1 . China has become Volvo's third largest market, with more of its car models to go on sale in the world's largest auto (汽车) market this year, Chief Executive Office (CEO) of Volvo Cars China said in Tianjin.
Alexander Klose, CEO of Volvo Cars China, told Xinhua at the Ninth Tianjin International Automobile Trade Show, being held from Friday to Wednesday.
Klose said Volvo Cars had entered a new time of fast development, adding that its sales volume in China roared in 2010.
Up to the end of September, Volvo's global sales volume was up 12.5 percent year on year (同年比), compared with 52 percent year-on-year rise in China, he said.
Two new Volvo sales centers opened in Beijing within merely one week in early October, about two months after east China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co acquired (购得) the Swedish brand from the US auto giant Ford for $1.5 billion in early August.
Klose said he was confident of seeing tremendous (巨大的) growth in China's auto market in the next five years. "As the Chinese government has increased the tax rate for large displacement (排量) cars already, we now have a lot of cars below three liters (升), and I think we'll stick to that strategy, as you can see now the XC60 which was introduced today is just two liters," he said.
"As the technology advances, we'll probably even see 1.6 liter engines or 1.5 liter engines in the future," he added.
Volvo Cars is not the only automaker hoping to take advantage of China's rapidly growing auto market.
Bentley, the famous British luxury (豪华) carmaker, will open a new sales center in China at Tianjin Thursday, which is the 11th one in China, according to a press release (新闻发布) by Shanghai-based Zenith Integrated Communications Corp (Zenith) Saturday at the auto show.
Zenth is the public relations agent of Bentley in China. The automaker has sold 421 limousines (大型豪华轿车) to China in 2009, and the goal for 2010 is 777, the release said.
1. The word underlined in the third paragraph would probably be___.| A．shouted loudly | B．increased in large numbers |
| C．reduced rapidly | D．burned brightly |
| A．The Ninth Tianjin International Automobile Trade Show was held from Friday to Wednesday. |
| B．Volvo Cars is a world-famous carmaker in Britain. |
| C．Of all the auto sales volume Volvo sales volume is only number one in China |
| D．Volvo sales centers are developing very fast in China recently |
| A．China Becomes Volvo's 3rd largest market |
| B．Volvo Cars in China |
| C．Volvo Sales Volume in China |
| D．Carmakers in China |
| A．One. | B．Two. | C．Three. | D．Four. |
“People are afraid to spend now.” said Linda Morrow, who owns a shoe and handbag store. “They don’t know what the future will bring”. During the financial crisis (金融危机), several of the country’s biggest banks have been forced to sell or close. This has made lots of Americans afraid to buy expensive things.
The crisis began last year. Experts (专家) think it was because US banks lend money too easily. Last year a lot of people and companies, who borrowed money, found themselves unable to pay it back. This left the banks, as well as the people who put their money in the banks, without money. Since the banks borrowed money between themselves and even across borders (国界), the whole world was in trouble.
This month the US government agreed on a $700 billion plan to try to save the financial market. But no one is sure whether it will help or not. Last week presidents from 20 countries promised to work together to find a way out of the money trouble.
1. This passage is probably taken from ___________.
| A．a story book | B．a novel | C．a newspaper | D．an advertisement |
| A．Because they think it’s unnecessary |
| B．Because they don’t have the habit of spending money |
| C．Because they worry about their future |
| D．Because they don’t have any money |
| A．when the financial crisis began |
| B．when the financial crisis will end |
| C．why some of the US banks closed |
| D．whether the crisis has spread to other countries |
| A．Ways to Save Money |
| B．Financial Crisis facing the World |
| C．Banks in the USA |
| D．The USA Becoming Poor |
3 . Made In The USA: An Export Boom
In his State of the Union address two years ago, President Obama argued that in order to recover from the economic recession, one of the few things the U.S. needed to do was to export more goods around the world. That night, the president unveiled a new goal: to double U.S. exports over the next five years. It would be an increase that the president said would “support two million jobs in America.”
Most economists dismissed the promise at the time as something unrealistic, but two years later, the U.S. is on pace to meet that goal. American exports are up 34 percent since the president gave that speech, and the number continues to rise.
Competitive In A Global Market
Marlin Steel, a metal working business in Baltimore, makes parts that ship all across the world. “We export to 36 countries,” owner Drew Greenblatt tells All Things Considered Host Guy Raz. “We’re working around the clock, and we're growing.”
It's not just advanced manufacturing exports on the rise, but pork, cattle and all kinds of agricultural exports are up as well. Even American craft beer has found an export market.
Flying Dog CEO Jim Caruso says that increasingly, people all over the world are trying the beer from the Maryland-based brewery. Caruso says, “Even in those top beer-producing countries, a competitive American product is finding a market.”
Services Are Exports, Too
Another place exports are coming from is New York City — in particular, the 30th floor of a Manhattan skyscraper on 5th Avenue and 52nd Street. That's where the consulting firm Kurt Solomon lies. It doesn’t actually produce a product for export; it provides management advice and strategy.
“Four out of every five Americans is now employed in the service industry,” the nation's top trade official, Ron Kirk says, “Services are a significant part of our exports, and make up about a quarter of our exported goods.” These services can include everything from legal consulting, finance, information technology and even engineering.
And There Are Other Factors
So why has there been an increase of more than 30 percent for exports in almost everything? Part of the increase, at least for the manufacturing side, is due to better technology, says Tyler Cowen, an economist. “A lot of it is being driven by smart machines,” he tells Raz, “The U.S. has high wage rates, which is a disadvantage, but if machines are doing a lot of the work, that doesn't matter.”
China factors a lot in America's export economy, too. “Wages in China have been going up as the country becomes more productive. Thus China is losing the cheap labor advantage it has held for some time.” Cowen says.
Will Jobs Grow, too?
“Companies have become more productive by dismissing workers and lowering costs.” Cowen says. “So I don't view exporting as a way of creating a very large number of jobs, but it will create more profits.”
So not every business or worker is necessarily benefiting from the export boom in the U.S., and Cowen says that could ultimately lead to a polarization (两极) of economic outcomes.
Made In the USA: An Export Boom
| Outline | Details | |
| The purpose of increasing exports | *To help America make a *To help raise the nation’s | |
| The current situation | *American exports have risen *There has been an increase in exports in everything *The export boom does not necessarily | |
| Even in those top beer－producing countries, people try craft beer from Flying Dog, a brewery | ||
| Various products | A variety of products are provided around the world, services | |
| Lower costs | * *China, who used to take | |
In the old economy, people travel to walk. They buy things in stores. They use the post office, the fax and the telephone to send information. They see people face-to-face at their jobs or in stores. People get information from newspapers, radio, television, books and libraries.
In the new economy, people do business through the “net,” which is a connection of millions of computers everywhere in the world. In the new economy, workers often work at home. They can get information online. They can communicate with employers and co-workers by e-mail. Businesses have “virtual stores”. They are websites on which customers can see the products. Businesses can sell to customers anywhere in the world.
In the new economy, people live a fast paced, convenient and colorful life. The whole world develops more quickly than before. But the new economy is a double-edge sword. Its disadvantage is also obvious. For example, the Internet has led to a huge increase in credit card cheating. Some illegal websites offer some cheap or banned goods or services. Online shoppers who enter their credit card information may never receive the goods they want to buy and their card information could even be for sale in an illegal website. So people in the new economy should be smarter and knowledgeable.
1. The cause of the differences between the new economy and the old economy is ____.| A．the change of people’s idea | B．the business people do |
| C．the use of the Internet | D．the change of people’s life |
| A．getting information from books |
| B．communicating with friends by telephone |
| C．meeting people face to face |
| D．shopping online |
| A．The new economy is as sharp as a sword |
| B．The new economy has advantages and disadvantages |
| C．The new economy is better than the old economy |
| D．Both the new economy and the old economy have disadvantages |
| A．People can get all kinds of information on the Internet. |
| B．Telephone, radio, television, newspapers and so on will disappear in the new economy. |
| C．People in the new economy should have high quality. |
| D．Life in the new economy is more comfortable than the one in the old economy. |
The report measured a city’s housing market along the following guidelines. An “affordable” home required three times or less of the average family’s income to purchase. At four times earnings, a home fell into the “unaffordable” category. And a “seriously unaffordable” home needed five times a family’s income. In Australia, homes in the least affordable city cost just about 9.5 times the average income. Sydney, Perth, and Melbourne were only a little under this figure．
Australian officials offered little comment, apart from a general statement on the dismal findings. These prices make the possibility that many Australians will one day own a home largely unbelievable. Land rationing （配给制） and excessive development charges have raised prices, and the problem will only be solved through urgent action by the Rudd government．
Some American cities were also included on the least affordable list, four of which were in California. America is still involved in a mortgage（抵押）crisis, though, affecting the affordability of homes. Yet a number of US cities garnered “affordable” status, namely Dallas and Kansas. Australia had no cities listed in the top fifty places with affordable homes．
The survey suggests that you can find affordable homes in most places, just not if you’re Australian and choose to live down under．
1. To buy an affordable house, you should pay _____．
| A．3 times or less of the average family’s income |
| B．4 times or less of the average family’s income |
| C．5 times or less of the average family’s income |
| D．9.5 times or less of the average family’s income |
| A．The rising family’s income． |
| B．The demand over supply. |
| C．The excessive development charges． |
| D．The decrease of land． |
| A．cheerful | B．satisfactory |
| C．difficult | D．sad |
| A．Affordable Houses | B．A House is a Dream First |
| C．Housing Bubble | D．Homes Too Expensive |
Now, it' s important for the managers in a company to understand what their customers want if they are going to develop effective marketing strategies (策略). There are various ways of doing this. One way at supermarkets, for example, is to interview customers while they're doing their shopping. They can be asked what they prefer to buy and then the results of the research can be studied. This provides information on which to base future marketing strategies. It' s also quite normal for top managers from department stores to spend a day or two each month visiting stores and mixing freely with the public, as if they were ordinary customers, to get an idea of how customers act.
Another way to get information from customers is to give them something. For example, some fast food restaurants give away tickets in magazines or on the street that permit customers to get part of their meal for nothing. As well as being a good way of attracting customers into the restaurants to spend their money, it also allows the managers to get a feel for where to attract customers and which age-groups to attract.
Another strategy used at some well-known parks such as Disneyland is for top managers to spend at least one day in their work, touring the park dressed as Mickey Mouse or something like that. This provides them with a perfect chance to examine the scene and watch the customers without being noticed.
1. The text is designed for _______
| A．customers | B．salesmen | C．researchers | D．managers |
| A．Visiting customers themselves. |
| B．Giving customers free food on the street. |
| C．Visiting parks as ordinary customers. |
| D．Asking customers questions at supermarkets. |
| A．Visiting Disneyland. | B．Wearing attractive clothes. |
| C．Acting Mickey Mouse. | D．Dressing up and walking around. |
| A．how to find out customers' social needs |
| B．how to develop marketing strategies |
| C．how to do market research |
| D．how to encourage customers to spend more money |
7 . Banks view online banking as a powerful “value-added” tool to attract and keep new customers while helping to eliminate costly paper handling or teller(出纳员)interactions in an increasingly competitive banking environment .
Today, most large national banks, many local banks and credit unions offer some form of online banking, variously known as PC banking, home banking, electronic banking or Internet banking. Online banks are sometimes referred to as “brick-to-click” banks, both to tell them from “brick-to-mortar” banks that haven’t yet offered online banking, as well as from “virtual”(虚拟)banks that have no physical branches or tellers whatsoever.
The challenge(挑战)for the banking industry has been to design this new service channel in such a way that its customers will readily learn to use and trust it. Most of the large banks can now offer fully safe, fully functional(功能的)online banking for free or for a small cost. As more banks succeed online and more customers use their sites, fully functional online banking will likely become as commonplace as automated teller machines (ATM).
Online banking has a lot of advantages. Unlike your corner bank, online banking sites never close; they’re at hand 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and they’re a mouse click away. If you’re out of state or even out of the country when a money problem appears, you can log on instantly to your online bank and take care of business. Online bank sites generally carry out and confirm (确认)deals at or quicker than ATM processing speeds. Many online banking sites now offer fashionable tools to help you manage all of your valuable items more effectively.
1. The word “eliminate” in the first paragraph probably means “ ”.| A．keep | B．remove | C．reduce | D．improve |
| A．To make online banking attractive. | B．To open new services all over the world. |
| C．To offer online banking for free. | D．To take care of business 24 hours a day. |
| A．“brick-to-click” banks are in fact another kind of physical banks |
| B．the function of a “brick-to-click” bank is as common as that of an ATM |
| C．a “brick-to-mortar” bank is no better than a virtual one |
| D．customers can deal with their banking by a mouse click |
| A．Banking of Various Forms | B．Improvement of Banking Industry |
| C．Development of Online Banking | D．Functions of the “Brick-to-Click” Bank |
8 . If your boss asks you to work in Moscow this year, he’d better offer you more money to do so — or even double that depending on where you live now. That’s because Moscow has just been found to be the world’s most expensive city for the second year in a row by Mercer Human Resources Consulting.
Using the cost of living in New York as a base, Mercer determined Moscow is 34.4 percent more expensive including the cost of housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment(娱乐).
A two-bedroom flat in Moscow now costs $4,000 a month; a CD $24.83, and an international newspaper $6.30, according to Mercer. By comparison, a fast food meal with a hamburger(汉堡包) is a steal at $4.80.
London takes the No.2 place, up from No.5 a year ago, thanks to higher cost of housing and a stronger British pound relative to the dollar. Mercer estimates(估算) London is 26 percent more expensive than New York these days. Following London closely are Seoul and Tokyo, both of which are 22 percent more expensive than New York, while No.5 Hong Kong is 19 percent more costly.
Among North American cities, New York and Los Angeles are the most expensive and are the only two listed in the top 50 of the world’s most expensive cities. But both have fallen since last year’s study — New York came in 15th, down from 10th place, while Los Angeles fell to 42nd from 29th place a year ago. San Francisco came in a distant third at No. 54, down 20 places from a year earlier.
Toronto, meanwhile, is Canada’s most expensive city but fell 35 places to take 82nd place worldwide. In Australia, Sydney is the priciest place to live in and No. 21 worldwide.
1. What do the underlined words “a steal” in Paragraph 3 mean?| A．an act of stealing | B．something delicious |
| C．something very cheap | D．an act of buying |
| A．the high cost of clothing | B．the stronger pound against the dollar |
| C．its expensive transportation | D．the high prices of fast food meals |
| A．Tokyo. | B．Hong Kong. | C．Moscow. | D．Sydney. |
| A．New York. | B．Los Angeles. | C．San Francisco. | D．Toronto. |
