商英复习资料01313商务英语阅读（二）试题商务英语试 5

商务英语阅读（二）试卷 (5) Part I. Skimming and Scanning （20 %） Directions: Go over the passages and decide the following statements are true (T) or false (F). Choose (T) or (F) on the Answer Sheet below. No Country Is an Island Japan is reluctantly embracing globalization 1．Throughout its history Japan has oscillated between openness to foreign ideas and fierce isolationism. This ambivalence is still reflected in its attitude to globalization. Despite the worldwide presence of companies such as Toyota, Honda, Canno and Sony, Japan’s integration into the world economy is surprisingly weak. 2．Japan has the lowest levels of import penetration, inward foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign workers in the OECD. Foreign affiliates’ share of turnover in manufacturing and services, at 3% and 1% respectively, is the lowest in the OECD. Nor has Japan participated in the global wave of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A). In 2004 the sale of companies in the European Union to foreign firms accounted for 47% of global M&A by value, and that of American firms for a further 22%. The Japanese share, by contrast, was just 2.3%. In an era of unprecedented mobility of people, as well as goods and services, Japan’s net migration since the Second World War has been approximately zero. And so on. 3．Why is Japan such an outlier? Part of the reason is regulatory hangover from the post-war period. Rules restricting inward flows of goods and investment, put in place to protect growing domestic industries after the second world war, have hindered economic integration. So too have complicated regulations governing particular markets, which deterred foreign firms form entering the Japanese market. (In one infamous example, Japan restricted imports of foreign skis, arguing that Japanese snow was different.) The use of cross-holdings made it very difficult for foreigners to take over Japanese firms. 4．For their part, many Japanese firms have been too preoccupied in the past 15 years to expand abroad, says Heang Chhor, the head of the Tokyo office of McKinsey, a consultancy: “They have been so busy with the domestic crisis that they have forgotten to remain connected with the rest of the world.” Having been enthusiastic about overseas expansion in the 1980s, many Japanese companies retrenched at home during the dark days of the 1990s. Now that the domestic market has matured and the population has started to shrink, Japanese firms must look abroad for growth opportunities. 5．That is the main reason for Japan to globalize more vigorously, but not the only one. As well as seeking new markets, Japanese firms will be able to benefit from foreign ideas, which could help to boost innovation. “There should have been a Japanese Silicon Valley,” says Mr. Chhor. But during the 1990s, he explains, Japan’s connection to the outside world actually weakened, “so the engine for innovation became much less powerful.” 6．Globalization should also speed internal reform as more efficient foreign firms, particularly in services, shake up the domestic market. The government has duly set about dismantling regulations that hindered tighter integration with the rest of the world, and in 2006 the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy even produced a “globalization strategy” for Japan to enhance the country’s international competitiveness by making better use of goods, services and expertise from abroad. 7．Better late than never—but it will not be easy. For while corporate Japan spent the past few years restructuring, a global M&A binge created multinational giants in many industries, often leaving Japanese firms looking puny by comparison. Japanese firms also face a shortage of managers with international experience and the mindset and skills needed to operate globally. In addition to competitors in America and Europe, they now also have to contend with new rivals from China, India and South Korea in many markets. But “Japan cannot continue to live as an isolated island,” says Keizai Doyukai’s Mr Hasegawa. “Japan must strengthen its relationship with other countries.” 8．Some Japanese firms, of course, embraced globalisation years ago and have prospered as a result—notably Toyota, which is now nearly the world’s biggest carmaker. For the past two decades, says Fujio Cho, the company’s chairman, “we have been changing our business and management style to respond to the race of globalization.” Today the company has factories in 27 countries around the world. Other Japanese multinationals include Sony, which makes 74% of its sales outside Japan, and Nintendo and Canon, Japan’s second-and third-largest companies by market capitalization after Toyota. How to go global 9．But what of the Japanese companies that have come late to the globalization party? They have several options, says Mr. Marra of A.T. Kearney. The boldest is to try to achieve global scale through domestic and foreign acquisitions. This was the route taken by Nippon Sheet Glass, Toshiba and Japan Tobacco—as well as by Takeda, Japan’s largest pharmaceuticals company, of which Mr. Hasegawa is president. After spinning off non-core businesses in chemicals, agriculture and food, Takeda went on an acquisition spree, buying domestic and foreign pharmaceutical and biotech firms. A decade ago 50% of Takeda’s revenue came from Japan; now the figure is below one-third, and falling. 10．Mr. Hasegawa notes that Europe accounts for 30% of the world market for pharmaceuticals but only 14% of Takeda’s sales, so future acquisitions in Europe are on the cards. And further consolidation is looming in Japan, he says, where there are still dozens of drugs companies that will be vulnerable once protectionist measures are unwound. Rather than grumble about this, says Mr. Hasegawa, it is best to accept what is coming and plan accordingly. 11．Other options for Japanese firms, notes Mr. Marra, are to move into high-value specialist products, as many Japanese steel and chemicals firms have done; adopt a regional strategy, focusing on Asian markets; or form a global alliance with a foreign firm, as Renault-Nissan has done in cars and Sony Ericsson in mobile phones. Alliances have the advantage of allowing Japanese firms to avoid the indignity (in their eyes) of a takeover. They also provide them with quick access to foreign markets and management expertise, says McKinsey’s Mr. Chhor: “Allying with international players will be the name of the game for the next five years.” 12．Even as they globalize, Japanese firms continue to do some things in distinctly Japanese ways, points out Steven Vogel of the University of California, Berkeley. Toyota, for example, has to some extent replicated its domestic supplier networks in other countries. “It doesn’t act exactly like it does at home, but it doesn’t act like an American company either,” he says. Japanese electronics firms have also taken a cautious approach to outsourcing. Sony, for example, outsources the manufacturing of standardized items such as mobile phones and PCs to India, China mainland and Taiwan, but for digital cameras and video camcorders, where it has specialist manufacturing technology, it prefers to keep production in Japan, says Katsumi Ihara, head of the firm’s electronics division. 13．Japan’s relative lack of enthusiasm for outsourcing to China is due partly to the deep-rooted enmity between China and Japan, but also to Japanese firm’s desire to protect their intellectual property and to a belief that manufacturing remains a core Japanese competency. The two countries have strikingly complementary economies and look like natural partners: Japan makes high-tech, high-margin goods whereas China tends to concentrate on high-volume, low-tech products. But China represents both an opportunity and a threat: it is a big market on Japan’s doorstep, but it seems set in due course to displace Japan as Asia’s biggest economic and political power. 14．China recently surpassed America as Japan’s main trading partner, but new investment by Japanese firms in China actually fell by 30% in 2006, to $4.5 billion. In a survey asking Japanese firms to rate the best countries to invest in over the next three years, the proportion picking China fell from 91% in 2004 to 77% in 2006. That is still an impressive number, but the decline reflects both the expense of making things in China (compared with India and Vietnam) and growing concern over anti-Japanese sentiment. Come in, gaijin 15．Globalization is two-way street, and Japan has as much to gain from letting in foreign firms as it does from sending its own firms out into the world. So in 2003 JETRO, a government agency that used to be in charge solely of promoting exports, was given a new mission: to encourage more FDI in Japan. This is not because Japan is short of capital; it has an excess of the stuff. It is because the government recognizes that inviting in foreign firms is an indirect means of promoting reform, by exposing sleepy Japanese firms, particularly in the service sector, to a dose of competition. 16．“It is important to have new players in the Japanese economy with new ideas and new business models,” says JETRO’s Nobuyuki Nagashima. In 2003 the then prime minister, Mr. Koizumi, set a target of doubling FDI between 2001 and 2006, which was only just missed. Now JETRO has a new target: for FDI to reach 5% of GDP by 2010, more than twice the 2005 figure. But even if that target is reached, Japan’s figure will still be far lower than other rich countries’ (around 15% in America and 30-40% in Britain, France and Germany). 17．There is clear evidence that foreign investment has a galvanizing effect. In 2002 labor productivity in foreign affiliates in Japan was 60% higher than the national average in manufacturing and 80% higher in services. Foreign companies operating in Japan also outperform domestic firms in profitability, capital investment and R&D spending. This is partly because they are not bound by existing business relationships, but also because only the most globally competitive and efficient firms enter the Japanese market. “We are benefiting a lot from the stimulus that foreign capital is bringing,” says Kuniko Inoguchi, a member of parliament and a former minister in the Koizumi government. 18．Deregulations has encouraged foreign firms to enter fields such as telecoms, retailing and financial services. The arrival of Starbucks forced outmoded and overpriced kissaten coffeeshops to do better. Foreign insurers offered new products that had previously been unavailable in Japan, prompting local rivals to follow suit. When an old rule banning roadside advertising hoardings was abolished, JCDecaux of France introduced bus-stop advertising. It now operates in 13 Japanese cities. And the simplification of complicated rules relating to large shops prompted IKEA, a Swedish furniture retailer, to open superstores in Japan, offering a wider range and lower prices than local firms, along with an unusual shopping experience. All this shows that Japan is not closed to foreigners, says Mr. Nagashima, “but when things are very different, it just looks closed.” 19．Foreign firms going to Japan need to understand the local market but must also offer something distinctive, says Gerhard Fasol of Eurotechnology, a consultancy based in Tokyo that advises foreign companies about doing business in Japan. Starbucks, he notes, carefully crafted a strategy for the Japanese market; but Vodafone, a big European mobile operator, provides a cautionary tale. When it took control of Japan’s third-largest mobile operator in 2001, it made the mistake of trying to introduce European-style handsets into Japan, causing customers to defect in droves. (Vodafone sold its Japanese arm to SoftBank in 2006.) “When you want to sell to Japanese consumers you have to give them what they want, not what you think they should buy,” says Mr. Fasol. Another foreign giant that has failed to gain traction in Japan is Wal-Mart, which in 2002 bought a controlling stake in Seiyu, a Japanese retailer, and has yet to turn it around. 20．The introduction of the new triangular-merger law, which enables foreign firms to use their own shares to buy Japanese firms via local affiliates, should encourage more foreigners to enter the Japanese market. The first example—Citigroup’s takeover of Nikko Cordial—will set a precedent for Citigroup’s customers, says Mr. Fasol. More deregulation is still needed, says Mr. Nagashima, “but we are changing.” Under new management 21．That foreigners might have useful expertise was strikingly demonstrated by Carlos Ghosn’s turnaround at Nissan; another instructive case was the rescue by Ripplewood, a private-equity firm, of Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan in 2000. The bank was relaunched as Shinsei (which literally means “newborn”) with new management, including many foreigners who had previously worked for financial institutions in Japan. Shinsei went public in 2004, netting Ripplewood and its partners over $100 billion in profit. Goldman Sachs recently fixed and resold Universal Studios Japan, an ailing theme park, and is part of a consortium trying to sort out Sanyo, an electronics conglomerate. 22．In theory, Japan ought to offer rich pickings for foreign private-equity firms. There are lots of troubled companies that would benefit from an injection of management expertise, and Japan itself has few turnaround specialists. But suspicion of private-equity firms is even greater than elsewhere, so investors must tread carefully. “It’s market with a lot of potential, but requires an enormous amount of patience and determination,” says Thierry Porte, who became boss of Shinsei Bank in 2005. But, he points out, foreigners have often been catalysts of change in Japanese history: “They can be used in Japan to bring in new ideas, which are then adopted and get adapted to the Japanese system.” 1．( ) Japanese drug companies are strong enough to survive competition even if protectionist measures are removed. 2．( ) Toshiba achieved global scale through domestic and foreign acquisitions. 3．( ) Japan has actively participated in cross-border mergers and acquisitions. 4．( ) Japanese government put in place regulations to protect growing domestic industries after WWII. 5．( ) The Capability of Innovation for Japanese firms has weakened because of insufficient connection to the outside world. 6．( ) Foreign affiliates are inferior to Japanese local firms in profitability, capital investment and R&D spending. 7．( ) Japanese firms avoid alliances because they may cause indignity. 8．( ) Japanese electronic firms have taken a cautious approach to outsourcing. 9．( ) Many Japanese companies might benefit from borrowing and learning foreign management expertise. 10．( ) Starbucks introduced bus-stop advertising after an old rule banning roadside advertising hoardings was abolished. Answer Sheet 1. (T, F) 2. (T, F) 3. (T, F) 4. (T, F) 5. (T, F) 6. (T, F) 7. (T, F) 8. (T, F) 9. (T, F) 10. (T, F) Part II. Reading Comprehension (15%) Directions: ·Read the article below and answer the following questions. For each question (1-5) mark one letter (A, B or C) on the Answer Sheet below. Success Story Journalist Mark Stretton examines the growth of an insurance company which now has sales of ￡300 million per year. In 1993, American-born Henry Eastman got a call from a recruitment consultancy, inviting him to give up his successful marketing career in one insurance company to become the head of another. This new job was to work for an investment company called Brinscombe’s, who wanted him to create a brand new car insurance company. Despite the risks involved, Eastman agreed. A lot of young drivers in the 20 to 35 age range, especially the ones who have already had accidents, have difficulties in getting car insurance because most companies think they are too big a risk. However, Eastman believes there are no problems if their annual payments are large enough. He offered them insurance cover through television commercials and attracted many customers by giving out folders in which to keep their policies safe. His strategy was a good one. Within eight years he had built the business into a national company with 500,000 customers and sales of ￡300 million per year. The company is based in Manchester. The authorities there wanted to increase employment and offered Eastman a ￡1 million grant to start up after he promised to create 350 new jobs. He is now a major employer in the area with 1,400 staff and has also created new specialist insurance companies for women, credit card users and people using the internet. Eastman believes in American management methods: working as a team to get better results; not being allowed to miss lunch because you are too busy; and having fun. This belief has recently won him a place in a ’50 Best Companies to Work For’ survey. In 1999, Brinscombe’s decided to withdraw their investment and offered the company to the management team. They said ‘yes’, borrowed ￡80 million from a bank and bought it. Eastman is pleased with his success. ‘We’re a great and growing company’, he says, ‘and we give our customers better service than they can dream of!’ 1. Henry Eastman’s previous job was in A．investment. B．recruitment C．marketing 2. He was offered the opportunity to A．set up a company for someone else. B．take over a company called Brinscombe’s. . C．invest his own money in a new company 3. The company’s success is due to A．refusing insurance to high-risk clients. B．targeting a particular market. C．selling cheap insurance policies. 4. He chose the present company location because A．there was already a skilled workforce. B．it would be easy to expand the premises. C．financial support was available in that part of the country. 5. Eastman’s strategy is to A．make each person work as hard as possible. B．produce a happy working environment. C．encourage staff to decide on their own objectives. Answer Sheet 1. A B C 2. A B C 3. A B C 4. A B C 5. A B C Part III. Cloze (20%) Directions: Read the following passage and fill in the blanks with appropriate words from the list at the end of the passage. Note that there are more words in the list than the blanks in the passage. Also known as corporate citizenship and corporate responsibility, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the business response to the sustainability agenda. The notion of CSR has been around since the 1950s, (1) academics and business leaders first began to identify and articulate the impact of global businesses on society. In today’s globalize marketplace, there is growing acceptance that the corporate sector has a (2) to play in securing a sustainable future. As a result, more and more companies are getting involved in areas such as human rights, fair trade, local economic development, non-discriminatory employment practices and reducing waste and (3). Today, most leading companies devote considerable resources (4) activities designed to help manage, co-ordinate, measure, report upon and otherwise promote their corporate responsibility performance. With the growth of shareholder and media interest in the subject, CSR is becoming (5). Each year US-based Business Ethics magazine lists its ‘100 Best Corporate Citizens’ and, in the UK, Business in the Community (‘BITC’) hands (6) annual awards for excellence in responsible business practices and community involvement. The rise of ‘socially responsible investment’ has created a new market for systems (7) the CSR-related performance of different companies can be measured and ranked. In support of these activities, there have sprung up (8) research initiatives and new business school training programs, along with an army of consultants and other service providers and a bewildering array of conferences. New industry-led bodies and think tanks, such as BITC in the UK and Business for Social Responsibility in the USA, have been created to help support the efforts of businesses—and new alliances between NGOs have been (9) to help co-ordinate the work of groups seeking social and legal reform. Moreover, companies are actively seeking to develop relationships with NGOs to help them to identify key areas of (10) and suitable responses. competitive concern emissions forged numerous on out role to when where whereby Answer Sheer 1. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Part Ⅳ Translation Part A. Translate the following sentences into English (15%) 1. 日本公司全体人员都一致同意出售公司以前收购的业务单元，因为它损害了公司价值。 2. 自从高盛宣布要在大中华地区招收1500新员工以来，申请像潮水般涌进它的人力资源部门。 3．周二，各界盛传美联储可能再次降息，以缓解股价暴跌对经济的冲击。 4. 对中国而言，美元崩溃没有任何好处，尤其是会大大削弱中国产品在美国的竞争力。 5. 随着计算机技术的发展和互联网的广泛应用，计算机病毒越来越猖獗，这对网络信息安全的构成严重威胁。 Part B. Translate the following passage into Chinese (30%) Until the mid 1980s, Sweden’s approach to direct investment from abroad was quite restrictive and governed by a complex system of laws and regulations. During the later part of that decade, however, doubts were raised about the effectiveness and desirability of controlling foreign direct investment (FDI) in Sweden. Such considerations, and Sweden’s entry into the European Union (EU), have greatly improved the investment climate and attracted foreign investors to the country. Sweden is now considered to be an attractive country in which to invest. Swedish authorities have implemented a number of reforms to improve the business regulatory environment that benefits investment inflows. They are also seeking ways to ensure wider ownership in Swedish industry, which they feel will increase competition and lead to greater efficiency. As a result foreign ownership in Sweden has increased rapidly in the last decade and foreign owned firms now employ almost 20% of the work force in the business sector. About half of those are employed in service industries. 商务英语阅读（二）试卷(5) （部分） Part I. Skimming and Scanning （20 %） 1—10 F TFTT FFTTF Part II. Reading Comprehension (15%) 1—5 CABCB Part III. Cloze (20%) 1. when 2. role 3. emissions 4. to 5. competitive 6. out 7. whereby 8. numerous 9. forged 10. concern Part Ⅳ Translation Part A Translate the following sentences into English (15%) 1. The Japanese company is unanimous in its support of divestiture since the acquired business unit is destroying the corporate value. 2. Ever since Goldman Sachs announced its plan to recruit 1500 new employees in Greater China, applications flooded into its HR office. 3. On Tuesday, it was widely rumored that US Federal Reserve would probably decrease interest rate again to relieve strike of sharp stock slump to economy. 4. China has little to gain from a dollar crash, not least because that would make its exports much less competitive in America. 5. With development of the computer technology and wide use of the Internet, computer virus has become rampant, posing a severe threat to information security on the Internet. Part B. Translate the following passage into Chinese (30%) 20世纪80年代中期之前，瑞典一直通过一套复杂的法规监管外国直接投资，限制严格。但在80年代后期，有人对控制在瑞典的外国直接投资（FDI）的有效性和可取性提出疑问。这些疑问加之瑞典加入欧洲联盟（EU）大大改善了投资环境并吸引了外国投资者来到该国。现在的瑞典被认为是一个颇具吸引力的招商引资国家。 瑞典当局实施了一系列的改革来改善经营监管环境，促进投资流入。他们不断寻求多种方式以确保外商在瑞典工业中更宽松多样的所有权形式，希望这样能促进竞争，提高效率。因此，过去的十年中，外资所有权在瑞典迅速增加，外资企业现已雇佣了工商业部门近20%的劳动力。其中约半数受聘于服务性行业。 PAGE 8