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Federal efforts to aid minority businesses began in the 1960’s when the Small Business Administration (SBA) began making federally guaranteed loans and government-sponsored management and technical assistance available to minority business enterprises. While this program enabled many minority entrepreneurs to form. new businesses, the results were disappointing, since managerial inexperience, unfavorable locations, and capital shortages led to high failures rates. Even 15 years after the program was implemented, minority business, receipts were not quite two percent of the national economy’s total receipts.
Recently federal policymakers have adopted an approach intended to accelerate development of the minority business sector by moving away from directly aiding small minority enterprises and toward supporting larger, growth-oriented minority firms through intermediary companies. In this approach, large corporations participate in the development of successful and stable minority businesses by making use of government-sponsored venture capital. The capital is used by a Minority Enterprise Small Business Investment Company or MESBIC. The MESBIC then provides capital and guidance to minority businesses that have potential to become future suppliers or customers of the sponsoring company.
MESBIC’s are the result of the belief that providing established firms with easier access to relevant management techniques and more job-specific experience, as well as substantial amounts of capital, gives those firms a greater opportunity to develop sound business foundations than does simply making general management experience and small amounts of capital available, Further, sines potential markets for the minority business already exist through the sponsoring companies the minority businesses fane considerably less risk in terms of location. Following early financial and operating problems, sponsoring corporations began to capitalize MESBIC’s far above the legal minimum of $ 500,00 in order to generate sufficient in come and to sustain the quality of management needed. MESBIC’s are now emerging as increasingly important financing sources for minority enterprises.
Ironically, MESBIC staffs, which usually consist of Hispanic and Black professionals, tend to approach investments in minority firms more pragmatically than do many MESBIC directors, who are usually senior managers from sponsorin8 corporations. The latter often still think mainly in terms of the "social responsibility approach" and thus seem to prefer deals that are riskier and less attractive than normal investment criteria would warrant. Such differences in viewpoint have produced uneasiness among many minority staff members, who feel that minority entrepreneurs and businesses should be judged by established business considerations, These staff members believe their point of view is closer to the original philosophy of MESBIC’s and they are concerned that, unless a more prudent course is followed, MESBIC directors may revert to policies likely to recreate the disappointing results of the original SBA approach.
Which of the following does the author cite to support the conclusion that the results of the SBA program were disappointing?

A. The small number of new minority enterprises formed as a result of the program.
B. The small number of minority enterprises that took advantage of the management and technical assistance offered under the program.
C. The small percentage of nation’s business receipts earned by minority enterprises following the programs, implementation.
D. The small percentage of recipient minority enterprises that were able to repay federally guaranteed loans made under the program.

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Which of the following work tells how Satan rebelled against Cod and how Adam and Eve were

A. Paradise Lost.
B. Paradise Regained.
C. L ' ALLegro.
D. Lycidas.

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Witmer’s study reached its conclusions by using high-tech computerized axial to mograply (CT or CAT) scans along with comparative anatomy studies, For example, the theory that Triecratops and similar dinosaur species had cheeks was based on past comparisons with mammals such as sheep. But Witmer’s earful analysis found the structure of the triceratops jaw and skull made it more likely that Triecratops had a beak like that of an eagle. Witmer said that scientists should use birds and crocodiles as models when researching the appearance of dinosaurs.
In early October scientists announced that they had confirmed the discovery of a new type of ceratopsian dinosaur. The dinosaur’s bones, found in New Mexico in 1996, are forcing paleontologists to rethink their theories about when ceratopsians migrated to what is now North America.
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An expedition from the Universities of Alaska in Anchorage and Fairbanks has discovered a region in remote northern Alaska so rich in fossilized dinosaur tracks that team members dubbed it the "dino expressway". The trampled area was found during the summer of 1998 in Alaska's Noah Slope near the Brooks Range.
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Two rich fossil sites in the hills of Bolivia have been recently discovered, exciting paleontologists and dinosaur buffs. This discovery includes one of the most spectacular dinosaur trackways ever found.
The discovery of a large site in the mountain region of Kila Kila in southern Bolivia was announced in early October. Here scientists found the tracks of at least two unknown species of dinosaur. These included a large quadruped (four-foot ed) dinosaur that was probably about 20m (about 70ft. ) long.
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A. Tyrannosaurus Rex had lips and Triceratops had cheeks
B. dinosaurs might have looked like mammals such as sheep
C. dinosaurs might not have looked like what we thought
D. dinosaurs must have looked like birds or crocodiles

Which of these did Pedro miss most from the ranch?

A. The sound of the guitar.
B. The strong coffee and beef jerky.
C. The lowing of cattle at sundown.
D. The odor of the corral.

SECTION B INTERVIEW
Directions: In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Questions 1 to 5 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the following five questions.
Now listen to the interview.
听力原文:Stan: Hi, Camellia. Have you attended professor Gabriel's lecture?
Camellia: No. What was it about?
Stan: Energy -- energy future and today.
Camellia: Oh, what a pity. You know, I' m writing a paper on this subject. And I have spent a lot of time to collect materials. I shouldn’t have missed this chance.
Stan: Don’t worry. I made a lot of notes. You can take my notebook and have a look.
Camellia: It's very kind of you... (open the notebook).., mmm,., but it seems.., mmm.., that you have written hastily and some parts are not...
Stan: That’s true. The lecture is magnificent, so I tried to write down all the things.,, mmm.., never mind. I' m free now and I can tell you what I can remember.
Camellia: Oh, thank you. You' re really a great friend.
Stan: OK. The professor began with the alternative energy. He said there is a great deal of information mad enthusiasm about the development and increased production for the global energy needs from alternative energy sources.
Camellia: I know that solar energy, wind power and moving water are all sources of alternative energy.
Stan: And they are progressing. It makes many people believe that our future energy demands will easily be met.
Camellia: It’s not So?
Stan: According to the professor, absolutely not. We often mention alternative energy to refer to those energy that is produced from sources other than our primary energy supply: fossil fuels -- coal, oil and natural gas. The problem is, fossil fuels are non-renewable.
Camellia: Yes, you know, fossil fuels were formed from plants and animals that lived hundreds of millions of years ago. So there would be another hundreds of millions of years to reproduce.
Stan: They arc limited in supply and we have mostly depended on them for our energy needs, from home heating and electricity to fuel for our automobiles and mass transportation. They will one day be used up. There is no esca ping this conclusion.
Camellia: How about nuclear energy. Isn’t it a potential source of energy?
Stan: The professor said nuclear energy, which is primarily generated by splitting atoms, only provides 6% of the world’s energy supplies. And it is not likely to be a major source of world energy consumption because of public pressure and the relative dangers associated with unleashing the power of the atom.
Camellia: Did the professor give any information about how much fossil energies provide?
Stan: Let me see.., ah, yes, that’s nearly 88% of the world’s energy needs, or about 350 quadrillion British Thermal Units -- or BTUs. The total world energy demand is about 400 quadrillion BTUs -- each year. A BTU is roughly equal to the energy and heat generated by a match. Of this amount oil, coal and natural gas supply, oil is the king, providing about 41% of the world's total energy supplies, or about 164 quadrillion BTUs. Coal provides 24% of the world’s energy, or 96 quadrillion BTUs, and natural gas provides the remaining 22%, or 88 quadrillion BTUs.
Camellia: Just how limited are our fossil fuel reserves?
Stan: Some estimates say our fossil fuel reserves will be used up within 50 years, while others say it will be 100-120 years.
Camellia: It’s terrible. We are going to run out of fossil fuels for energy and we have no choice but to prepare for the new age of energy production since, most certainly , human demands for energy will not decrease.
Stan: Nobody really knows when the last drop of oil, lump of coal or cubic foot of natural gas will be collected from the Earth. All of it will depend on how well we manage our manage our energy demands and how well we ca

A. The progress in developing alternative energy.
B. The abundant deposit.
C. The development of technology.
D. All of the above.

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