Directions: There are 20 blanks in the following passage. For each blank there are four choices marked A., B., C. and D. You should choose the ONE that best fits into the passage. Then write down the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet.

A transformation is occurring that should greatly 【A1】______ living standards in the developing world. Places that 【A2】______ recently were deaf and dumb are rapidly acquiring up-to-date telecommunications. Many developing countries are planning to invest vast sums of money 【A3】______ their telecommunications networks to allow them to compete, 【A4】______ the transfer of information, with developed countries. They believe this will 【A5】______ foreign and domestic investment. How fast these nations should push ahead is a matter of debate. China is making one of the boldest leaps 【A6】______ carefully weighing costs and choosing 【A7】______ technologies. Over the next decade, it plans to pour some $100 billion into telecommunications equipment. 【A8】______ , China’s backwardness is an advantage because the expansion occurs just as new technologies are becoming 【A9】______ than copper wire systems. Telecommunications is also a key 【A10】______ Shanghai’s ambition of becoming a top financial center. To offer peak performance in providing the electronic data and paperless trading, Shanghai plans to be as electronically advanced 【A11】______ the city of New York. Some experts fear 【A12】______ that some developing countries are trying to do 【A13】______ too soon. Vietnam, 【A14】______ particular, 【A15】______ being extremely underdeveloped and lacking enough telephone of any type, is determined to invest in the most expensive, newest technology. For centuries that country has lagged 【A16】______ for so long, the temptation to move ahead in one jump is hard to 【A17】______ . And 【A18】______ the mistakes they’ll make, they’ll persist— 【A19】______ one day they can cruise alongside Americans and Western Europeans 【A20】______ the information highway.