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.
The "new economic order" is a global one. Policymakers, educators, business, and industry are all concerned with strengthening the United States for competition in this new arena(舞台). Career education has generally focused on helping people understand the relationship between education and work and acquire employability skills. Now people need assistance in realizing the opportunities and meeting the challenges of the international workplace.
The evolving global economy is based on a number of factors: decreasing transportation and communications costs, new political structures and economic alliances. The most important influence is the emergence of flexible, information-based technologies. Profound economic and social changes are creating new market standards (productivity, quality, variety, customization, convenience, timeliness) and integrating producers and consumers into networks for delivering goods and services globally or locally. Meeting these standards requires great changes in organizational structures, skill needs, and jobs.
According to Carnesville, competitive organizations will be characterized by productivity, flexibility, speed, affordable quality, and customer focus. Many organizations will emphasize closely-integrated work groups, teamwork, and shared information. The need for certain types of workers is being reduced or eliminated. At the same time, freer movement of some workers across national borders is spiraling; other workers may engage in "electronic immigration," interacting through telecommunications with their employers in other countries.
The global economy will influence people's lives whether or not they are employed in international firms. In the new economy, nations compete not only with each other's economic systems, but also with each other's research and development and educational systems. Global events affect domestic economies.
Other characteristics of work in the new economy also have implications for career development. Managers will become brokers/facilitators; there will be more technical specialists, and shorter, flatter career ladders. Instead of the old-style. division of labor into discrete tasks, job functions will converge, and work teams will consist of individuals who alternate expert, brokering, and leadership roles. Rewards will be based more on the performance of teams and networks.
A number of the skills needed for work in the global economy are reflected in current curricular emphases such as development of critical thinking skills, tech preparation, the integration of vocational and academic education. Career educators can collaborate with vocational and academic educators and employers in documenting the need for these skills and infusing(灌输) them in a multidisciplinary(多学科的) approach. As Zwerling puts it, "the best liberal education may come to be seen as career education; the best career education may be seen to be liberal education". The challenges of the global economy are an opportunity not only for work organizations to redesign themselves across national borders, but also for education to transcend its traditional boundaries and reenvision ways to prepare people for life and for work.
In face of the evolving global economy, the author suggests that the emphasis in career education be shifted to ______.

A. facilitating the acquisition of employability skills
B. understanding flexible and information-based technologies
C. preparing people for the challenges of the international workplace
D. strengthening the United States for competition with other countries