’s not in our plan at all to access federal funds,” he said even though “business conditions have deteriorated around the world more rapidly than expected.”Ford reported it lost $5.9 billion, or $2.46 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2007 due to declining domestic demand, restructuring charges and losses at its overseas subsidiaries. For the full year Ford lost $14.6 billion as it revenues shrank by 36 percent. The latest losses, Ford’s already steep mountain of debt—some $26 billion —and the industry’s shaky financial condition are all stirring anxiety among investors, lenders, and potential car buyers. Yet Mulally stresses that Ford is in a better strategic position than its struggling rivals.GM and Chrysler are expected to present preliminary plans to the Treasury by Feb. 17 demonstrating their viability, and final plans in March, if either of those plans fails to convince the federal government, a bankruptcy filing could follow. Such a huge negative event might prompt Ford to reconsider its position, says Mulally, but otherwise it expects to avoid asking for emergency federal aid.

Ford is trying to tide through the economic downturn without asking for government’s assistance.

Investors, lenders, and potential car buyers are quite confident in Ford.

GM and Chrysler are Ford’s competitors.

Passage 2

With overall global economic growth slowing to a near standstill this year, 2009 will be the most challenging year for economies across the globe since World War II, according to an IMF report released Wednesday.The IMF, a global economic organization of 185 countries, said economic growth across the world will fall to just 0. 5% in 2009 from 3. 4% in 2008. Financial markets are expected to remain under stress—despite a cornucopia of credit-easing actions—until investors and consumers gain confidence that policy actions can help improve market conditions.In advanced countries, including the United States, the euro—zone nations, Japan, Canada and the United Kingdom, gross domestic product is expected to (shrink) by 2%. IMF said a vicious cycle of plummeting asset values, decreasing household wealth and sinking consumer demand will result in the first contraction of total advanced economies’ GDP in the post-World War II era.Even booming and developing economies are feeling the pains of the global recession. China, India, the Middle East and Brazil will grow a combined 3. 25% in 2009, down considerably from 6. 25% growth last year. Falling export demand, lower commodity prices and financial constraints will lead to the slowdown.

39、What is the full name for the IMF?

40、What factors have led to the recession of economic growth in the developing countries such as China, India, the Middle East and Brazil?

41、What does the underlined word “shrink” mean in the third paragraph?

Passage 1

“Sweat”: In this sense, South Korea is treading a path not taken by Japan. While Japanese interests span the globe, few foreign firms have successfully penetrated Japan’s home turf. Korea, too, has a legacy of xenophobia; and the Koreans are clearly wary of opening their markets to highpowered Western competitors. But they are tentatively doing just that, so far with a momentum unmatched by Japan. The aim is to defuse the protectionist pressures that have hobbled U.S-Japanese trade relations and, in time, to enter the ranks of the world’s developed nations. That’s no small order, but the Koreans think it can be filled fairly simply. At bottom, says Nam Duc Woo, chairman of the Korea Traders Association, South Korea needs only “some degree of (sweat) and some degree of (technological sophistication).” And that’s precisely what has already lifted Korea, Inc. into contention.

36、What does the underlined word “sweat” mean?

37、What does the underlined phrase “technological sophistication” refer to?

38、Can you explain the last sentence “that’s precisely what has already lifted Korea, Inc. into contention”?

主要供应商

汇率

经纪业

可兑换货币

收盘价

优惠税率

证券市场

外汇储备

易货贸易

海关税

franchisee

import quota system

state-run enterprises

the wet market

the state apparatus

exclusive contract

productive forces

preferred status

Comecon

In the center of the vortex is Citigroup, whose (precipitous) stock-market plunge sped up on Thursday, sending shock waves through the financial world.

in surplus

That was the fear around the comics blogosphere last week when word spread of a policy change from Diamond Comic Distributors, the world’s dominant (distributor ) of English-language comic books.

These (debtor) countries could be hurt by any economic weakness that might stem from the stock market declines in the industrial nations that provide markets for their commodities and manufactured goods.

South Korea has joined Thailand, Singapore, India and other Asian nations in the (lucrative) business of medical tourism.

Stocks finished a (seesaw) session mixed yesterday as investors grappled with weaker—than—expected economic data and weighed the chances that the Federal Reserve would lower interest rates.

The Raines bill must be amended or, in the judgment of some attorneys, it will contain no (provision) for wholesalers’ licenses in several cities of the State.

A day after terrorist bombs ripped through the commuter train system of India’s financial capital here, business executives said the attack would have little effect on India’s (buoyant) economy.

Asia’s affectionate love with real estate has been stimulated by easy money and (accommodative) government policies.

A (discrepancy) which will probably amount to $10,000 has been found in the accounts of Edmund J. Smith, who until a month ago was the discount clerk and notary of the Merchants National Bank of this city.

Since then much of the business has (shifted) to China, doing a hard blow to the South Korean shoe industry.

In April, the EC (imposed a ban) on livestock, meat and dairy products from 18 eastern countries following an outbreak of hoof and mouth disease in Croatia.

In an interview by the Newsweek, Chinese officials have promised to (quicken) the pace of reform.

(Stock-taking) of the open policy will come later this year when we discuss our future plan, which will run to the end of the next year.

Oil has (supplanted) coffee as our main export.

I will go back to confirm the (aggregate) demand of customers and contact you as soon as possible.