A market is commonly thought of as a place where commodities are bought and sold. Thus fruit and vegetables are sold wholesale at Covent Garden Market and meat is sold wholesale at Smithfield Market. But there are markets for things (21) commodities, in the usual sense. There are (22) estate markets, foreign exchange markets, labor markets, short-term capital markets, and so on; there may be a market for anything which has a price. And there may be no particular place (23) dealings are confined. Buyers and sellers may be (24) over the whole world and instead of actually meeting together in a market-place they may deal with one another (25) telephone, telegram, cable or letter. (26) dealings are (27) to a particular place, the dealers may consist wholly or in part of agents (28) instructions from clients far away. Thus agents buy meat at Smithfield (29) retail butchers all over England; and (30) on the London Stock Exchange buy and sell (31) on instructions from clients all over the world. We must therefore define a market (32) any area over which buyers and sellers are (33) such close touch with one another, either directly or (34) dealers, that the prices (35) in one part of the market affect the prices paid in other parts. Modem means of communication are so rapid that a buyer can discover (36) asking, and can accept it if he wishes, (37) he may be thousands of miles away. Thus the market for anything is (38) . the whole world. But in fact things have, normally, only a local or national market. This may be because nearly the whole demand is concentrated (39) one locality. These special local demands, (40) , are of quite minor importance. The main reason why many things do not have a world market is that they are costly or difficult to transport.
{{I}} Questions 11-13 are based on the
following monologue introducing the Curies. You ,now have 15 seconds to read
Questions 11-13.{{/I}}
If sustainable competitive advantage depends on work force skills, American firms have a problem. Human resource management is not traditionally seen as central to the competitive survival of the firm in the United States. Skill acquisition is considered as an individual responsibility. Labor is simply another factor of production to be hired—rented at the lowest possible cost—much as one buys raw materials or equipment. The lack of importance attached to human resource management can be seen in the corporation hierarchy. In an American firm the chief financial officer is almost always second in command. The post of head of human resource managements is usually a specialized job, off at the edge of the corporate hierarchy. The executive who holds it is never consulted on major strategic decisions and has no chance to move up to Chief Executive Officer (CEO). By way of contrast, in Japan the head of human resource management is central—usually the second most important executive, after the CEO, in the firm's hierarchy. While American firms often talk about the vast amounts spent on training their work forces, in fact they invest less in the skill of their employees than the Japanese or German firms do. The money they do invest is also more highly concentrated on professional and managerial employees. And the limited investments that are made in training workers are also much more narrowly focused on the specific skills necessary to do the next job rather than on the basic background skills that make it possible to absorb new technologies. As a result, problems emerge when new breakthrough technologies arrive. If American workers, for example, take much longer to learn how to operate new flexible manufacturing stations than workers in Germany (as they do), the effective cost of those stations is lower in Germany than it is in the United Stated. More time is required before equipment is up and running at capacity, and the need for extensive retraining generates costs and creates bottlenecks that limit the speed with which new equipment can be employed. The result is a slower pace of technological change. And in the end the skills of the bottom half of the population affect the wages of the top half. If the bottom half can't effectively staff the processes that have to be operated, the management and professional jobs that go with these processes will disappear.
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填空题ThedivorcerateinAmericahasreached
填空题"Intelligence" at best is an assumptive construct—the meaning of the word has never been clear. (21) There is more agreement on the kinds of behavior referred to by the term than there is on how to interpret or classify them. But it is generally agreed that a person of high intelligence is one who can grasp ideas readily, make distinctions, reason logically, and make use of verbal and mathematical symbols in solving problems. An intelligence test is a rough measure of a child's capacity for learning, particularly for learning the kinds of things required in school. It does not measure character, social adjustment, physical endurance, manual skills, or artistic abilities. It is not supposed to—it was not designed for such purposes. (22) To criticize it for such failure is roughly comparable to criticizing a thermometer, for not measuring wind velocity. The other thing we have to notice is that the assessment of the intelligence of any subject is essentially a comparative affair. (23) Now since the assessment of intelligence is a comparative matter we must be sure that the scale with which we are comparing our subjects provides an "effective" or "fair" comparison. It is here that some of the difficulties which interest us begin. Any test performed involves at least three actors: the intention to do one's best, the knowledge required for understanding what you have to do, and the intellectual ability to do it. (24) The first two must be equal for all who are being compared, if any comparison in terms of intelligence is to be made. In school populations in our culture these assumptions can be made fair and reasonable, and the values of intelligence testing has been proved thoroughly. Its value lies, of course, in its providing a satisfactory basis for prediction. No one is in the least interested in the marks on the test that the child will do better or worse than other children of his age at tasks which we think require "general intelligence". (25) On the whole such a conclusion can be drawn with a certain degree of confidence, but only if the child can be assumed to have had the same attitude towards the test as the other with whom he is being compared, and only if he was not punished by lack of relevant information which they possessed.
填空题Sarah'sfatherwasan______.
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填空题{{B}}Part A{{/B}}{{I}} For questions 1-5, you will hear a talk
about the country of Switzerland. While you listen, fill out the table with the
information you have heard. Some of the information has been given to you in the
table. Write only 1 word in each numbered box. You will hear the recording
twice. You now have 25 seconds to read the table below.{{/I}}
Information about Switzerland
Total Area
1
Population in 1995
6,905,000
The Country to Its West
2
Capital
Berne
The Fur Official Languages
3
4
5
Romansch
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填空题Whattypeofcarwouldthecustomerliketochoose?
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填空题For Questions 1—5, you will hear a radio weather report. While you listen, fill out the table with the information you have heard. Some of the information has been given to you in the table. Write only 1 word in each numbered box. You will hear the recording twice. You now have 25 seconds to read the table below.
Michigan Weather Report
Chicago is reporting light
1
The temperature at Ann Arbor Airport is
2
Tomorrow morning the sun will rise at
3
The pollution index today is
4
The weekend is likely to be
5
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填空题I ______ (intend) to come over to see you last night, but someone called and I couldn't get away.
填空题Thetelegraphwasinvented
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填空题It ______ (rain) and the streets were still wet.
填空题{{B}}Part A{{/B}}
{{I}} For Questions 1 ~ 5, you will hear a conversation. While you listen, fill out the table with the information you have heard. Some of the information has been given to you in the table. Write only 1 word in each numbered box. You will hear the recording twice. You now have 25 seconds to read the table below.{{/I}}