1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 480 及答案与解析Part B (10 points) 0 Today there is widespread agreement that multinational corporations will have an important effect on international relations and world economy. But there is little agreement on exactly what that effect will be. There are two groups of those who see them as
2、 benevolent and those who see them as evil.Among those who see multinational corporations as benevolent, many emphasize their importance in helping reduce the gap between rich countries and poor ones. These business giants are referred to as “engines of development“ because it is claimed that they d
3、o more to improve the economic life in less developed countries than all governmental foreign aid programs have ever done. By setting up factories abroad, they provide jobs; by equipping these factories with the latest machines and equipment, they make available the most modem technology. 【R1】_In fa
4、ct, they do better on their own. It may have been necessary in the mid-nineteen century for Admiral Perry to threaten the Japanese with naval bombardment if they did not allow western countries to trade with them. Such threats would make no sense today. 【R2】_The leaders of multinational corporations
5、 see patriotism as old-fashioned, the nation-state obsolete, and war in pursuit of national glory downright foolish. They believe that the multinational corporation is “a modern concept evolved to meet the requirements of modern age“, while the nation-state is “still rooted in archaic concepts unsym
6、pathetic to the need of our complex world.“ 【R3】_“I think, “ an official of General Electric once said, “getting General Electric everywhere in the world is the biggest thing we can do for world peace.“These proponents of the multinational corporations come by and large from the business world. Ther
7、e are, however, many critics among academic students of multinational corporations who regard them as a sinister force. They have produced detailed studies to prove that the benefits of multinational corporations are mostly illusory. To the claim that multinational corporations provide jobs, they po
8、int out that this is at the cost of jobs in other countries. To the claim that multinational corporations transfer technology, they reply: (1)often the equipment shipped overseas is out of date;(2)their technology is often unsuitable for many of the less developed countries where labor is plentiful
9、and therefore cheap. 【R4】_Therefore, they maintain that instead of being the “engines of development“, the multinational corporations are actually “engines of impoverishment“.These critics do not deny that consumption of the products of these corporations has risen in countries around the world. 【R5
10、 】_Therefore, although these corporations may breakdown national frontiers they strengthen class distinctions, widening the gap between the rich and the poor, creating greater social injustice and instability.AThe long, expensive American war in Vietnam did not bring new opportunities in Southeast A
11、sia for the multinational corporations. The decision of the Nixon administration to improve relations with China was more profitable to them.BThe fact that both American teenagers and Mexican peasants are drinking Coca Cola does not mean that the life of the Mexican peasants is getting better due to
12、 the multinational corporations.CThey therefore characterize themselves as hard-headed people who are helping to bring about a more cooperative system or world order by breaking down national, geographical, political, economic and ideological barriers.DOne study actually showed that multinational co
13、rporations do not invest capital from wealthy countries, but prefer to finance their operations from the local economy. In other words, they are simply transferring wealth from poorer countries to richer ones.EAccording to these critics, states will soon realize that they have lost their control ove
14、r issues such as taxation, employment and even the stability of their own currency.FBut they point Out that this so-called “Global Shopping Center“ is available only to a very small portion of the local population.GBecause goods are now produced within the less developed countries, there is less nee
15、d for them to import from abroad, and their balance of payments will improve. Multinational corporations today do not need their countries to provide military force to open foreign countries to their investment, products and sales.1 【R1 】2 【R2 】3 【R3 】4 【R4 】5 【R5 】5 AIndeed, such collaborations at
16、the institutional level must begin with stronger interaction between the offices that have oversight of research and international affairs. University research and international offices can partner on incentives and procedural changes(e.g. international travel awards, promotion and tenure guidelines
17、 that encourage outreach, etc.)as well as lobby federal agencies to provide more funding for multi-institutional collaborative projects. These offices can also help strategically map and forecast emerging research fields; identify gaps in expertise, instrumentation, and resources; find foreign partn
18、ers that can complement institutional priorities and strengths, including sharing of high-technology equipment; facilitate interdisciplinary connections; and promote targeted domestic and international institutional, multi-disciplinary, and multilateral linkages. BFor example, new generation influen
19、za vaccines arose from collaborations between US and Japanese pharmaceutical companies;information technology and cybersecurity tools were developed by the US Department of Defense with international allies; and clean energy and low carbon technologies from joint work by a consortium of US and Chine
20、se universities, national laboratories, and private sector companies. CIn order for US research universities to remain competitive in todays knowledge-and-innova-tion-driven global economy, it is essential to expand research and scholarly collaborations and forge partnerships internationally. In rec
21、ent years, the value of international collaboration has been increasingly emphasized by federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation(NSF), which now encourages more cross-border cooperation in science, technology, and education. DThe decrease in US-based global collaborations should c
22、oncern our science and technology policymakers and institutional leaders. Such worldly partnerships are essential for producing the best science and remaining competitive in the global scientific community. Any one university cannot sustain broad expertise and infrastructure in all disciplinary area
23、s. In addition to domestic collaborations, transnational partnerships can also provide opportunities for greater research synergies and complementarities. These collaborations also increase the breadth of scientific inquiry and have accelerated the commercialization of research around the globe. ESo
24、me universities already offer such services, and the support has resulted in new international research travel awards, targeted workshops, intra-institutional and transnational interdisciplinary collaborations. Clearly, new university organizational and operational instritutions that promote interna
25、tional collaboration can help advance research productivity and impact, and are needed to complement national and international initiatives. FHowever, the 2012 NSF report highlighted some concerns. As indicated in the report, two direct measures of international collaboration are coauthorship of res
26、earch publications with foreign researchers and co-patents with foreign inventors. Over the past decade, the number of papers published by US researchers with international collaborators has remained relatively flat, increasing only at 1-2 percent each year. Furthermore, the total number of patents
27、filed jointly under the Patent Cooperation Treaty by US and foreign inventors in 2010 was 5, 440, a 6 percent decrease over the previous 3 years. GWithout a doubt, strong relationships between individual researchers are the most common and strongest indicator of productivity. Scientists identify col
28、leagues with whom they would like to work, and these friendships translate into long-term collaborations, student exchanges, and scientific and creative outputs. For example, among WSUs top 20 researchers, 16 have extensive international collaborations, with 32 percent of their peer-reviewed publica
29、tions being internationally coauthored. But universities can also play a bigger role in promoting international research partnerships. Order: 10 AThe culprit is climate change, caused by societys burning of fossil fuels. When it comes to global warming, farmers who are more attuned to weather patter
30、ns than most peoplemay be the proverbial canaries in the coalmine. The weather, of course, has never been exactly dependablefarmers have always been at the mercy of the vagaries of sun and rain. General weather patterns have at least been broadly predictable, allowing farmers to know when to sow the
31、ir seeds, when to transplant, when to harvest. As weather patterns become less reliable, growers will be tested to develop new rhythms and systems for growing crops. BMost keyboard jockeys would die for the view from Orin Martins office window: apple trees in blossom, lines of citrus, dozens of vari
32、eties of flowers and neat rows of peppers and potatoes. Martin is a farmer in Santa Cruz, Calif., where for the last 30 years he has been an instructor at the University of California s agro-ecology program, one of the nation s oldest organic agriculture curriculums. CWhat all agriculture experts ag
33、ree on is that farmers need to start preparing today for climate change. Growers ought to be thinking about what warmer temperatures, fluctuations in precipitation, and an increase in extreme weather events will mean for their farms, and how they can respond. “This is change: it s not necessarily di
34、saster, “ says Grubinger. “The disaster will come if people arent prepared. “ DIn recent years, however, something has been wrong in his idyllic setting. The weather is changing in strange ways. From New England to the Midwest to California, farmers and scientists are noticing that once-dependable w
35、eather patterns are shifting. EAmong farmers and researchers, there is disagreement about which types of growers climate change will impact mostlarge agribusiness growing operations, or smaller, family-run farms. Some agriculture industry observers say that the bigger farmers will have an advantage
36、in coping with weather changes, as they will have more resources to switch to new crops. Others say that since family farms usually grow a wider range of crops, their biological diversity will make it easier to cope with whatever changes occur. FToo much rain at the wrong time can make it difficult
37、to plant or harvest crops. Above-average rainfall also contributes to fungi and insects that can dramatically reduce crop yields. Too much warmth is equally problematic. Some plants require a certain number of frost days each year in order to thrive the following spring. As temperatures warm, farmer
38、s may find themselves having to either shift to different crops or actually move their operations to new locales. Unreliable weather will make it harder for farmers to be as productive as we have come to expect. Order: 15 AModern marketing is therefore a coordinated system of many business activitie
39、s. But basically it involves four things: selling the correct product at the proper place, selling it at a price determined by demand , satisfying a customer s need and wants, and producing a profit for the company. BBecause products are often marketed internationally, distribution has increased in
40、importance. Goods must be at the place where the customer need them or bought there. This is known as place utility: it adds value to a product. However, many markets are separated from the place of production, which means that often both raw materials and finished products must be transported to th
41、e points where they are needed. CThe terms market and marketing can have several meanings depending upon how they are used. The term stock market refers to the buying and selling of shares in corporations, as well as other activities related to stock trading and pricing. The important world stock ma
42、rkets are in London, Geneva, New York, Tokyo and Singapore. Another type of market is a grocery market, which is a place where people purchase food. When economists use the word market, they mean a set of forces or conditions that determine the price of a product, such as the supply available for sa
43、le and the demand for it by consumers. The term marketing in business includes all these meanings, and more. DIn the past, the concept of marketing emphasized sales. The producer or manufacturer made a product he wanted to sell. Marketing was the task of figuring out how to sell the product. Basical
44、ly, selling the product would be accomplished by sales promotion, which included advertising and personal selling. In addition to sales promotion, marketing also involved the physical distribution of the product to the places where it was actually sold. Distribution consisted of transportation, stor
45、age, and related services, such as financing , standardization and grading, and the related risks. EMarketing now involves first deciding what the customer wants, and designing and producing a product that satisfies these wants at a profit to the company. Instead of concentrating solely on product,
46、the company must consider the desires of the consumer. And this is much more difficult since it involves human behavior. Production, on the other hand, is mostly an engineering problem. Thus, demand and market forces are still an important aspect of modem marketing, but they are considered prior to
47、the production process. FThe modern marketing concept encompasses all of the activities mentioned, but it is based on a different set of principles. It subscribes to the notion that production can be economically justified only by consumption. In other words, goods should be produced only if they ca
48、n be sold. Therefore, the producer should consider who is going to buy the product, or what the market for the product is before production begins. This is very different from making a product and then thinking about how to sell it. GRaw materials requiring little or special treatment can be transpo
49、rted by rail, ship of barge at low cost. Large quantities of raw materials travels as bulk freight but finished products that often require special treatment, such as refrigeration or careful handling, are usually transported by truck, this merchandise freight is usually smaller in volume and required quicker delivery. Merchandise freight is a term for the transportation of manufactured good. Along all points of the distribution channel various amounts of storage are required. The time and manner of s
