商务英语阅读试题Part 3

Part III Reading comprehension

Passage 1

Richard Brasher, commercial director of Tesco?s non-food operations, is in the frame for the top job at Boots, where chief executive Steve Russell is to step down. Brasher is understood to be on a shortlist that includes Stuart Rose, the former boss of retailing group Arcadia, the Terry Duddy, chief executive of catalogue retailer Argos. Brasher is viewed as a high-flier within Tesco and is highly rated by the group?s chief executive, Terry Leahy.

Boots has been looking for a chief executive and a new chairman since the middle of December, when its current chairman, John McGrath, admitted that the group had not acted fast enough to address strategic issues that were facing it. McGrath is due to step down at the end of his contract in the summer, after overseeing the search for a new chief executive. Boots has been trying to find a way to distinguish itself and its products from the increasing range carried by supermarkets.

Last week Sainsbury, the food retailer, said it would be extending its own health and beauty offering after it axed a joint venture trial with Boots. Sainsbury and Boots have been working together since 2001, but Sainsbury now wants to roll out its own programme in about 50 stores. Under the original trial, Boots supplied the products, including exclusive lines, to a specific area within Sainsbury stores at nine out-of-town supermarkets. Although both sides agreed initial targets had been met, they could not agree terms to take the scheme forward. Observers suggested that the two had disagreed over sharing revenues.

Boots has confirmed the departure of another senior member of management. Michael Bunting, head of treasury, will leave the company in April. Other senior staff who have left recently include Barry Clare, marketing director, and Ken Piggott, who was managing director of Boots? core business.

Questions 31-35 are based on passage 1

31. Boots, according to the passage, is _______.

A. a person

B. a supermarket

C. a hotel

D. a factory

32. Richard Brasher is to ________.

A. become chief executive

B. be on a shortlist

C. be a high-flier

D. work within Tesco

33. Brasher is _______.

A. scolded badly by Terry Leahy

B. highly assessed by Tesco?s chief executive

C. valued greatly by Tesco

D. understood by Tesco

34. Sainsbury is a ________.

A. person who worked with Boots

B. business that wants to work with Boots

C. supermarket that has developed its own program all the time

D. supermarket that stopped cooperation with Boots

35. It seems that ________.

A. a lot of people left Boots

B. Boots is thriving quickly

C. Boots has decided to reform

D. Some senior staff have left or will leave Boots

Passage 2

Large companies need a way to reach the savings of the public at large. The same problem , on a smaller scale, faces practically every company trying to develop new products and create new jobs. There can be little prospect of raising the sort of sums needed from friends and people we know, and while banks may agree to provide short-term finance, they are generally unwilling to provide money on a permanent basis for long-term projects. So companies turn to the public, inviting people to lend them money, or take a share in the business in exchange for a share in future profits. This they do by issuing stocks and shares in the business through the Stock Exchange. By doing so they can put into circulation the savings of individuals and institutions, both at home and overseas.

When the saver needs his money back, he does not have to go to the company with whom he originally placed it. Instead, he sells his shares through a stockbroker to some other saver who is seeking to invest his money.

Many of the services needed both by industry and by each of us are provided by the Government or by local authorities. Without hospitals, roads, electricity, telephones, railways, this country could not function. All these require continuous spending on new equipment and new development if they are to serve us properly, requiring more money than is raised through taxes alone. The Government, local authorities, and nationalized industries therefore frequently need to borrow money to finance major capital spending, and they, too, come to the Stock Exchange. There is hardly a man or woman in this country whose job or whose standard of living does not depend on the ability of his or her employers to raise money to finance new development. In one way or another this new money must come from the savings of the country. The Stock Exchange exists to provide a channel through which these savings can reach those who need finance.

Questions 36-40 are based on passage 2

36. Almost all companies involved in new production and development must .

A. rely on their own financial resources

B. persuade the banks to provide long-term finance

C. depend on the population as a whole for finance

D. borrow large sums of money from friends and people they know

37. The money which enables these companies to go ahead with their projects is .

A. repaid to its original owners as soon as possible

B. raised by the selling of shares in the companies

C. exchanged for part ownership in the Stock Exchange

D. invested in different companies on the Stock Exchange

38. When the savers want their money back they .

A. ask another company to obtain their money for them

B. look for other people to borrow money from

C. put their shares in the company back on the market

D. transfer their money to a more successful company

39. All the essential services on which we depend are .

A. run by the Government or our local authorities

B. financed wholly by the rates and taxes

C. in constant need of financial support

D. unable to provide for the needs of the population

40. The Stock Exchange makes it possible for the Government, local authorities and nationalized industries .

A. to borrow as much as they wish

B. to make certain everybody saves money

C. to raise money to finance new developments

D. to make certain everybody lends money to them

Passage 3

They are among the 250,000 people under the age of 25 who are out of work in the Netherlands, a group that accounts for 40 percent of the nation?s unemployed. A storm of anger boils up at the government sponsored youth center, even among those who are continuing their studies.

“We study for jobs that don?t exist,” Nicollete Steggerda, 23, said.

After three decades of prosperity, unemployment among 10 member nations of the European community has exceeded 11 percent, affecting a total of 12.3 million people, and the number is climbing.

The bitter disappointment long expressed by British youths is spreading across the continent. The title of a rock song “No Future” can now be seen written on the brick walls of closed factories in Belgium and France.

Recent surveys have found that the increasing argument in the last few years over the deployment in Europe of North Atlantic Treaty Organization missiles and the possibility of nuclear war has clouded European youths? confidence in the fu ture.

One form of protest tends to put the responsibility for a country?s economic troubles on the large numbers of “guest workers” from Third World nations, people welcomed in Western Europe in the years of prosperity.

Young Europeans, brought up in an extended period of economic success and general stability, seem to resemble Americans more than they do their own parents. Material enjoyment has given them a sense of expectation, event the right to a standard of living that they see around them.

“And so we pass the days at the discos, or meet people at the cafe, and sit and stare.” said Isabella Gaulat. “There is usually not much conversation. You look for happiness. Sometimes you even find it.”

Questions 41-45 are based on passage 3

41. What Nicollete Stegerda said in paragraph 2 means that _______.

A. school education is not sufficient

B. what the students learn more than necessary

C. the students cannot get work after graduation

D. the students? aim in study is not clear

42. Which of the following is definitely true, according to the passage?

A. The young people are studying too hard.

B. The courses in the youth center are too difficult.

C. The government financed the establishment of job-oriented school

D. The tests given to the youngsters are too difficult

43. Which of the following statements is not true?

A. The rock song “No Future” expresses the European youths? disappointment

B. European youths did not expect such a widespread unemployment

C. European youths worry that a new world war might break out in the future.

D. Almost half of the guest workers in Western Europe are unemployed now.

44. British youths ______.

A. are trying to find work on the continent

B. are sympathetic with the unemployed on the continent

C. show their concern for unemployment in France and Belgium

D. have been the first to show their disappointment over joblessness

45. It seems that young Europeans ________.

A. look upon life as their elders do

B. are more like American that their elders in their way of thinking

C. look more like Americans than their elders

D. expect more from Americans than from their elders

Passage 4

There are various ways in which individual economic units can interact with one another. Three basic ways may be described as the market system, the administered, and the traditional system.

In a market system individual economic units are free to interact among each other in the marketplace. It is possible to buy commodities from other economic units or sell commodities to them. In a barter economy, real goods such as automobiles, shoes, and pizzas are traded against each other. Obviously, finding somebody who want to trade my old car in exchange for a sailboat may not always be an easy task. Hence, the introduction of money as a medium of exchange eases transactions considerably. In the modern market economy, goods and services are bought or sold for money.

An alternative to the market system is administrative control by some agence over all transactions. This agency will issue edicts or commands as to how much of each good and service should be produced, exchanged, and consumed by each economic unit. Central planning may be one way of administering such an economy. The central plan, drawn up by the government, shows the amounts of each commodity produced by the various firms and allocated households for consumption. This is an example of complete planning of production, consumption, and exchange for the whole economy.

In a traditional society, production and consumption patterns are governed by tradition; every person?s place within the economic system is fixed by parentage, religion, and custom. Transactions take place on the basis of tradition, too. People belonging to a certain group or caste may have an obligation to care for other persons, provide them with food and shelter, care for their health, and provide for their education. Clearly, in a system where every decision is made on the basis of tradition alone, progress may be difficult to achieve. A stagnant society may result.

Questions 46-50 are based on passage 4

46. What is the main purpose of the passage?

A. To outline contrasting types of economic system.

B. To explain the science of economics.

C. To argue for the superiority of one economic system.

D. To compare barter and money-exchange markets.

47. In the second paragraph, the word …real? in …real goods? could best be replaced by which of the following?

A. high quality

B. concrete

C. utter

D. authentic

48. According to the passage, a barter economy can lead to_________.

A. rapid speed of transactions

B. misunderstandings

C. inflation

D. difficulties for the traders

49. According to the passage, who has the greatest degree of control in an administered system?

A. Individual households

B. Small businesses

C. Major corporations

D. The government

50. Which of the following is NOT mentioned by the author as a criterion for determining a person?s place in a traditional society?

A. Family background

B. Age

C. Religious beliefs

D. Custom