问答题Misinterpretation in Cross-cultural Communication In cross-cultural communication the danger of misinterpretation is greatest among people who speak different native tongues or come from different cultural backgrounds, because cultural difference necessarily implies different assumptions about natural and obvious ways to be polite. Anthropologist Thomas Kochman gives the example of a white office worker who appeared with a bandaged arm and felt rejected because her black fellow worker didn"t mention it. The doubly wounded worker assumed that her silent colleague didn"t notice or didn"t care. But the co-worker was purposely not calling attention to something her colleague might not want to talk about. She let her decide whether or not to mention it, being considerate by not imposing. Kochman says, based on his research, that these differences reflect recognizable black and white styles. An American woman visiting England was repeatedly offended when the British ignored her in a setting in which she thought they should pay attention. For example, she was sitting at a booth in a railway—station cafeteria. A couple began to settle into the opposite seat in the same booth. They unloaded their luggage; they laid their coats on the seat; he asked what she would like to eat and went off to get it; she slid into the booth facing the American. And throughout all this, they showed no sign of having noticed that someone was already sitting in the booth. When the British woman lit up a cigarette, the American began ostentatiously looking around for another table to move to. Of course there was none; that"s why the British couple had sat in her booth in the first place. The smoker immediately crushed out her cigarette and apologized. This showed that she had noticed that someone else was sitting in the booth, and that she was not inclined to disturb her. To the American, politeness requires talk between strangers forced to share a booth in a cafeteria, if only a fleeting "Do you mind if I sit down?" or a conventional "is anyone sitting here?" even if it"s obvious no one is. The omission of such talk seemed to her like dreadful rudeness. The American couldn"t see that another system of politeness was at work. By not acknowledging her presence, the British couple freed her from the obligation to acknowledge theirs. The American expected a show of involvement; they were being polite by not imposing. An American man who had lived for years in Japan explained a similar politeness ethic. He lived, as many Japanese do, in extremely close quarters—a tiny room separated from neighboring rooms by paper-thin walls. In order to preserve privacy in this most unprivate situation, his Japanese neighbor with the door open, they steadfastly glued their gaze ahead as if they were alone in a desert. The American confessed to feeling what I believe most Americans would feel if a next-door neighbor passed within a few feet without acknowledging their presence—snubbed. But he realized that the intention was not rudeness by omitting to show involvement, but politeness by not imposing.

问答题I agree to some extent with my imaginary English reader. American literary historians are perhaps prone to view their own national scene too narrowly, mistaking prominence for uniqueness. They do over-phrase their own literature, or certainly its minor figures. And Americans do swing from aggressive overphrase of their literature to an equally unfortunate, imitative deference. But then, the English themselves are somewhat insular in their literary appraisals. Moreover, in fields where they are not pre-eminent--e, g. in painting and music—they too alternate between boasting of native products and copying those of the Continent. How many English paintings try to look as though they were done in Paris; how many times have we read in articles that they really represent an "English tradition" after all.

问答题Directions: In this part of the test, you will hear 5 sentences in English. You will hear the sentences ONLY ONCE. After you have heard each sentence, translate it into Chinese and write your version in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET.

问答题Asians see the United States losing its undisputed international influence in 50 years to possibly China amid waning trust in Washington to act responsibly in the world, a poll showed. The study is carried out by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs (CCGA), an independent US think tank. In the immediate term, US power in the eyes of Asians remains secure. In haft a century, however, a majority in all countries covered by the poll—China, India, South Korea and the United States—believed "another nation" will become as powerful or surpass the United States in power. China has become a global manufacturing power and is already displacing the United States as the primary trading partner for many nations. China has also amassed the world"s largest trade surplus and world"s largest foreign exchange reserves.

问答题和平与发展是时代的主题 和平与发展是时代的主题。世界各国人民应携手合作，继续推进人类和平与发展的崇高事业。 和平的环境，是一个国家、一个地区以至全球发展的重要前提。没有和平，没有稳定的政治局面，就谈不上经济发展。历史和现实都充分说明了这一点。 当今世界，国际局势总体上趋向缓和，但各种因素引发的冲突甚至局部战争此起彼伏，一些地区的紧张态势依然存在，妨碍了有关国家和地区的经济发展，也对世界经济产生了不利影响。一切负责任的政治家和政府，都应该遵守《联合国宪章》的宗旨和公认的国际关系基本准则，为实现普遍、持久、全面的和平而努力，而不能违背各国人民的利益去人为地挑起紧张态势，甚至制造武力冲突。 在这个世界上仍旧有少数利益集团，总想通过在这样那样的地方制造紧张态势来谋利，这是违背大多数人民的意志和时代潮流的。而且，只有不断推进和平与发展的事业，各国人民安居乐业，集中精力发展经济，创新科技，才能创造巨大的市场需求和促进经济繁荣。 我希望，在座各位，以及一切爱好和平的人们携起手来，为共同促进世界的持久和平和各国各地区的普遍发展与繁荣而努力!

问答题American mythology loves nothing more than the reluctant hero: the man—it is usually a man—whose natural talents have destined him for more than obliging obscurity. George Washington, we are told, was a leader who would have preferred to have been a farmer. Thomas Jefferson, a writer. Martin Luther King, Jr., a preacher. These men were roused from lives of perfunctory achievement, our legends have it, not because they chose their own exception alism, but because we, the people, chose it for them. We—seeing greatness in them that they were too humble to observe themselves—conferred on them uncommon paths. Historical circumstance became its own call of duty, and the logic of democracy proved itself through the answer. Neil Armstrong was a hero of this stripe: constitutionally humble, circumstantially noble. Nearly every obituary written for him has made a point of emphasizing his sense of privacy, his sense of humility, his sense of the ironic ordinary. And yet every aspect of Armstrong"s life made clear: On that day in 1969, he acted on our behalf, out of a sense of mission that was communal rather than personal. The reluctant hero is also the self-sacrificing hero.

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问答题青浦地区江河纵横，海上贸易自古繁盛。建于唐代作为舟船航行之航标的泖塔，是朱家角日趋繁荣的见证。自上海建县后，朱家角即因利乘便，蔚然兴盛，一跃成为商贾云集、烟火千家的贸易集镇。朱家角之繁华日胜一日，历史文化含蕴也日渐浓厚。 明末清初，朱家角已成为棉布交易中心。后来米业兴起，遂有了“衣被天下，粮油江南”之美誉。伴随着经济的步步繁荣，文化也渐趋多姿多彩。朱家角历来水木清华，文儒辈出。如今，历史已逝，泖塔犹存，随着时代的变迁，朱家角逐渐发展成为雄踞一方的经济、文化中心。

问答题我将明白只有低能者才会江郎才尽，我并非低能者。我必须不断对抗那些企图摧垮我的力量。失望与悲伤一眼就会被识破，而其他许多敌人是不易察觉的，他们往往面带微笑，伸出友谊之手，却随时有可能将我摧垮。对他们，我永远不能放松警惕。 有了这项新本领，我也更能体察别人的情绪变化。我宽容怒气冲冲的人，因为他尚未懂得控制自己的情绪，我可以忍受他的指责和辱骂，因为我知道明天他会改变，重新变得随和。 我从此领悟到人类和我自己情绪变化的奥秘。对于自己干变万化的个性，我不再听之任之，我将积极主动地控制情绪，从而掌握自己的命运。

问答题Directions: In this part of the test, you will hear 5 English sentences. You will hear the sentences only once. After you have heard each sentence, translate it into Chinese and write your version in the corresponding space on your Answer Sheet.

问答题 Questions 4～6 When Dana Hale adopted her son four years ago, she says she had to "play hardball" with her boss to get the same paid leave granted colleagues who give birth. The Washington employment lawyer knew then that if she and her self-employed husband adopted again, it would be under new management. So Hale began researching adoption-friendly workplaces, and soon focused on Capital One. The big financial-services company, headquartered in McLean, Va., offers $ 5,000 in assistance per adopted child, plus six weeks of paid leave. More important to Hale, the company fosters a supportive culture for adoptive parents, who network through a corporate intranet site. "I specifically chose Capital One so I could adopt more children," says Hale, 44, on the eve of a trip to Ukraine to bring home two teenage sisters. Adoption has become an employment issue. Because more women delay parenthood to pursue careers during their prime childbearing years, some seek alternative avenues to build their families. With each adoption costing up to $ 30,000 and often demanding mounds of paperwork and weeks of travel, workers are asking their employers for help. They're getting it, mainly from companies in competitive industries hungry to attract and keep talent. Google, JPMorgan Chase, Abbott Laboratories, Avon and Motorola have all added adoption assistance to their buffet of benefits. In 1990, only 12% of 1,000 companies surveyed by Hewitt Associates offered financial assistance for adoption. By 2006, 45% of companies did. Rita Sorensen, executive director of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, estimates that in 2007 fully half of employers provide adoption benefits and that within five years those offerings will be considered standard. Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's, may have kicked off the trend 15 years ago when he began urging other CEOs to assist employees with adoption. Himself an adoptee, Thomas started his foundation to help find permanent homes for children in the US foster-care system. (More than 140,000 currently await adoption, according to Sorensen.) This year the foundation began tracking corporations and ranking them according to the generosity of their benefits. Of companies that provide adoption assistance, it found that $ 4,700 is offered on average per adoption and about double that if a child has special needs or is from foster care. Companies are also giving workers an average of five weeks of paid parental leave. Even as employers retreat from providing expensive benefits like lifetime health coverage, they are finding that adoption assistance is relatively inexpensive—and yields disproportionately high rewards in employee loyalty, community goodwill and solid-gold p. r. Unlike maternity benefits, adoption assistance isn't covered by medical or disability insurance, meaning the entire cost must come directly from an employer's pocket. Still, only 0.5% of employees tap adoption benefits, but the assistance is so appreciated that workers gush about it to colleagues, spreading the warm, fuzzy corporate feelings. "Not to cheapen it, but it's cost-effective goodwill," says Sorensen, "one that doesn't hit the bottom line very hard. " Greg Rasin, a partner with Proskauer Rose who advises employers on benefits, points out that at the very least, the Families and Medical Leave Act compels employers with more than 50 workers to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave. Legal bonus: offering adoption benefits might shield them from lawsuits by workers seeking parity with those who receive maternity leave. Offering adoption assistance was an easy call for Steve Steinour, CEO of Citizens Financial Group and the father of two adopted children. "We knew from experience that for most Americans, adoption is an unaffordable option," he says. Citizens—a bank based in Providence, R. I. , with 25,000 employees—provides up to $ 21,000 in aid, a sum that helped put it at the top of the Dave Thomas Foundation's list of adoption-friendly workplaces. Though Steinour says retention is much greater among the 100 or so workers who have used the benefits, he admits that this impact is hard to quantify for shareholders. "You can't translate everything into a direct payback," he says. Payback comes in the form of loyalty and gratitude from employees like Paula Cavallaro, a Citizens trust administrator. Already the parents of Amanda, 12, Cavallaro and her husband had "talked and talked" about adopting another child. The Cavallaros received $10,000 from Citizens to adopt Anny, 13, from Colombia last summer (employees receive more for special-needs adoptions). "We would still have done it, but having the benefit just made it so much easier," says Cavallaro, 48. "I will always, always, always be grateful for the help. "

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问答题The BBC is to offer staff contracts to some of its biggest names in a U-turn after months of accusations that it is enabling tax avoidance. These will be offered mainly to highly paid individuals who it had previously made to set up personal service companies. Those affected face pay cuts of up to 40 percent because the BBC will become liable for national insurance contributions among other employment costs. Lord Patten of Barnes, Chairman of the BBC Trust, said yesterday that he hoped other public sector organizations would follow the BBC"s lead. The Times revealed in July that Jeremy Paxman was among a number of presenters furious that they had been subjected to questions about their integrity as a result of being asked to set up personal service companies. Such arrangements can save individuals thousands of pounds as they pay corporation tax of 21 percent rather than income tax at up to 50 percent. The BBC avoids employers" national insurance payments of 13.8 percent by paying people as freelancers. However, if the Revenue decides that a worker is in reality an employee it can chase the BBC for the back tax. The corporation is considering a report it commissioned from Deloitte after criticism of its tax affairs by MPs. It is understood to have concluded that some individuals paid through service contracts should become staff. Last week it emerged in a report by MPs that the BBC was paying 1,500 presenters, musicians and actors through private companies. The cross-party Public Accounts Committee said that this was a "staggeringly inappropriate" way of paying staff. Margaret Hodge, its chairwoman, said that paying regular contributors through service companies gave rise to "suspicions of complicity in tax avoidance". The committee found that the BBC issued 25,000 contracts to freelance contributors. Out of these, 4,500 contributors were paid through personal service companies. Lord Patten said: "It"s undoubtedly the case that some freelancers will be put on the payroll. I am sure that we will also want more regular information going to the Revenue on service companies so that they can be absolutely clear about the tax liability. And we may wish, frankly, to go further than that. If we do ... I hope other public sector organisations will do the same." He admitted that the BBC had not given enough clarity about tax arrangements of its workforce but denied that the BBC had ever "connived at tax dodging". He said the BBC had asked its freelance workers to set up personal service companies "in order to avoid the licence fee-payer having to be liable for unpaid taxes by people being paid in that way". A BBC source said the decision to take people on to staff had been made because it was "a publicly funded organisation and sometimes, whether or not you"re breaking any laws, you have to reflect public feeling". "This proposal will be cost neutral," the source said. "If you"re a freelancer paid by a service company now the very high likelihood is that your pay would go down, but you would get the benefits of a pension, holiday and sick pay." Mike Warburton, director of tax at accountants Grant Thornton, calculated that the extra costs of paying national insurance, holiday pay, sick pay and pension contributions could cost the BBC an extra 40 percent. A presenter paid ￡100,000 through a personal service company would have to accept a salary of ￡60,000 to join the staff. Mr. Warburton said: "To do it on a cost neutral basis seems a sensible approach. Licence fee-payers would presumably not want the BBC saddled with extra costs." A BBC spokesman said the corporation could not comment on the Deloitte report. "The review of these arrangements is ongoing and we will report back to the BBC Trust later this autumn," he said.

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问答题When President Obama took the stage here Wednesday to address a community--and a nation-- traumatized by Saturday's shooting rampage in Tucson, Arizona, it invited comparisons to President George W. Bush's speech to the nation after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the memorial service President Bill Clinton led after the bombing of a federal office building killed 168 people in Oklahoma City in 1995. But Mr. Obama's appearance presented a deeper challenge, reflecting the tenor of his times. Unlike those tragedies which, at least initially, united a mournful country and quieted partisan divisions--this one has, in the days since the killings, had the opposite effect, inflaming the divide. It was a political reality Mr. Obama seemed to recognize the moment he took the stage. He directly confronted the political debate that erupted after the rampage, asking people of all beliefs not to use the tragedy to turn on one another. He called for an end to partisan recriminations, and for a unity that has seemed increasingly elusive as each day has brought more harsh condemnations from the left and the right. It was one of the more powerful addresses that Mr. Obama has delivered as president, harnessing the emotion generated by the shock and loss from Saturday's shootings to urge Americans "to remind ourselves of all the ways that our hopes and dreams are bound together. /

问答题In a normal recession, the to-do list is clear. Copies of Keynes are dusted off, the banks lower interest rates, the president and Congress cut taxes and hike spending. In time, purchasing, production and loans perk up, and Keynes is placed back on the shelf. No larger alterations to the economy are made, because our economy, but for the occasional bump in the road, is fundamentally sound. This has been the drill in every recession since World War Ⅱ. Republicans and Democrats argue over whose taxes should be cut the most and which projects should be funded, but under public pressure to do something, they usually find some mutually acceptable midpoint and enact a stimulus package. This time, though, don't expect that to be the end of the story — because the coming recession will not be normal, and our economy is not fundamentally sound. This time around, the nation will have to craft new versions of some of the reforms that Franklin Roosevelt created to steer the nation out of the Great Depression.

问答题In the 5,000 years since Ancient Egyptians experimented with scented plants, aromatherapy has been credited with a plethora of powers. Today it is a multimillion-pound industry, recognized as effective by three quarters of the adult population and hailed as a cure for problems from nicotine addiction to baldness. But aromatherapy could be little more than an illusion, psychologists argue. Neil Martin, from Middlesex University, a specialist in the psychology of olfaction, has a less polite word for it. "bunkum". Dr. Martin enlisted 60 volunteers and subjected them all to experimentally induced pain by getting them to plunge their forearms into ice-cold water for 15 minutes. A third of participants were exposed to a pleasant lemon odour, a third to the odour of machine oil and the rest were in an odourless room. They were asked to rate the amount of pain they felt on a scale of 0 (painless) to 11 (unbearable) every five minutes. At the first time of asking, those exposed to an odour reported significantly higher pain levels, with a score of 8 for both groups, than the control group, which had an average of 6. After 15 minutes the pain level of the no-odour group had fallen to 5. Among the lemon-odour group it had fallen to 6, while for the machine oil group it remained at 8. Dr. Martin said his findings showed not merely that aromatherapy had no effect but that it could be positively harmful. "Aromatherapy appears to be counter-productive. Most claims by aroma therapists have no basis in science," he said. "The effect it has on real hard illnesses are non-existent. It is a waste of time and money. Exposure to both odours increased the pain. It could be that the odours had a stimulant effect and drew attention to the pain because it made the experience of being in the room with the bucket of water more noticeable. " He accepted, however, that aromatherapy may have a powerful placebo effect. "People going to aromatherapy have a mental problem or a physical disorder that they want to have treated and the belief that they want to get better can overcome the inefficacy of the treatment," he said. He added that previous research into aromatherapy had been largely inconclusive. Dr. Martin's research, presented at the British Psychological Society annual conference in Cardiff, comes after the release of a study last week claiming that spinal manipulation, another popular form of complementary medicine, did not work and could make matters worse. Both papers are highly contentious. The British public now spends more than ￡24 million a year on over-the-counter aromatherapy products such as essential oils, and 75 per cent of the population believe that the treatment works. Carole Preen, the secretary of the Aromatherapy Consortium, disputed Dr. Martin's findings. "This research didn't involve aromatherapy because they simply used a certain smell to try and gain an effect. Aromatherapy is not a cure and no one would ever make that claim, but there is a wealth of scientific research published in journals to show that it can be beneficial. It can lift mood, alleviate pain and helps very many people," she said. WHAT'S IN A SMELL ·The British public spends more than 24 million a year on over-the-counter aromatherapy products such as essential oils ·75 per cent of the population believes that the treatment works ·Aromatherapy had been hailed as a cure for problems ranging from nicotine addiction to baldness ·The Prince of Wales is a fan. Peterborough prison last year hired two holistic therapists for its inmates ·There are 7,000 therapists registered with the Aromatherapy Organisations Council ·Hammersmith Hospital, in West London, offers aromatherapy massages for NHS cancer patients

问答题How Green is your orange juice? More than a year ago, PepsiCo enlisted Columbia University's Earth Institute and the environmental-auditing firm Carbon Trust to help assess the carbon footprint of each half gallon of its Tropicana orange juice. The sustainability initiative found that on average the process, from growing the oranges to getting a 64-oz. carton of healthy goodness into your fridge, involved emitting 3.75 Ib. of greenhouse gases. And the single biggest contributor to Tropicana's carbon footprint wasn't the gas-guzzling trucks that deliver the cartons to stores or the machinery used to run a modern citrus facility. It was the fertilizer for the orange trees, which accounted for a whopping 35% of the OJ's overall emissions. That came as a surprise even to the people doing the accounting. "We thought it might be transport or packaging," says Tim Carey, PepsiCo's sustainability director. "But the agricultural aspects of the operation are more important than we expected. " So to make a greener OJ, Pepsico knew it needed to start looking for a greener fertilizer. Inorganic nitrogen fertilizer--the sort used by most farms in the U. S. --is very carbon-intensive because of all the natural gas used in the production process. (Agriculture eats up as much as 5% of natural-gas consumption worldwide, and the cost of fertilizer is closely linked to that of natural gas, leaving farmers vulnerable to huge price swings. ) Given how much nitrogen fertilizer is used on U. S. farms--more than 13 million tons in 2007 alone--developing a greener way to help pIants grow could put a serious dent in the country's carbon emissions. That's why Pepsico is testing two low-carbon fertilizers at a citrus farm in Bradenton, Fla. Yara International, the world's largest fertilizer producer, is supplying PepsiCo with an experimental calcium- nitrate-based fertilizer that emits much less nitrous oxide-which, pound for pound, has a far more powerful greenhouse effect than carbon dioxide--than conventional fertilizer does. The change in ingredients, plus a push to improve the energy efficiency at its production plants, could cut Yara's fertilizer's emissions by up to 90%. The other fertilizer Pepsico is testing is an organic product made by Outlook Resources, a Toronto- based sustainable-agriculture company that uses biofuels, food waste and other renewable materials. Outlook is eschewing natural gas, a fossil fuel that often has to be transported long distances, and instead the firm is actively seeking out locally sourced ingredients that help cut its carbon footprint even further. And since Outlook' s fertilizer is also more efficient than conventional fertilizer, less of it has to be used on crops, which helps prevent the water pollution linked to fertilizer runoff. Backyard gardeners who want to cut their carbon footprint can emulate Outlook's organic approach: skip the bag of fertilizer and make some biochar by smashing used charcoal bricks and sprinkling the dust on flower beds and vegetabIe patches. As for PepsiCo, the company will try out Yara and Outlook's alterna-fertilizers for five years to see if they can cut Tropicana's carbon footprint without diminishing overall crop yield, which would likely raise operating costs. "Sustainability is ultimately about being a better company," says Carey. If the pilot study works, the greener fertilizers could shrink the carbon footprint of PepsiCo's citrus growers by as much as 50% and reduce the total carbon footprint of a glass of its orange juice by up to 20%. Now that's something we can all drink to.1.Explain the beginning question of the passage: "How green is your orange juice?"(para. 1) What do we know from the investigation of Earth Institute and Carbon Trust ?

问答题Even on paper, urban sprawl looks ugly. It looks more so from the 110th floor of Chicago"s Sears Tower. From there you can survey, into the misty distance, a metropolitan area that now encompasses no fewer than 265 separate municipalities and covers 3,800 square miles in six northeastern Illinois counties. The expansion of the region is sometimes described as growth. More accurately, Chicago has simply spread out. Between 1970 and 1990 the population of the metro area increased by only 4%, while land used for housing increased by 46%. More telling, land used for commercial development increased by a whopping 74%. The drawbacks of sprawl need no repetition: the isolation of less mobile (usually poorer) groups in the inner cities, and the premature abandonment of infrastructure. Worse, these problems are now overtaking the very suburbs that were once supposed to escape them. Between 1970 and 1990, the city of Chicago lost 17% of its population while the suburbs gained by 24%. But the inner suburbs lost people too. Over the past ten years, 70 inner-suburban towns have lost residents to towns on the periphery. A recent series in the Chicago Tribune, "The Graying of Suburbia", documented the population decline of inner-ring towns ranging from dilapidated Dolton and Harvey to relatively up-market Elmhurst and Skokie. In the harder-hit cases, population loss has been compounded by falling property values along with rising crime and unemployment. (Several inner suburbs have banned out-door "For Sale" signs to curb the growing sense of panic.) Their fate contrasts with Naperville, a booming outer suburb, which is currently developing a 10,000- acre site for 22 more housing tracts and several shopping malls. Since 1980, Naperville"s population has more than doubled. The expanding towns on the edges make no apology for their prosperity. Sprawl is natural, they argue ; Americans live in smaller households ( true-house-holds increased by 20% when population grew by only 4%) and they want bigger houses (also true—and they want three-car garages ). Businesses in turn follow the outwardly mobile workers. They also appreciate the cheaper land and better roads. As a case in point, ask Sears. The very company that built the magnificent downtown skyscraper relocated 5,000 workers to the outer suburb of Hoffman Estates in 1992. Critics of sprawl argue that government deals an unfair hand. An article published this summer by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago shows that various incentives in the federal tax code, including the deductibility of mortgage payments, promote over-consumption of housing. The code also allows taxpayers to defer capital-gains taxes if they buy a new home of equal or greater value, which pushes buyers towards higher-priced houses—most of them on the edges of cities. Another subsidy is provided for cars, the sine qua non of suburban life. By some estimates, existing taxes on motorists cover only 60% of the real costs of government road-related services. Far from expanding under one central authority, almost all metro areas are tended by a hotch-potch of city, town and other smaller governments. (Metropolitan Chicago has over 1,200 separate tax districts, more than any other in the country.) The quality of the services provided by these governments depends on the quality of the local property that they have to tax; so aggressive jurisdictions offer rebates or subsidies to win juicy new developments. The outcome, on one front, is often the premature development of new land. Towns on the outskirts, armed with subsidies and plenty of space, lure development away from the center. In the past 20 years 440 square miles of farmland have been developed, with sites further in are abandoned. The city of Chicago alone has over 2,000 vacant manufacturing sites. Tax-base competition also encourages sprawl in other ways. When the taxing jurisdictions are so small, the departure of wealthier residents and business increased the strain on those left behind. Taxes must go up just to maintain the same level of services. Thus in Harvey, a declining suburb, the property tax on a $ 50,000 house is $1,400—whereas in booming Naperville, if it had such cheap houses, the rate would be around $900. At the same time, the Harvey property taxes do not stretch very far. Last year, the local school district was able to raise only $1,349 per elementary school pupil, compared with $7,178 in wealthy Wilmette. Although state funds help to even things out, the disparities become another reason to move. Over the long term, there is a chance that sprawl will not go unmanaged for ever: that the price of inner-city decline will eventually become too high. But it has not reached that point yet. The inner areas would like to see a regionally coordinated effort to pursue economic development (to diminish tax-base competition), or a region-wide sharing of commercial tax revenues, as has been tried to good effect in the Minneapolis—St Paul metropolitan area. But the deeper incentives to sprawl will still remain. Subsidies for home ownership are well guarded by lobbyists in Washington, and local governments are rightly jealous of their self- determination. For the time being, metropolitan areas like Chicago will just keep expanding. So what if it means loosening another notch on the belt?