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| [八级试题]英语专业八级考试全真试卷 答案部分-专业四八级 |
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[八级试题]英语专业八级考试全真试卷 答案部分PART Ⅰ LISTENING COMPREHENSION SECTION A TALK The World Bank is one of the major channels through which development aid i s passed from industrial west to the poor and developing nations of the world. I ts scale of operations is vast, which is why its lending program exceeds 7 billi on a year, and its work force numbers about 4500. In the last decade important c hanges have taken place in the size of the bank’s operations and in the emphasi s of its lending policies. What immediately strikes anyone looking at the lending figures over the last 10 years is the tremendous expansion in the bank’s loan p rogram. This has increased from 1 billion to nearly 7 billion. The figure includ es hard loans, which are made at the current rate of interest, and soft loans, w hich are allocated to poor countries at concessionary rates, and usually channel led through the bank’s affiliate—the International Development Association. In deciding the emphasis of its lending policy, the bank has had to take i nto account the population explosion which is occuring in many poor countries of the world. It is a fact that the fertility rate of the poor countries is often very high. This is one of the main reasons for these countries remaining poor. U nfortunately, wide-ranging country section programs do not usually reduce this r ate because this was a strong and deeply rooted tradition among people in these countries to have big families. What the bank discovered was that there was a li nk between economic and social development on the one hand, and reduction of fer tility rate on the other. Thus by improving basic health services, by introducin g better nutrition, by increasing literacy, and by promoting more even income di stribution in a poor country, a lower and more acceptable fertility rate will be achieved. This advanced thinking persuaded the bank to change its overall lend ing strategy, where previously it concentrated on the big infrastructure project s, such as dams, roads and bridges. It begun to switch to projects which directly i mprove the basic services of the country. There was a shift, if you like, from b uilding dams to digging water holes to provide clear water. A second reason for the change of approach was that the bank has learned a big lesson from projects financed in the 1960s. Many of its major capital inv estment had scarcely touched the lives of urban and rural poor, nor have they cr eated much employment. The project did not have the trigger-down effect they hav e in industrialized countries. Instead the huge dams, steel-mills, and so on wer e left as monuments to themselves. This redirection of its lending has meant tha t the bank has tended to support labour intensive activities, rather than capita l intensive ones. Both rural and urban areas, there is a better chance in the fi rst case, that its funds will benefit the bottom 40% of the country’s populatio n. The bank is also looking for ways of stimulating the growth of the small busine sses in many developing countries since this would create employment opportuniti es for people with lower incomes. Being such a big, obvious target, the bank has often come under fire. For example, its officials have been taken to task for u sing Concord supersonic aircraft so frequently, about 500 times in one year. Als o, the large growth of the organization’s personnel has not pleased some critic s . A more substantial criticism has concerned the bank’s policy of setting annua l target for lending to specified countries. This could lead to the deterioration in quality of loans, some say. One former bank official has said, rather than e ncourage growth for its own sake, the bank should begin to think of itself less as a foreign aid agency and more of a financial deal-maker, combining official wit h the private resources for specific purposes. Finally, some people maintain that the impact of the projects funded by the bank has been modest. When one looks around the world at regions or countries that have successfully transformed to industrial status, it seems that one shoul d be aware of over-estimating the bank’s impact. Take Hong Kong for example. I ts changes have come about as a result of trade offensive. The purpose has been to flood western market with low price goods made by capitalist methods of produ ction. The example seems to indicate that some regions can prosper without the b ank’s aid as well. SECTION B CONVERSATION W: Well, it seems quite common actually. A lot of people in Australia no w are travelling and taking time off. And when I was actually travelling, I met so many people doing the same thing. M: Yeah, yeah, so where did you start off? W: Well, I went to New Zealand first. Eh, and got a job in a computer company as a secretary. And I worked there for 4 months. M: Really? You can do that, can you [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] 下一页 |
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| 作者：5151教育… 文章来源：5151教育网 点击数： 更新时间：2008-5-29 文章录入：5151edu 责任编辑：5151edu | ||||
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