英语专业四级阅读理解高分特训100篇-第3章 英语专业四级标准阅读篇(商业经济类)【圣才出品】

商业经济类（Passage 48～52）

Passage 48 题材：商业经济类字数：427 建议用时：5分钟

The world is going through the biggest wave of mergers and acquisitions ever witnessed. The process sweeps from hyperactive America to Europe and reaches the emerging countries with unsurpassed might. Many in these countries are looking at this process and worrying: “Won’t the wave of business concentration turn into an uncontrollable anti-competitive force?”

There’s no question that the big are getting bigger and more powerful. Multinational corporations accounted for less than 20% of international trade in 1982. Today the figure is more than 25% and growing rapidly. International affiliates account for a fast-growing segment of production in economies that open up and welcome foreign investment. In Argentina, for instance, after the reforms of the early 1990s, multinationals went from 43% to almost 70% of the industrial production of the 200 largest firms. This phenomenon has created serious concerns over the role of smaller economic firms, of national businessmen and over the ultimate stability of the world economy.

I believe that the most important forces behind the massive M&A wave are the same that underlie the globalization process: falling transportation and communication costs, lower trade and investment barriers and enlarged markets that require enlarged operations capable of meeting customers’ demands. All these are beneficial, not detrimental, to consumers. As productivity grows, the

world’s wealth increases.

Examples of benefits or costs of the current concentration wave are scanty. Yet it is hard to imagine that the merger of a few oil firms today could re-create the same threats to competition that were feared nearly a century ago in the U.S., when the Standard Oil Trust was broken up. The mergers of telecom companies, such as WorldCom, hardly seem to bring higher prices for consumers or a reduction in the pace of technical progress. On the contrary, the price of communications is coming down fast. In cars, too, concentration is increasing—witness Daimler and Chrysler, Renault and Nissan—but it does not appear that consumers are being hurt.

Yet the fact remains that the merger movement must be watched. A few weeks ago, Alan Greenspan warned against the megamergers in the banking industry. Who is going to supervise, regulate and operate as lender of last resort with the gigantic banks that are being created? Won’t multinationals shift production from one place to another when a nation gets too strict about infringements to fair competition? And should one country take upon itself the role of “defending competition” on issues that affect many other nations, a s in theU.S. vs. Microsoft case?

1. What is mentioned about the wave of mergers and acquisitions?

A. It is warmly welcome by the American and European countries.

B. It turns to be an uncontrollable anti-competitive force.

C. It sweeps the world with unprecedented force.

D. It is a new trend in the business world that never appeared before.

2. The author cited the multinationals in Argentina in order to ______.

A. arouse concern over the stability of the world economy

B. criticize the overemphasis on the development of multinationals

C. be a contrast to the insufficient concern about smaller national firms

D. illustrate the increasing importance of multinationals in international trades

3. In the last paragraph, the author most probably agrees that ______.

A. mega banki ng mergers will not appear because of Greenspan’s warning

B. multinationals always try to avoid violating fair competition

C. the attitude towards unfair competition varies from nation to nation

D. the U.S. shou ldn’t have sued Microsoft for unfa ir competition

4. What will the forces behind the wave of mergers and acquisitions result in?

5. What did the U.S. fear nearly a century ago?

「文章大意」

目前，世界上正在进行着前所未有的企业合并重组，有人担心这种合并会不会成为反竞争的力量。无疑，大企业变得越来越强大，如跨国公司在国际贸易中的比例快速上升。企业并购背后的原因却是一样的：全球化的发展，而这并购会给人们带来好处。但是需要注意的是，并购必须有监管，否则后果很严重。

答案详解

1.C 根据题干关键词mergers and acquisitions可将本题答案定位到第一段。该段第二句

提到“The process sweeps from hyperactive America to Europe and reaches the emerging countries with unsurpassed might”，C项中的unprecedented force与这句话的内容相近，所以本题应选C。

2.D 根据题干关键词multinationals in Argentina可将本题答案定位到第二段第5句“In

Argentina, for instance, after the reforms of the early 1990s, multinationals went from 43% to almost 70% of the industrial production of the 200 largest firms”，在该句中提到的Argentina的情况是为了说明该段前几句的观点即跨国公司生意越做越大，地位越来越重要，D与原文意思最相近，所以本题应选D。

3.C 根据文章结尾段第四句“Won’t multinationals shift production...”可知在现实

中各国对违反公平竞争的处理力度不一，由此可知各国对不合理竞争的做法态度不相同，故本题答案为C。

4. Advantages to customers.

第三段第二句“All these are beneficial, not detrimental, to consumers. As productivity grows, the world’s wealth increases”开头的All these指的是该段第一句的forces，由此可知，第二句的意思是说这些forces对消费者是有利的。5. The threats to competition.

根据第四段第二句“Yet it is hard to imagine that.. the same threats to competition that were feared...”可知该句定语从句that were feared…中的that 指前面的先行词threats。

「词汇装备」

hyperactive adj. 活动过度的；极度活跃的，活动亢进的

segment n. 段；节；片断v. 分割

scanty adj. 缺乏的，不足的，稀疏的；俭省的；不充足的detrimental adj. 有害的

acquisition n. 获得；获得物

affiliate v. （使...）加入，接受为会员

multinational adj. 多国的；跨国公司的；多民族的n. 跨国公司

infringement n. 违反；侵害

Passage 49 题材：商业经济类字数：452 建议用时：5.5分钟

Most people would describe a dollar millionaire as rich, yet many millionaires would disagree. They do not compare themselves with teachers or shop assistants but with the other parents at their children's private schools. To count the number of rich people in the world, however, an arbitrary cut-off point is needed, and $1m is as good as any. Capgemini, a consultancy, defines anyone with investable assets of $1m or more （excluding their home）as a “high-net-worth individual”, consultant-speak for rich. By this conservative measure the planet has about 10m millionaires, according to Capgemini and Merrill Lynch, a bank.

Credit Suisse, another bank, uses a less stringent（and more obvious）definition: a millionaire is anyone whose net assets exceed $1m. That includes everything: a home, an art collection, even the value of an as-yet-inaccessible pension scheme. The Credit Suisse “Global Wealth Report” estimates that there

were 24.2m such people in mid-2010, about 0.5% of the world's adult population. By this measure, there are more millionaires than there are Australians. They control $69.2 trillion in assets, more than a third of the global total.

How did these people grow rich? Mostly through their own efforts. Only 16% of high-net-worth individuals inherited their stash, according to Capgemini. The most common way to get rich is to start a business: nearly half （47%）of the world's wealthy people are entrepreneurs.

You do not have to be a genius to build a million-dollar business, but it helps if you are intelligent and extremely hard-working. In their book The Millionaire Next Door, Thomas Stanley and William Danko observed that a typical American millionaire is surprisingly ordinary. He has spent his life patiently saving and ploughing his money into a business he founded. He does not live in the fanciest part of town—why waste money that you can invest? And his tastes are so plain that you can barely tell him apart from his neighbours. He buys $40 shoes, and his car of choice is a Ford.

Another 23% of the world's millionaires got rich through paid work, estimates Capgemini. A few vault easily over the million-dollar bar. Gregory Maffei, the boss of Liberty Media, an American cable-television firm, earned $87,095,882 in 2010. The median pay for chief executives at the 456 largest publicly quoted firms in America was $7.23m, according to the Hay Group, a consultancy. But the vast majorities are skilled professionals or managers who have been careful with their money. An orthodontist in America makes about $200,000 a year. He may leave