题目内容
Part A
Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D . Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1.
The other day a British businessman, recently having visited Japan, recounted the words of a leading Japanese ship-owner. "Our ships" said this individual with a sigh, "are going fully loaded to Europe and America but these days coming back empty."
Of course, this oversimplifies, but the message is clear—and for the Europeans it is especially chilling. The Asian world (including notably a reviving Japan, and to a rapidly increasing extent, China, India, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia) is supplying more and more of Europe's and America's needs, but the West is not reciprocating. The old and cozy image of trade being a two-way beneficial flow between East and West is fading fast.
There used to be a sort of superior view that the West, and Europe in particular, would do all the thinking, innovating and designing, and the East with its cheap labor would churn out the more basic items. In due course, the cheap labor would become more expensive as incomes rose and everything would be evened out again smoothly in the world trade balance.
Most of that theory was shattered long ago as it became apparent that Japan had begun to dominate world manufacturing and that the rest of Asia was following on behind. By the end of the 20th century it had become obvious that there was almost nothing the Europeans could do that rising Asia could not do better—from building motorcars and skyscrapers to the most advanced developments in biotechnology, nanotechnology and the frontiers of industrial and scientific innovation.
Until recently, those in the West seeking reassurance as they saw their markets undermined by Asian competition comforted themselves with one further theory. Manufactures might be going east but in the new age of services and software the main skills and systems would stay in the West and serve rich Western markets. This was supposed to apply in particular to financial services, where London and New York still appear to command the global scene.
But the global communications revolution is beginning to chip away even at this picture. With the dramatic fall in the cost of both voice and picture transmission round the world it is ceasing to matter just where many services are located. Booking services, banking services, credit card handling, help-lines, travel services, all kinds of shopping inquiries, insurance arrangements—all these and many more can be located "offshore" almost anywhere on the globe, as long as there is not much of a language problem and local labor is suitable and willing.
The best title for the passage may be______.
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Why was the symbol of the Red Cross designed with a red cross on a white ground？
On 24, June, 1859, while on his way from Geneva to France, Dunant witnessed the battle between the French and Austrian armies. It was one of the fiercest battles of the 19th century. Shocked by the lack of the medical supplies and attention given to the wounded, Dunant decided a volunteer service has to be organized. He gathered together a number of women who tended the hundreds of wounded soldiers of all nationalities and helped the surgeons as best they could. From that battle, Dunant determined to form. a body of people who would rally together in times of war and attend to the needs of the wounded and dying. Dunant held that a suffering human being should be helped for his own sake only without regard to race, religion or political beliefs.
Many European states supported him and on 22, August, 1864, the first Geneva Convention was signed. This lies down that once a soldier is wounded, he and everyone who comes to help him
cease to be an enemy. A symbol by which the relief workers could be recognized was devised. As a tribute to Switzerland, the symbol was the Swiss flag reversed, that is, a red cross on a white ground.
What first led Henry Dunant to think of helping the oppressed？
While Asian elephants are threatened by illegal capture and detaining, they are also killed for ivory and skin. In July 1990, a British wildlife group uncovered a black market for elephant skin. Elephants are shot it the forest along the border between Thailand and Burma, and their skin was sold to factories in Bangkok. Their skin is made into shoes, belts, suitcases, wallets, etc. , to sell to tourists.
What's the difference between the Asian elephant and the African elephant？
The region is certainly awash with celebrated corruption cases. Joseph Estrada, the deposed president of the Philippines, is currently on trial for "economic plunder". On February 12th, Indonesia's supreme court finally ruled on a long-running embezzlement case against Akbar Tandjung, the speaker of parliament. In 2001, Thailand's constitutional court heard charges that Thaksin Shinawatra, the prime minister, had concealed some assets during an earlier stint as minister.
But there is less to this flurry of righteousness than meeting the eye. For starters, prosecutors have not had much success against grand defendants like Messrs Thaksin and Tandjung. Both persuaded higher courts in overturn earlier rulings against them. Mr. Estrada, too, managed to evade impeachment while in office, and prosecutors are making heavy weather of their current case against
him. Even the convicted Mr. Rakkiat has not yet begun his prison term, since he jumped bail and went into hiding. What is more, all the countries in the region save Singapore and Malaysia still rank in the bottom half of the most recent "Corruption Perceptions Index" compiled by Transparency International, an anti-graft watchdog. Vietnam ranked 100 out of 133 countries, Indonesia 122 and Myanmar a dismal 129.
This poor showing stems in part from a lack of laws, personnel and money to combat corruption. But the resource in shortest supply is political will to tackle the problem. All countries in South -East Asia have at least one anti-corruption agency. But the ones that work best, argues Jon Quah, a professor at the National University of Singapore, are centralized, independent agencies such as Thailand's National Counter Corruption Commission. By contrast, Malaysia's Anti-Corrnption Agency reports to the government, and so is subject to political control. The Philippines, meanwhile, has adopted no fewer than seven anti-corruption laws in the past 50 years, and created 13 anti-graft agencies, according to Mr. Quah's count. Dramatic but disputed corruption allegations, such as the claim that the president's husband is managing multiple slush funds, simply get lost in all this bureaucracy.
The passage may be ______.
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