British companies in textiles, clothing and footwear manufacturing sectors have faced
A.Asia
B.America
C.Africa
D.Europe
A.Asia
B.America
C.Africa
D.Europe
第1题
London could soon replace New York as the center of PR because ________.
A) British companies are more ambitious than U.S. companies
B) British companies place more importance on PR than U.S. companies
C) British companies are heavily involved in planning activities
D) four of the world’s top public relations agencies are British-owned
第2题
A.pharmaceuticals
B.chemicals
C.aerospace
D.textile
第3题
第4题
A.some secretaries will lose their jobs
B.daily jobs can be done automatically outside office hours
C.medical problems related to work with a VDU have increased
D.the British companies will make less money
第5题
The rise of multinational corporations (跨国公司), global marketing, new communications technologies, and shrinking cultural differences have led to an unparalleled increase in global public relations or PR.
Surprisingly, since modern PR was largely an American invention, the U. S. leadership in public relations is being threatened by PR efforts in other countries. Ten years ago, for example, the world's top five public relations agencies were American-owned. In 1991, only one was. The British in particular are becoming ore sophisticated and creative. A recent survey found that more than half of all British companies include PR as part of their corporate (公司的) planning activities, compared to about one-third of U. S. companies, It may not be long before London replaces New York as the capital of PR.
Why is America lagging behind in the global PR race? First, Americans as a whole tend to be fairly provincial and take more of an interest in local affairs. Knowledge of world geography, for example, has never been strong in this country. Secondly, Americans lag behind their European and Asian counterparts (相对应的人) in knowing a second language. Less than 5 percent of Burson-Marshall's U. S. employees know two languages. Ogilvy and Mather has about the same percentage conversely, some European firms have half or more of their employees fluent in a second language. Finally, people involved in PR abroad tend to keep a closer eye on international affairs. In the financial PR area, for instance, most Americans read the Wall Street Journal. Overseas, their counterparts read the Journal as well as the Financial Times of London and The Economist, publications not often read in this country.
Perhaps the PR industry might take a lesson from Ted Turner of CNN(Cable News Network). Turner recently announced that the word "foreign" would no longer be used on CNN news broadcasts. According to Turner, global communications have made the nations of the world so interdependent that there is no longer any such thing as foreign.
According to the passage, U. S. leadership in public relations is being threatened because ______ .
A.an unparalleled increase in the number of public relations companies
B.shrinking cultural differences and new communications technologies
C.the decreasing number of multinational corporations in the U. S.
D.increased efforts of other countries in public relations
第6题
While there is no blueprint for transforming a largely
government-controlled economy into a free one, the
experience of the United Kingdom since 1979 clearly
shows one approach that works: privatization, in which
(5) state-owned industries are sold to private companies. By
1979, the total borrowings and losses of state-owned
industries were running at about t3 billion a year. By
selling many of these industries, the government has
decreased these borrowings and losses, gained over t34
(10) billion from the sales, and now receives tax revenues from
the newly privatized companies. Along with a dramatically
improved overall economy, the government has been able
to repay 12.5 percent of the net national debt over a
two-year period.
(15) In fact, privatization has not only rescued individual
industries and a whole economy headed for disaster, but
has also raised the level of performance in every area. At
British Airways and British Gas, for example, productivity
per employee has risen by 20 percent. At associated
(20) British Ports, labor disruptions common in the 1970’s and
early 1980’s have now virtually disappeared. At British
Telecom, there is no longer a waiting list—as there always
was before privatization—to have a telephone installed.
Part of this improved productivity has come about
(25) because the employees of privatized industries were given
the opportunity to buy shares in their own companies. They
responded enthusiastically to the offer of shares; at British
Aerospace, 89 percent of the eligible work force bought
shares; at Associated British Ports, 90 percent; and at
(30) British Telecom, 92 percent. When people have a personal
stake in something, they think about it, care about it, work
to make it prosper. At the National Freight Consortium,
the new employee-owners grew so concerned about their
company’s profits that during wage negotiations they
(35) actually pressed their union to lower its wage demands.
Some economists have suggested that giving away free
shares would provide a needed acceleration of the privati-
zation process. Yet they miss Thomas Paine’s point that
“what we obtain too cheap we esteem too lightly.” In
(40) order for the far-ranging benefits of individual ownership
to be achieved by owners, companies, and countries,
employees and other individuals must make their own
decisions to buy, and they must commit some of their own
resources to the choice.
According to the passage, all of the following were benefits of privatizing state-owned industries in the United Kingdom EXCEPT______
A.Privatized industries paid taxes to the government.
B.The government gained revenue from selling state-owned industries.
C.The government repaid some of its national debt.
D.Profits from industries that were still state-owned increased.
E.Total borrowings and losses of state-owned industries decreased.
第7题
Text 3
Who's to blame? The trail of responsibility goes beyond poor maintenance of British railways, say industry critics. Stingy governments-both Labor and Tory-have cut down on investments in trains and rails.ln the mid-1990s a Conservative government pushed through the sale of the entire subsidy-guzzling rail network. Operating franchises were parceled out among private comparues and a separate firm,Railtrack, was awarded ownership of the tracks and stations. In the future, the theory ran back then, the private sector could pay for any improvements-with a little help from the state-and take the blame for any failings.
Today surveys show that travelers believe privatization is one of the reasons for the railways 's failures. They ask whether the pursuit of profits is compatible with guaranteeing safety. Worse, splitting the network between companies has made coordination nearly impossible. "The railway was tom apart at privatization and the structure that was put in place was. . . designed, if we are honest, to maximize the proceeds to the Treasury," said Railtrack boss Gerald Corbett before resigning last month in the wake of the Hatfield crash.
Generally, the contrasts with mainland Europe are stark. Over the past few decades the Germans, French and Italians have invested 50 percent more than the British in transportation infrastructure. As a result, a web of high-speed trains now crisscross the Continent, funded by governments willing to commit state funds to major capital projects. Spain is currently planning l,000 miles of new high- speed track.ln France superfast trains already shuttle between all major cities, often on dedicated lines. And in Britain? When the Eurostar trains that link Paris, London and Brussels emerge from the Channel Tunnel onto British soil and join the crowded local network, they must slow down from 186 mph to a maximum of 100 mph-and they usually have to go even slower.
For once, the government is listening. After all, commuters are voters, too. In a pre-vote spending spree, the govemment has committed itself to huge investment in transportation, as well as education and the public health service. Over the next 10 years, the railways should get an extra £60 billion, partly through higher subsidies to the private companies. As Blair ackoowledged last month, " Britain has been underinvested in and investment is central to Britain's future. " You don't have to tell the 3 million passengers who use the railways every day. Last week trains to Darlington were an hour late-and crawling at Locomotion No.l speeds.
51. In the first paragraph, the author tries to
[ A] trace the tragedy to its defective origin.
[ B] remind people of Britain's glonous past.
[ C] explain the failure of Britain's rail network.
[ D] call for impartiality in assessing the situation.
第8题
翻译:(46)But even as the number of English speakers expands further there are signs that the global predominance of the language may fade within the foreseeable future.
Complex international, economic, technological and culture change could start to diminish the leading position of English as the language of the world market, and UK interests which enjoy advantage from the breath of English usage would consequently face new pressures. Those realistic possibilities are highlighted in the study presented by David Graddol
(47)His analysis should therefore end any self-contentedness among those who may believe that the global position of English is so stable that the young generation of the United Kingdom do not need additional language capabilities.
David Graddol concludes that monoglot English graduates face a bleak economic future as qualified multilingual youngsters from other countries are proving to have a competitive advantage over their British counterparts in global companies and organizations. Alongside that,(48)many countries are introducing English into the primary-school curriculum but British schoolchildren and students do not appear to be gaining greater encouragement to achieve fluency in other languages.
If left to themselves, such trends will diminish the relative strength of the English language in international education markets as the demand for educational resources in languages, such as Spanish ,Arabic or Mandarin grows and international business process outsourcing in other language such as Japanese, French and German, spreads.
(49)The changes identified by David Graddol all present clear and major challenges to UK`s providers of English language teaching to people of other countries and to broader education business sectors. The English language teaching sector directly earns nearly &1.3 billion for the UK in invisible exports and our other education related explores earn up to &10 billion a year more. As the international education market expands, the recent slowdown in the number of international students studying in the main English-speaking countries is likely to continue, especially if there are no effective strategic policies to prevent such slippage.
The anticipation of possible shifts in demand provided by this study is significant:(50) It gives a basis to all organization which seek to promote the learning and very different operating environment. That is a necessary and practical approach. In this as in much else, those who wish to influence the future must prepare for it.
第9题
Why is such a basic health service so easily knocked out? Mainly because private companies have had little incentive to pursue it. To create a single dose of flu vaccine, a manufacturer has to grow live virus in a 2-week-old fertilized chicken egg, then crack the egg, harvest the virus and extract the proteins used to provoke an immune response. Profit margins are narrow, demand is fickle and, because each year's flu virus is different, any leftover vaccine goes to waste. As a result, the United States now has only two major suppliers (Chiron and Aventis Pasteur)--and when one of them runs into trouble, there isn' t much the other can do about it. "A vaccine maker can't just call up and order 40 million more fertilized eggs," says Manon Cox, of Connecticut-based Protein Sciences Corp. "There's a whole industry that's scheduled to produce a certain number of eggs at a certain time. "
Sleeker technologies are now in the works, and experts are hoping that this year's fiasco will speed the pace of innovation. The main challenge is to shift production from eggs into cell cultures--a medium already used to make most other vaccines. Flu vaccines are harder than most to produce this way, but several biotech companies are now pursuing this strategy, and one culture-based product (Solvay Pharmaceuticals' Invivac) has been cleared for marketing in Europe.
For Americans, the immediate challenge is to make the most of a limited supply. The government estimates that 95 million people still qualify for shots under the voluntary restrictions announced last week. That' s nearly twice the number of doses that clinics will have on hand, but only 60 million Americans seek out shots in a normal year. In fact, many experts are hoping the shortage will serve as an awareness campaign--encouraging the people who really need a flu shot to get one.
Shortages of flue vaccine show that ______.
A.America relies too much on foreign suppliers
B.the demand of flue vaccines is high this year
C.quality problem is a serious problem in flu vaccine production
D.the supply of flu vaccines is rather weak and America has no back-up measures to make it up
第10题
&8226;Which article (A, B, C, D or E) does each statement 1—8 refer to?
&8226;For each statement 1—8, mark one letter (A, B, C, D or E) on your Answer Sheet.
&8226;You will need to use some of these letters more than once.
A
Executives are coming to understand that they can't meet their corporate responsibility simply by maximizing shareholder value. Last year Price water house Coopers surveyed 1161 chief executive officers of companies from 33 countries. Some 68 percent of those polled said that global corporate responsibility was vital to profitability. Meanwhile citizens around the world have become more vocal in demanding that global busines,5 beheld accountable for conduct that could undermine social, environmental or economic progress.
B
Although markets have encouraged more firms to act in a responsible manner in the global economy, market forces have not been sufficient to ensure responsible behavior. all of the time. Moreover, the responsible firms that work harder to ensure that workers or the environment are treated well as they make goods and services could have higher costs, which may allow other competitors to gain market share, The right mix of public policies can ensure that responsible firms are not penalized.
C
Washington D. C is drowning in paper. Congress has voted on proposals to promote corporate responsibility. Meanwhile, the President, executives and activists are all scurrying about in search of additional proposals to make executives more accountable for their companies' financial reports. Given that capitalism today is global as well as local, the U. S must work with its allies to write international corporate governance norms. But we need to use this opportunity to think more broadly about how to reassure global economic confidence long term. All of the reform. efforts to date focus on a narrow definition of corporate responsibility. President Bush acknowledged in his July 9th speech, "There is no capitalism without conscience" That is why the ultimate reform would encourage corporations to also act responsibility towards their workers and the environment.
D
The codes, including ones promoted by the Department of State—the Voluntary Principles for Security and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines, are designed to help business protect human rights in nations with poor human rights records. Corporate social responsibility policies can also include EPA regulations that require corporations to report on their global environmental liabilities. After all, the costs of cleaning up can be a major drain on corporate profits. But these policies are not well coordinated or known as CSR policies. Were someone to compile an overview, we might gain a greater understanding of bow such policies can be made more effective. But there are some policies including tax policies that encourage firms to shift production or their headquarters to nations with weaker fiscal or regulatory systems. Other policies that may undermine global corporate responsibility include corporate welfare and agricultural protectionism.
E
The French government recently overhauled French corporate law and mandated the disclosure of companies’ social and environmental as well as profit performance. This is a good idea. The British require pension funds to report on the social, environmental, as well as profit performance of their investments. The Canadian government is also examining a wide range of public policies to promote CSR. Perhaps the most interesting development was that in 2001, with funding from the Atkinson Foundation; five private citizens organized a commission on democracy and accountability. Their final report issued 25 specific policy recommendations on promoting global and do
为了保护您的账号安全,请在“赏学吧”公众号进行验证,点击“官网服务”-“账号验证”后输入验证码“”完成验证,验证成功后方可继续查看答案!