单选题
During the last fifty years, the international economy has experienced a basic change. Improvements in the Internet and other communication tools have had important effects on the world markets. Faster methods of transport from one place to another have made the world seem much smaller to the businessmen. As a result, the world no longer consists of a number of separate and independent economies under the control of different nations. Instead, the nations have been integrated into a single economy, and the integration is becoming more and more complete every year. Now, for the first time in history, we can truly speak of a global economy.
The most dramatic example of this integration was the oil crisis of 1973 and 1974. It came as a great surprise to the public in the industrial nations to discover that they depended so heavily on imported oil and each other. However, the best evidence for the growing integration is the rapid expansion in the volume of world trade. It went up by about 7 percent year by year during the decade from 1990 to 2000, and in several quasi-industrial countries the growth was even more rapid. As a result, some imported products have become so common that they are treated as domestic commodity. Some of them are too common for the public to any more realize they are foreign.
Production has also become international, which is manifested by the large corporations stepping across national borders and establishing branches and subsidiaries in several different countries. As an example, U.S. companies are building many automobiles in China, Canada, Germany, Britain and Japan. In most cases, many components of an automobile are produced in these countries and then shipped to the United States, where they are finally assembled with other parts. When even the United States has the largest number of such corporations, it is not the only one. Other multinationals, for instance, are based in Japan, France, Germany, the UK and Italy.
Labor, too, is much more mobile than in the past. Both skilled and unskilled workers can now readily migrate from one country to another. In Europe, take it for an example, there are large numbers of Turkish workers employed in the German economy. Doctors, lawyers, and other professionals are also finding it easier to work in foreign countries. The labor market has become international, and the number of
expatriate
workers is continuing to grow.
单选题
Which of the following statement will best summarize the whole passage?
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】主旨题。由文章第一段第一句“During the last fifty years, me international economy has experienced a basic change.”可知：文章主要讲了世界经济的变化。同时，第二段提及的石油危机和全球贸易；第三、四段提到的工业生产和劳动力市场的国际化也都反映了本文的主题。所以本题的正确答案为B。
单选题
The world is becoming smaller to the businessmen because ______.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】细节题。由第一段第三句“Faster methods of transport from one place to another have made the world seem much smaller to the businessmen.”可知：对商人来说，快捷的交通似乎把世界变得更小了。所以本题的正确答案为B。
单选题
What is the most convincing illustration for the growing integration?
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】细节题。由第二段第三句“...the best evidence for the growing integration is the rapid expansion in the volume of world wade.”可知：世界贸易的快速拓展是经济一体化逐步发展的最好证明。此外，B项“The oil crisis in 1973 and 1974.”虽然说明了世界各国对进口石油的依赖，但经济一体化的最有力的证明是“the rapid expansion in the volume of world trade”，题干中的“growing”是本题的解题关键。所以，B项是干扰项，本题的正确答案为D。
单选题
Which of the following statements is TRUE?
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】推理题。由文章最后一段第二句“Both skilled and unskilled workers can now readily migrate from one country to another.”可知：技术或非技术工人现在都可以很容易的受聘于外国公司，从而使劳动力市场呈现出很大的流动性。这从另一个方面反映了许多跨国公司可以充分利用这一趋势，雇佣廉价的外国劳动力，实现成本的降低。这与C项的内容相符，同时也排除了A项。根据文章第三段第四句“When even the United States has the largest number of such corporations...”，可以排除B项；而D项在文章中没有提及。所以本题的正确答案为C。