单选题
In 2007 Safaricom, the biggest mobile operator in Kenya,
launched M-PESA, a service that allows money to be sent and received using
mobile phones. It is used by 70% of the adult population and has become central
to the economy: around 25% of Kenya's GNP flows through it.
Similar schemes have had some success elsewhere. There has been a particular
push in east Africa. Yet in many poor countries where mobile money should be
flourishing, it isn't. Mobile-money services are especially
useful in developing countries. A worker in the city can send money to his
family in the village without having to waste a day travelling on a rickety bus.
Indeed, he can pay his family's household bills directly from his phone. It is
safer too: nobody wants to carry wads of currency on public transport.
Mobile money also gives its users—many of whom are poor and have no
access to banks—a way to save small amounts of money. Mobile transactions are
more traceable than cash, making it harder for corrupt officials to embezzle
undetected. And lately Kenya has discovered a further benefit: the success of
M-PESA has provided the foundation for a group of start-ups in Nairobi that are
building new products and services on top of it. Not all
countries need mobile money, of course. Rich countries, with cash machines,
credit cards and Internet banking, have little use for it. And among developing
countries, not all have Kenya's specific mix of circumstances. Safaricom had a
dominant market share when it launched M-PESA, giving the service a large base
of potential customers. But there is also a bad reason why mobile money has
failed to spread. Many of the poor countries that would most benefit from mobile
money seem intent on keeping its suppliers out—mainly by insisting they should
be regulated like banks. Nobody disputes the idea that
financial transactions need to be monitored. But there is also, equally clearly,
a rather big difference between a cheap money-transfer system like M-PESA and a
full lending bank like Citicorp. The security worries are usually fairly easily
dealt with. Placing a limit on the size of transactions and the total balance
that can be stored reduces the risk of mobile money being used to launder
cash. Another concern is consumer protection: cunning operators
could steal cash. One compromise, which has been adopted in several African
countries, is to get operators to form partnerships with banks.
Indeed, rather than fighting mobile money, governments should use it
themselves.
单选题
Which of the following is NOT true according to the first paragraph?
A. M-PESA was rolled out by a company in Kenya
B. M-PESA is a money-transfer service via cell phones
C. Over two thirds of adults in Kenya use M-PESA
D. Kenya's economy is supported by M-PESA
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[考点] 推理判断题
[解析] 根据第一段最后一句“it is used by 70% of the adult population and has become central to the economy: around 25% of Kenya's GNP nows through it”可以判断，移动货币对肯尼亚的经济不是由移动货币支撑的，由此选择D。同时该句表明有70%的肯尼亚成年人在使用移动货币的服务，所以C正确，故排除。第一段第一句表明移动货币的服务是由肯尼亚最大的移动通信运营商萨法利通信公司于2007年推出的，而该服务让人们能够使用手机汇款和收钱，从这一内容可以判断A、B正确，均排除。
单选题
Mobile money may bring to developing countries all of the following
EXCEPT ______.
A. convenience
B. safety
C. corruption
D. inspiration
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[考点] 推理判断题
[解析] 由题干定位到文章第四段第二句“Mobile transactions are more traceable than cash, making it harder for corrupt officials to appropllate money undetected”，由此可知，移动交易让贪官污吏想要不被发觉地挪用公款更为困难，这有利于降低贪污，所以C为正确答案。文章在第三段提到移动货币提供了便利并提高了安全性，给发展中国家在城市的打工者带来诸多好处，因此排除A、B，第四段的最后一句提到移动货币给一些新兴公司提供了基础，让它们创造出了新产品和新服务，故排除D。
单选题
According to Paragraph 5, the failure of launching M-PESA in many poor
countries is because ______.