题目内容
The world is going through the biggest wave of mergers and acquisitions ever witnessed. The process sweeps from hyperactive America to Europe and reaches the emerging countries with unsurpassed might. Many in these countries are looking at this process and worrying "Won't the wave of business concentration turn into an uncontrollable anti-competitive force？"
There's no question that the big are getting bigger and more powerful. Multinational corporations accounted for less than 200//00 of international trade in 1982. Today the figure is more than 25% and growing rapidly. International affiliates account for a fast-growing segment of production in economies that open up and welcome foreign investment. In Argentina, for instance, after the reforms of the early 1990s, multinationals went from 43% to almost 70% of the industrial production of the 200 largest firms. This phenomenon has created serious concerns over the role of smaller economic firms, of national businessmen and over the ultimate stability of the world economy.
I believe that the most important forces behind the massive M&A wave are the same that underlie the globalization process: falling transportation and communication costs, lower trade and investment barriers and enlarged markets that require enlarged operations capable of meeting customer's demands. All these are beneficial, not detrimental, to consumers. As productivity grows, the world's wealth increases.
Examples of benefits or costs of the current concentration wave are scanty. Yet it is hard to imagine that the merger of a few oil firms today could re-create the same threats to competition that were feared nearly a century ago in the U. S. , when the Standard Oil Trust was broken up. The mergers of telecom companies, such as WorldCom, hardly seem to bring higher prices for consumers or a reduction in the pace of technical progress. On the contrary, the price of communications is coming down fast. In cars, too, concentration is increasing—witness Daimler and Chrysler, Renault and Nissan--but it does not appear that consumers are being hurt.
Yet the fact remains that the merger movement must be watched. A few weeks ago, Alan Greenspan warned against the mega-mergers in the banking industry. Who is going to supervise, regulate and operate as lender of last resort with the gigantic banks that are being created？ Won't multinationals shift production from one place to another when a nation gets too strict about infringements to fair competition？ And Should one country take upon itself the role of "defending competition" on issue＆s that affect many other nations, as in the U. S. vs. Microsoft case？ (413)
What is the typical trend of businesses today？
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听力原文：W: Could we talk a little about the problem of the old？ I wonder if you could begin by telling us the importance of this problem.
M: Well, of course it is an increasingly serious problem, I mean a fairly large part of the old population becomes confined to the house. They cannot go out, because they don't want to trouble others, thus little by little they become a burden to the younger generation.
Q: What are the speakers talking about？
(17)
Americans often try to say things as quickly as possible, so for some expressions we use the first letters of the words instead of saying each word. Many common expressions or long names are shortened this way.
BYOB is a short way of saying "bring your own bottle". The letters BYOB are often found at the bottom of a written invitation to a simple social event or gathering friends. For example, I decide to have a party on a Sunday afternoon. I might write a note saying, "Please come to the party, and BYOB." The bottle each person brings is what that person wants to drink at the party.
An invitation to a special event, such as a wedding, would never say BYOB. However, an invitation to all official or very special event often has other letters at the bottom of it. The letters are RSVP. The letters represent the French expression “repondez s'il vous plait”. In English, the words mean “Respond if it pleases you”. Americans use the letters as a short-way to say please answer this invitation.
Another expression ASAP is often heard in business offices. My boss might say she wants something done ASAP. It means as soon as possible. She also might tell me she wants something done by COB. That means she wants it finished by close of business, or the end of the workday.
Beginning letters often are used to represent the name of a university. A famous one is MIT. It is short for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Another major university is UCLA, almost no one ever says its real name, the University of California at Los Angeles. That takes too long.
Some American businesses are better known for the beginning letters of their name than for their complete names. For example, you may not have heard of the company called International Business Machines, but you probably have heard of the company by its short name IBM. And the American Telephone and Telegraph Company is much better known as AT. ＆ T. Many American government agencies are known by the beginning letters of their name, too. For example, the FBI is the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI investigates criminal activity in the United States. Then there is the IRS, the Internal Revenue Service. It is not a very popular agency. It collects Federal taxes. Here is an example you already know. Can you guess what it is？ How about VOA, the short name of the "Voice of America". (416)
What is the main subject of this article？
基金的市场营销是基金销售机构从市场和投资者需求出发所进行的基金产品设计、销售、售后服务等一系列活动的总称。 ()
听力原文：M: What do you think of Professor Brown's lecture？
W: The topic was interesting, but the lecture was much more difficult to follow than I had expected.
Q: What does the woman say about the lecture？
(13)
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