Section B
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. You should decide on the best choice.
NEW YORK--Every so often, late at night, David Woodland steals away to the den of his home in Aberdeen, Washington, so that he can check stock prices on the Internet.
Mr. Woodland, a 78-year-old retired insurance salesman, delights at how with the click of a mouse, he can tap into the facts and fortunes of Wall Street. "If I get a bright idea late at night," Mr. Woodland said, "I go into the office, fire up the computer and put a buy or sell order in."
While on-line trading is popularly regarded as the province of any traders in their 20s and 30s, jumping in and ont of the market to make quick profits, it is now being invaded by millions of people like Mr. Woodland--senior investors who bring much larger accounts and more stability to this fast-growing corner of the markets,
The low cost of doing business on-line--now as little as $7 a trade--and the excitement of riding a bull market are the lures (诱惑) for many older investors--just as they are for the young. They are dismissing their full-service brokers, who offer research and advice but often charge more than $100 a trade, and instead are picking their own stocks, after downloading companies' annual reports and other research basics.
"These things are incredible tools, now in the hands of an individual investor," said Carol Potts, 56, a retired crafts designer in Santa Barbara, California. "There's no reason for me to have financial advisers. I am very analytical, and I like to get involved in research."
According to a survey this fall of 630 people over 50 by Charles Schwab & Co., many older investors say the Internet has made them more confident about their investments and more willing to trust their own judgment. But such confidence may also cause some to gamble away their retirement nest eggs, financial experts warn. "If stocks enter a bear market, it could prove disastrous for retirees, who are so dependent on their savings."
The main idea of the passage is that ______.
A. on-line trading attracts more and more retirees to get involved
B. on-line trading is more suitable for the old than for the young now
C. on-line trading enables the retirees to get rid of their advisers
D. on-line trading offers incredible tools and high profits to investors
听力原文: Pushing China's foreign exchange reform. ahead by another step, the central bank on Friday carried out its first currency swap deals with local banks. It hopes that this could help bring more flexibility to the market.
The People's Bank of China confirmed that it was carrying out its first foreign exchange swap deal on Friday, but would not give more details. A Beijing-based trader for a major state-owned bank said that the central bank offered one-year currency swaps worth $ 6 billion at 7.85 Chinese yuan per dollar.
In spot dealings, the yuan closed at 8.08 to the dollar on Thursday. Analysts said that it wasn't clear exactly what system the central bank was using in its swaps transactions, but said it could be selling dollars and buying yuan on the spot market, and a year later could reverse the deal at the set rate.
That would have the effect of removing yuan from the money market. At the same time, the central bank could use the swap rate to signal its expectations about how fast it expects the yuan's value to rise, they said.
Tile swap deal didn't seem to have any immediate effect on the spot market.
Late Thursday, China's State Administration for Foreign Exchange announced it would also introduce a new currency trading system allowing bank market members to trade directly with each other. It also invited qualified members to apply to become market makers for yuan spot trading.
A market maker agrees to act as either a buyer or seller in a financial transaction when no other party can be found. Currently, the central bank is China's key market maker in U.S. dollar trading due to tight restrictions on for eign exchange dealings, though regulators earlier announced they were considering letting other banks become market makers.
(33)
A. It is one of the China's foreign exchange reform.
B. It may bring flexibility to the market.
C. It is in the former plan.
D. They want to bring yuan to the spot market.
听力原文: BAIDU. COM Inc has stopped providing free music download links on its Website as a compromise to music publishers, which sued the biggest Chinese online search engine firm over the issue.
Instead, a wanting message has appeared on the Beijing-based company's Website before users start to download music or songs through Baidu's MP3 search service. "The search result (of songs) has been made automatically and Baidu itself doesn't make and transfer music, "the message said. "We pay close attention to protecting intellectual property rights. If any authors or copyright owners find the links are pirated songs, please let us know."
Before that, Baidu's users could download songs directly on its MP3 search result lists.
The share price of Baidu, which went public in August, surged more than fourfold in its first trading day on Nasdaq.
More titan one-third of Baidu's online traffic came from its MP3 search service,according to the company's file.
The Warner Music Group Corp, EMI Group and other music companies filed lawsuits against Baidu in the Beijing People's Intermediate Court, seeking to stop it from offering the service. Several days later, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, became the last member. At the end of October, that is, just less than a half month after the lawsuits, Baidu was forced to make that compromise.
In August, Shanghai Busheng Music Culture Media Co accused Baidu of allowing unauthorized downloads of 53 songs the company owns the copyright to without permission. Busheng is asking Baidu for 560,000 yuan (US $69,104) in compensation for damages.
(30)
A. Compensating music publishers.
B. A warning message appears on BAIDU website.
Compromising to music publishers.
D. Supplying music links to music publishers' download linkages.
Section B
Directions: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A, B, C and D.
听力原文: Since last December, China was preparing to open U.S. market on clothing and textile. China's exports of cloth lng and textile products to the United States jumped more than 50 percent in the first eight months of 2005 to nearly $17.7 billion following the end of a global quota system on January 1.
That prompted U.S. textile producers to seek protection under a "safeguard" provision of China's 2001 entry into the World Trade Organisation since April. The measure allows WTO members to restrict the growth in imports from China to 7.5 percent annually when there is a market-disrupting rush.
The Bush administration has imposed safeguard restricts on billions of dollars' worth of Chinese clothing imports this year. But because the restricts have to be renewed annually ,textile groups have pushed for a comprehensive agreement that would limit imports until 2008 when the safeguard provision ends.
US textile and clothing companies and their labor unions were pushing for a comprehensive deal to prevent a flood of Chinese imports that began last January when global quotas, in place for more than three decades, were lifted.
Cass Johnson, president of the National Council of Textile Organizations, said on Sunday the new textile agreement was expected to restrict 34 categories of clothing and textile imports from China through 2008.
(27)
A. In last December.
B. In January.
C. In April.
D. In August.