The startling growth of bank mergers i...

Throughout history, gold has been a precious material, eagerly sought and cherished. It was probably the first metal to be mined because it is beautiful and imperishable (which will always exist or cannot wear out), and because beautiful objects can be made from it-even with primitive tools. The amount of gold known to ancient peoples probably totaled not much more than the amount produced each year by the world’’s largest gold mine located in the Witwatersrand district of South Africa. Stores of gold discovered by archaeologists in Greece, Scythia, and Egypt, as well as the gold from Indian treasuries in Mexico and Peru, represented years of patient collection of small quantities from streams and veins (矿脉) , often by slave labor. 　　The essential value of gold has always been known, even before gold was used in coinage. It remains the only universally recognized standard of value in international monetary exchange. Most of the world’’s refined gold is absorbed by governments and central banks to provide backing for paper currency. But the amount of gold used in arts and in industry is increasing. In addition to its use for jewelry, decorative finishes, and dentistry, its special properties have led to many applications in modern science and technology. Surface coatings of gold protect earth satellites from heat and corrosion, and certain electrical components and circuits of spacecraft are made of gold when extreme reliability is required. 　　Gold was first produced in the United States from the southern Appalachian region, beginning about 1792. These deposits, though rich, were relatively small and were quickly depleted. The discovery of gold at Sutter’’s Mill in California sparked the gold rush of 1849-50. Hundreds of mining camps sprang to life as new deposits were discovered. As a result, the production of gold increased rapidly. 　　During World War I and for some years thereafter, annual production declined to about two million ounces. When the price of gold was raised in 1934 to $35 an ounce, production increased rapidly. Shortly after the start of World WarⅡ, gold mines were closed and the government did not permit them to reopen until 1945. Since then the production of gold has not exceeded two million ounces a year. 　　The largest producing gold mine in the United States is the Homestake Mine in South Dakota, which yields about 575,000 ounces of gold each year. Other mines scattered throughout various parts of the world produce even larger amounts of this highly prized and eagerly sought yellowish material. With respect to gold, the author favors the statement that

A． its beauty and imperishability made it the first metal discovered.
B． rich deposits of it were found by archaeologists in ancient Greece and Egypt.
C． primitive people must have made fine ornaments from the precious metal.
D． Indian treasuries in Mexico were collected by slaves from brooks and veins.

单项选择题

Science, in practice, depends far less on the experiments it prepares than on the preparedness of the minds of the men who watch the experiments. Sir Isaac Newton supposedly discovered gravity through the fall of an apple. Apples had been falling in many places for centuries and thousands of people had seen them fall. But Newton for years had been curious about the cause of the orbital motion of the moon and planets. What kept them in place Why didn’’t they fall out of the sky The fact that the apple fell down toward the earth and not up into the tree answered the question he had been asking himself about those larger fruits of the heavens, the moon and the planets. 　　How many men would have considered the possibility of an apple falling up into the tree Newton did because he was not trying to predict anything. He was just wondering. His mind was ready for the unpredictable. Unpredictability is part of the essential nature of research. If you don’’t have unpredictable things, you don’’t have research. Scientists tend to forget this when writing their cut and dried reports for the technical journals, but history is filled with examples of it. 　　In talking to some scientists, particularly younger ones, you might gather the impression that they find the "scientific method" a substitute for imaginative thought. I’’ve attended research conferences where a scientist has been asked what he thinks about the advisability of continuing a certain experiment. The scientist has frowned, looked at the graphs, and said" the data are still inconclusive." "We know that," the men from the budget office have said, "but what do you think Is it worthwhile going on What do you think we might expect" The scientist has been shocked at having even been asked to speculate. 　　What this amounts to, of course, is that the scientist has become the victim of his own writings. He has put forward unquestioned claims so consistently that he not only believes them himself, but has convinced industrial and business management that they are true. If experiments are planned and carried out according to plan as faithfully as the reports in the science journals indicate, then it is perfectly logical for management to expect research to produce results measurable in dollars and cents. It is entirely reasonable for auditors to believe that scientists who know exactly where they are going and how they will get there should not be distracted by the necessity of keeping one eye on the cash register while the other eye is on the microscope. Nor, if regularity and conformity to a standard pattern are as desirable to the scientist as the writing of his papers would appear to reflect, is management to be blamed for discriminating against the "odd balls" among researchers in favor of more conventional thinkers "who work well with the team." The author wants to prove with the example of Isaac Newton that____________.

A．inquiring minds are more important than scientific experiments
B．science advances when fruitful researches are conducted
C．scientists seldom forget the essential nature of research
D．unpredictability weighs less than prediction in scientific research

单项选择题

Aimlessness has hardly been typical of the postwar Japan whose productivity and social harmony are the envy of the United States and Europe. But increasingly the Japanese are seeing a decline of the traditional work-moral values. Ten years ago young people were hardworking and saw their jobs as their primary reason for being, but now Japan has largely fulfilled its economic needs, and young people don’’t know where they should go next. 　　The coming of age of the postwar baby boom and an entry of women into the male-dominated job market have limited the opportunities of teen-agers who are already questioning the heavy personal sacrifices involved in climbing Japan’’s rigid social ladder to good schools and jobs. In a recent survey, it was found that only 24.5 percent of Japanese students were fully satisfied with school life, compared with 67.2 percent of students in the United States. In addition, far more Japanese workers expressed dissatisfaction with their jobs than did their counterparts in the 10 other countries surveyed. 　　While often praised by foreigners for its emphasis on the basics, Japanese education tends to stress test taking and mechanical learning over creativity and self-expression. "Those things that do not show up in the test scores--personality, ability, courage or humanity--are completely ignored," says Toshiki Kaifu, chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’’s education committee. "Frustration against this kind of thing leads kids to drop out and run wild. "Last year Japan experienced 2,125 incidents of school violence, including 929 assaults on teachers. Amid the outcry, many conservative leaders are seeking a return to the prewar emphasis on moral education. Last year Mitsuo Setoyama, who was then education minister, raised eyebrows when he argued that liberal reforms introduced by the American occupation authorities after World War Ⅱ had weakened the" Japanese morality of respect for parents." 　　But that may have more to do with Japanese life-styles. "In Japan," says educator Yoko Muro, "it’’s never a question of whether you enjoy your job and your life, but only how much you can endure." With economic growth has come centralization ,fully 76 percent of Japan’’s 119 million citizens live in cities where community and the extended family have been abandoned in favor of isolated, two- generation households. Urban Japanese have long endured lengthy commutes (travels to and from work) and crowded living conditions, but as the old group and family values weaken, the discomfort is beginning to tell. In the past decade, the Japanese divorce rate, while still well below that of the United States, has increased by more than 50 percent, and suicides have increased by nearly one-quarter. In the Westerners’’ eyes, the postwar Japan was__________.

A．under aimless development
B．a positive example
C．a rival to the West
D．on the decline

单项选择题

Financial engineers don’’t wear white lab coats. They don’’t experiment on rats or perform gas chromatography(气相层析). Their raw material-money-isn’’t as showy as what biologists and physicists investigate. But the innovations they produce will contribute just as much to economic growth. 　　Maybe more, in fact, because without the science of finance, all other sciences are just a bunch of neat concepts. Ideas begin to tribute to human betterment when they’’re financed-by venture capital, stock offerings, loans, or buyouts. A smoothly operating financial system showers money on good ideas. Equally important, it cuts off funding to tired ideas and tired companies, so their assets can be employed more efficiently elsewhere. 　　In the 21st century economy, innovation in finance will increase in concert with the increase in competition. Partly because of deregulation and globalization, competition should get tougher, and margins thinner. As products such as home mortgage loans become commoditized, financial- service companies will be forced to get more creative. 　　Financial technology will keep feeding off information technology. The secret to success will be a strong software platform, which will lower the cost of general services while making it possible to create high-margin variations as well. A few companies that get it right can spin away from the rest and become stronger and stronger. 　　In the new world of finance, size counts. Big companies enjoy economies of scale and name recognition, and they can be safer because their bets are spread across more regions and market segments. The value of U. S. bank mergers in the first half of 1998 was greater than that of the three previous years combined. The mergers are occurring across industries as well. 　　At the other extreme will be specialists that survive by doing one thing either very cheaply or exceptionally well. By offering lower prices or better service, specialists will discipline the financial supermarkets; the big guys know their customers can walk away if they get a raw deal. "There is no way we are going to maximize a short-term transactional benefit at the risk of destroying a long-term relationship," says Chase Manhattan Corp. Vice-Chairman Joseph G. Sponholz. 　　Predictably, the biggest winners from financial innovation will be companies, and families that have complex finances. Banks already show signs of losing interest in people who want just plain checking accounts. 　　But as incomes and wealth rise, more people will find themselves thrust into the role of asset managers. Businesses, too, will have to become more sophisticated-if only to keep pace with financially innovative rivals. . In comparison with natural scientists, financial engineers

A．may give even greater impetus to social development.
B． can show more attention-getting features of their work.
C．are more likely to make full use of their raw material.
D． will produce as many innovations to advance economy.

单项选择题

Throughout history, gold has been a precious material, eagerly sought and cherished. It was probably the first metal to be mined because it is beautiful and imperishable (which will always exist or cannot wear out), and because beautiful objects can be made from it-even with primitive tools. The amount of gold known to ancient peoples probably totaled not much more than the amount produced each year by the world’’s largest gold mine located in the Witwatersrand district of South Africa. Stores of gold discovered by archaeologists in Greece, Scythia, and Egypt, as well as the gold from Indian treasuries in Mexico and Peru, represented years of patient collection of small quantities from streams and veins (矿脉) , often by slave labor. 　　The essential value of gold has always been known, even before gold was used in coinage. It remains the only universally recognized standard of value in international monetary exchange. Most of the world’’s refined gold is absorbed by governments and central banks to provide backing for paper currency. But the amount of gold used in arts and in industry is increasing. In addition to its use for jewelry, decorative finishes, and dentistry, its special properties have led to many applications in modern science and technology. Surface coatings of gold protect earth satellites from heat and corrosion, and certain electrical components and circuits of spacecraft are made of gold when extreme reliability is required. 　　Gold was first produced in the United States from the southern Appalachian region, beginning about 1792. These deposits, though rich, were relatively small and were quickly depleted. The discovery of gold at Sutter’’s Mill in California sparked the gold rush of 1849-50. Hundreds of mining camps sprang to life as new deposits were discovered. As a result, the production of gold increased rapidly. 　　During World War I and for some years thereafter, annual production declined to about two million ounces. When the price of gold was raised in 1934 to $35 an ounce, production increased rapidly. Shortly after the start of World WarⅡ, gold mines were closed and the government did not permit them to reopen until 1945. Since then the production of gold has not exceeded two million ounces a year. 　　The largest producing gold mine in the United States is the Homestake Mine in South Dakota, which yields about 575,000 ounces of gold each year. Other mines scattered throughout various parts of the world produce even larger amounts of this highly prized and eagerly sought yellowish material. According to the text, which of the following is true

A． Surface coatings of gold protect earth satellites from radiation.
B． Most of the world’’s refined gold is used for currency backing.
C． The world’’s largest gold mine is located in South Dakota.
D． The mining of gold can be traced back to the feudal age.

单项选择题

Science, in practice, depends far less on the experiments it prepares than on the preparedness of the minds of the men who watch the experiments. Sir Isaac Newton supposedly discovered gravity through the fall of an apple. Apples had been falling in many places for centuries and thousands of people had seen them fall. But Newton for years had been curious about the cause of the orbital motion of the moon and planets. What kept them in place Why didn’’t they fall out of the sky The fact that the apple fell down toward the earth and not up into the tree answered the question he had been asking himself about those larger fruits of the heavens, the moon and the planets. 　　How many men would have considered the possibility of an apple falling up into the tree Newton did because he was not trying to predict anything. He was just wondering. His mind was ready for the unpredictable. Unpredictability is part of the essential nature of research. If you don’’t have unpredictable things, you don’’t have research. Scientists tend to forget this when writing their cut and dried reports for the technical journals, but history is filled with examples of it. 　　In talking to some scientists, particularly younger ones, you might gather the impression that they find the "scientific method" a substitute for imaginative thought. I’’ve attended research conferences where a scientist has been asked what he thinks about the advisability of continuing a certain experiment. The scientist has frowned, looked at the graphs, and said" the data are still inconclusive." "We know that," the men from the budget office have said, "but what do you think Is it worthwhile going on What do you think we might expect" The scientist has been shocked at having even been asked to speculate. 　　What this amounts to, of course, is that the scientist has become the victim of his own writings. He has put forward unquestioned claims so consistently that he not only believes them himself, but has convinced industrial and business management that they are true. If experiments are planned and carried out according to plan as faithfully as the reports in the science journals indicate, then it is perfectly logical for management to expect research to produce results measurable in dollars and cents. It is entirely reasonable for auditors to believe that scientists who know exactly where they are going and how they will get there should not be distracted by the necessity of keeping one eye on the cash register while the other eye is on the microscope. Nor, if regularity and conformity to a standard pattern are as desirable to the scientist as the writing of his papers would appear to reflect, is management to be blamed for discriminating against the "odd balls" among researchers in favor of more conventional thinkers "who work well with the team." The author asserts that scientists __________________.

A．shouldn’’t replace "scientific method" with imaginative thought
B．shouldn’’t neglect to speculate on unpredictable things
C．should write more concise reports for technical journals
D．should be confident about their research findings

单项选择题

Aimlessness has hardly been typical of the postwar Japan whose productivity and social harmony are the envy of the United States and Europe. But increasingly the Japanese are seeing a decline of the traditional work-moral values. Ten years ago young people were hardworking and saw their jobs as their primary reason for being, but now Japan has largely fulfilled its economic needs, and young people don’’t know where they should go next. 　　The coming of age of the postwar baby boom and an entry of women into the male-dominated job market have limited the opportunities of teen-agers who are already questioning the heavy personal sacrifices involved in climbing Japan’’s rigid social ladder to good schools and jobs. In a recent survey, it was found that only 24.5 percent of Japanese students were fully satisfied with school life, compared with 67.2 percent of students in the United States. In addition, far more Japanese workers expressed dissatisfaction with their jobs than did their counterparts in the 10 other countries surveyed. 　　While often praised by foreigners for its emphasis on the basics, Japanese education tends to stress test taking and mechanical learning over creativity and self-expression. "Those things that do not show up in the test scores--personality, ability, courage or humanity--are completely ignored," says Toshiki Kaifu, chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’’s education committee. "Frustration against this kind of thing leads kids to drop out and run wild. "Last year Japan experienced 2,125 incidents of school violence, including 929 assaults on teachers. Amid the outcry, many conservative leaders are seeking a return to the prewar emphasis on moral education. Last year Mitsuo Setoyama, who was then education minister, raised eyebrows when he argued that liberal reforms introduced by the American occupation authorities after World War Ⅱ had weakened the" Japanese morality of respect for parents." 　　But that may have more to do with Japanese life-styles. "In Japan," says educator Yoko Muro, "it’’s never a question of whether you enjoy your job and your life, but only how much you can endure." With economic growth has come centralization ,fully 76 percent of Japan’’s 119 million citizens live in cities where community and the extended family have been abandoned in favor of isolated, two- generation households. Urban Japanese have long endured lengthy commutes (travels to and from work) and crowded living conditions, but as the old group and family values weaken, the discomfort is beginning to tell. In the past decade, the Japanese divorce rate, while still well below that of the United States, has increased by more than 50 percent, and suicides have increased by nearly one-quarter. According to the author, what may chiefly be responsible for the moral decline of Japanese society

A．Women’’s participation in social activities is limited.
B．More workers are dissatisfied with their jobs.
C．Excessive emphasis has been placed on the basics.
D．The life-style has been influenced by Western values.

单项选择题

Financial engineers don’’t wear white lab coats. They don’’t experiment on rats or perform gas chromatography(气相层析). Their raw material-money-isn’’t as showy as what biologists and physicists investigate. But the innovations they produce will contribute just as much to economic growth. 　　Maybe more, in fact, because without the science of finance, all other sciences are just a bunch of neat concepts. Ideas begin to tribute to human betterment when they’’re financed-by venture capital, stock offerings, loans, or buyouts. A smoothly operating financial system showers money on good ideas. Equally important, it cuts off funding to tired ideas and tired companies, so their assets can be employed more efficiently elsewhere. 　　In the 21st century economy, innovation in finance will increase in concert with the increase in competition. Partly because of deregulation and globalization, competition should get tougher, and margins thinner. As products such as home mortgage loans become commoditized, financial- service companies will be forced to get more creative. 　　Financial technology will keep feeding off information technology. The secret to success will be a strong software platform, which will lower the cost of general services while making it possible to create high-margin variations as well. A few companies that get it right can spin away from the rest and become stronger and stronger. 　　In the new world of finance, size counts. Big companies enjoy economies of scale and name recognition, and they can be safer because their bets are spread across more regions and market segments. The value of U. S. bank mergers in the first half of 1998 was greater than that of the three previous years combined. The mergers are occurring across industries as well. 　　At the other extreme will be specialists that survive by doing one thing either very cheaply or exceptionally well. By offering lower prices or better service, specialists will discipline the financial supermarkets; the big guys know their customers can walk away if they get a raw deal. "There is no way we are going to maximize a short-term transactional benefit at the risk of destroying a long-term relationship," says Chase Manhattan Corp. Vice-Chairman Joseph G. Sponholz. 　　Predictably, the biggest winners from financial innovation will be companies, and families that have complex finances. Banks already show signs of losing interest in people who want just plain checking accounts. 　　But as incomes and wealth rise, more people will find themselves thrust into the role of asset managers. Businesses, too, will have to become more sophisticated-if only to keep pace with financially innovative rivals. In the absence of financial support, all scientific concepts

A． would remain groups of merely impractical thoughts.
B．could barely benefit the improvement of people’’s life.
C．should hardly lose venture capital and bank loans.
D．might become tired ideas that cannot be implemented.

单项选择题

Throughout history, gold has been a precious material, eagerly sought and cherished. It was probably the first metal to be mined because it is beautiful and imperishable (which will always exist or cannot wear out), and because beautiful objects can be made from it-even with primitive tools. The amount of gold known to ancient peoples probably totaled not much more than the amount produced each year by the world’’s largest gold mine located in the Witwatersrand district of South Africa. Stores of gold discovered by archaeologists in Greece, Scythia, and Egypt, as well as the gold from Indian treasuries in Mexico and Peru, represented years of patient collection of small quantities from streams and veins (矿脉) , often by slave labor. 　　The essential value of gold has always been known, even before gold was used in coinage. It remains the only universally recognized standard of value in international monetary exchange. Most of the world’’s refined gold is absorbed by governments and central banks to provide backing for paper currency. But the amount of gold used in arts and in industry is increasing. In addition to its use for jewelry, decorative finishes, and dentistry, its special properties have led to many applications in modern science and technology. Surface coatings of gold protect earth satellites from heat and corrosion, and certain electrical components and circuits of spacecraft are made of gold when extreme reliability is required. 　　Gold was first produced in the United States from the southern Appalachian region, beginning about 1792. These deposits, though rich, were relatively small and were quickly depleted. The discovery of gold at Sutter’’s Mill in California sparked the gold rush of 1849-50. Hundreds of mining camps sprang to life as new deposits were discovered. As a result, the production of gold increased rapidly. 　　During World War I and for some years thereafter, annual production declined to about two million ounces. When the price of gold was raised in 1934 to $35 an ounce, production increased rapidly. Shortly after the start of World WarⅡ, gold mines were closed and the government did not permit them to reopen until 1945. Since then the production of gold has not exceeded two million ounces a year. 　　The largest producing gold mine in the United States is the Homestake Mine in South Dakota, which yields about 575,000 ounces of gold each year. Other mines scattered throughout various parts of the world produce even larger amounts of this highly prized and eagerly sought yellowish material. It can be inferred from the text that

A． gold supplies are judged to be shrinking gradually.
B． dentistry demands more gold now than ever before.
C． the yield of gold has been increasing since mid-1950s.
D． gold has been highly valued as a strategic material.

单项选择题

Science, in practice, depends far less on the experiments it prepares than on the preparedness of the minds of the men who watch the experiments. Sir Isaac Newton supposedly discovered gravity through the fall of an apple. Apples had been falling in many places for centuries and thousands of people had seen them fall. But Newton for years had been curious about the cause of the orbital motion of the moon and planets. What kept them in place Why didn’’t they fall out of the sky The fact that the apple fell down toward the earth and not up into the tree answered the question he had been asking himself about those larger fruits of the heavens, the moon and the planets. 　　How many men would have considered the possibility of an apple falling up into the tree Newton did because he was not trying to predict anything. He was just wondering. His mind was ready for the unpredictable. Unpredictability is part of the essential nature of research. If you don’’t have unpredictable things, you don’’t have research. Scientists tend to forget this when writing their cut and dried reports for the technical journals, but history is filled with examples of it. 　　In talking to some scientists, particularly younger ones, you might gather the impression that they find the "scientific method" a substitute for imaginative thought. I’’ve attended research conferences where a scientist has been asked what he thinks about the advisability of continuing a certain experiment. The scientist has frowned, looked at the graphs, and said" the data are still inconclusive." "We know that," the men from the budget office have said, "but what do you think Is it worthwhile going on What do you think we might expect" The scientist has been shocked at having even been asked to speculate. 　　What this amounts to, of course, is that the scientist has become the victim of his own writings. He has put forward unquestioned claims so consistently that he not only believes them himself, but has convinced industrial and business management that they are true. If experiments are planned and carried out according to plan as faithfully as the reports in the science journals indicate, then it is perfectly logical for management to expect research to produce results measurable in dollars and cents. It is entirely reasonable for auditors to believe that scientists who know exactly where they are going and how they will get there should not be distracted by the necessity of keeping one eye on the cash register while the other eye is on the microscope. Nor, if regularity and conformity to a standard pattern are as desirable to the scientist as the writing of his papers would appear to reflect, is management to be blamed for discriminating against the "odd balls" among researchers in favor of more conventional thinkers "who work well with the team." It seems that some young scientists_______________.

A．have a keen interest in prediction
B．often speculate on the future
C．think highly of creative thinking
D．stick to "scientific method"

单项选择题

Aimlessness has hardly been typical of the postwar Japan whose productivity and social harmony are the envy of the United States and Europe. But increasingly the Japanese are seeing a decline of the traditional work-moral values. Ten years ago young people were hardworking and saw their jobs as their primary reason for being, but now Japan has largely fulfilled its economic needs, and young people don’’t know where they should go next. 　　The coming of age of the postwar baby boom and an entry of women into the male-dominated job market have limited the opportunities of teen-agers who are already questioning the heavy personal sacrifices involved in climbing Japan’’s rigid social ladder to good schools and jobs. In a recent survey, it was found that only 24.5 percent of Japanese students were fully satisfied with school life, compared with 67.2 percent of students in the United States. In addition, far more Japanese workers expressed dissatisfaction with their jobs than did their counterparts in the 10 other countries surveyed. 　　While often praised by foreigners for its emphasis on the basics, Japanese education tends to stress test taking and mechanical learning over creativity and self-expression. "Those things that do not show up in the test scores--personality, ability, courage or humanity--are completely ignored," says Toshiki Kaifu, chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’’s education committee. "Frustration against this kind of thing leads kids to drop out and run wild. "Last year Japan experienced 2,125 incidents of school violence, including 929 assaults on teachers. Amid the outcry, many conservative leaders are seeking a return to the prewar emphasis on moral education. Last year Mitsuo Setoyama, who was then education minister, raised eyebrows when he argued that liberal reforms introduced by the American occupation authorities after World War Ⅱ had weakened the" Japanese morality of respect for parents." 　　But that may have more to do with Japanese life-styles. "In Japan," says educator Yoko Muro, "it’’s never a question of whether you enjoy your job and your life, but only how much you can endure." With economic growth has come centralization ,fully 76 percent of Japan’’s 119 million citizens live in cities where community and the extended family have been abandoned in favor of isolated, two- generation households. Urban Japanese have long endured lengthy commutes (travels to and from work) and crowded living conditions, but as the old group and family values weaken, the discomfort is beginning to tell. In the past decade, the Japanese divorce rate, while still well below that of the United States, has increased by more than 50 percent, and suicides have increased by nearly one-quarter. Which of the following is true according to the author

A．Japanese education is praised for helping the young climb the social ladder.
B．Japanese education is characterized by mechanical learning as well as creativity.
C．More stress should be placed on the cultivation of creativity.
D．Dropping out leads to frustration against test taking.

单项选择题

Financial engineers don’’t wear white lab coats. They don’’t experiment on rats or perform gas chromatography(气相层析). Their raw material-money-isn’’t as showy as what biologists and physicists investigate. But the innovations they produce will contribute just as much to economic growth. 　　Maybe more, in fact, because without the science of finance, all other sciences are just a bunch of neat concepts. Ideas begin to tribute to human betterment when they’’re financed-by venture capital, stock offerings, loans, or buyouts. A smoothly operating financial system showers money on good ideas. Equally important, it cuts off funding to tired ideas and tired companies, so their assets can be employed more efficiently elsewhere. 　　In the 21st century economy, innovation in finance will increase in concert with the increase in competition. Partly because of deregulation and globalization, competition should get tougher, and margins thinner. As products such as home mortgage loans become commoditized, financial- service companies will be forced to get more creative. 　　Financial technology will keep feeding off information technology. The secret to success will be a strong software platform, which will lower the cost of general services while making it possible to create high-margin variations as well. A few companies that get it right can spin away from the rest and become stronger and stronger. 　　In the new world of finance, size counts. Big companies enjoy economies of scale and name recognition, and they can be safer because their bets are spread across more regions and market segments. The value of U. S. bank mergers in the first half of 1998 was greater than that of the three previous years combined. The mergers are occurring across industries as well. 　　At the other extreme will be specialists that survive by doing one thing either very cheaply or exceptionally well. By offering lower prices or better service, specialists will discipline the financial supermarkets; the big guys know their customers can walk away if they get a raw deal. "There is no way we are going to maximize a short-term transactional benefit at the risk of destroying a long-term relationship," says Chase Manhattan Corp. Vice-Chairman Joseph G. Sponholz. 　　Predictably, the biggest winners from financial innovation will be companies, and families that have complex finances. Banks already show signs of losing interest in people who want just plain checking accounts. 　　But as incomes and wealth rise, more people will find themselves thrust into the role of asset managers. Businesses, too, will have to become more sophisticated-if only to keep pace with financially innovative rivals. Companies or families may fail in financing if they

A． defy unfair deals with customers.
B． bank simply for interest
C．put all their eggs in one basket.
D．put all their eggs in one basket.

单项选择题

Throughout history, gold has been a precious material, eagerly sought and cherished. It was probably the first metal to be mined because it is beautiful and imperishable (which will always exist or cannot wear out), and because beautiful objects can be made from it-even with primitive tools. The amount of gold known to ancient peoples probably totaled not much more than the amount produced each year by the world’’s largest gold mine located in the Witwatersrand district of South Africa. Stores of gold discovered by archaeologists in Greece, Scythia, and Egypt, as well as the gold from Indian treasuries in Mexico and Peru, represented years of patient collection of small quantities from streams and veins (矿脉) , often by slave labor. 　　The essential value of gold has always been known, even before gold was used in coinage. It remains the only universally recognized standard of value in international monetary exchange. Most of the world’’s refined gold is absorbed by governments and central banks to provide backing for paper currency. But the amount of gold used in arts and in industry is increasing. In addition to its use for jewelry, decorative finishes, and dentistry, its special properties have led to many applications in modern science and technology. Surface coatings of gold protect earth satellites from heat and corrosion, and certain electrical components and circuits of spacecraft are made of gold when extreme reliability is required. 　　Gold was first produced in the United States from the southern Appalachian region, beginning about 1792. These deposits, though rich, were relatively small and were quickly depleted. The discovery of gold at Sutter’’s Mill in California sparked the gold rush of 1849-50. Hundreds of mining camps sprang to life as new deposits were discovered. As a result, the production of gold increased rapidly. 　　During World War I and for some years thereafter, annual production declined to about two million ounces. When the price of gold was raised in 1934 to $35 an ounce, production increased rapidly. Shortly after the start of World WarⅡ, gold mines were closed and the government did not permit them to reopen until 1945. Since then the production of gold has not exceeded two million ounces a year. 　　The largest producing gold mine in the United States is the Homestake Mine in South Dakota, which yields about 575,000 ounces of gold each year. Other mines scattered throughout various parts of the world produce even larger amounts of this highly prized and eagerly sought yellowish material. The author suggests that

A． the U.S. is the largest producer of gold in the world.
B． ancient peoples collected gold in considerable amounts.
C． gold was first mined in the U.S. in the mid-1700s.
D． governments keep the production of gold under control.

单项选择题

Science, in practice, depends far less on the experiments it prepares than on the preparedness of the minds of the men who watch the experiments. Sir Isaac Newton supposedly discovered gravity through the fall of an apple. Apples had been falling in many places for centuries and thousands of people had seen them fall. But Newton for years had been curious about the cause of the orbital motion of the moon and planets. What kept them in place Why didn’’t they fall out of the sky The fact that the apple fell down toward the earth and not up into the tree answered the question he had been asking himself about those larger fruits of the heavens, the moon and the planets. 　　How many men would have considered the possibility of an apple falling up into the tree Newton did because he was not trying to predict anything. He was just wondering. His mind was ready for the unpredictable. Unpredictability is part of the essential nature of research. If you don’’t have unpredictable things, you don’’t have research. Scientists tend to forget this when writing their cut and dried reports for the technical journals, but history is filled with examples of it. 　　In talking to some scientists, particularly younger ones, you might gather the impression that they find the "scientific method" a substitute for imaginative thought. I’’ve attended research conferences where a scientist has been asked what he thinks about the advisability of continuing a certain experiment. The scientist has frowned, looked at the graphs, and said" the data are still inconclusive." "We know that," the men from the budget office have said, "but what do you think Is it worthwhile going on What do you think we might expect" The scientist has been shocked at having even been asked to speculate. 　　What this amounts to, of course, is that the scientist has become the victim of his own writings. He has put forward unquestioned claims so consistently that he not only believes them himself, but has convinced industrial and business management that they are true. If experiments are planned and carried out according to plan as faithfully as the reports in the science journals indicate, then it is perfectly logical for management to expect research to produce results measurable in dollars and cents. It is entirely reasonable for auditors to believe that scientists who know exactly where they are going and how they will get there should not be distracted by the necessity of keeping one eye on the cash register while the other eye is on the microscope. Nor, if regularity and conformity to a standard pattern are as desirable to the scientist as the writing of his papers would appear to reflect, is management to be blamed for discriminating against the "odd balls" among researchers in favor of more conventional thinkers "who work well with the team." The author implies that the results of scientific research____________.

A．may not be as profitable as they are expected
B．can be measured in dollars and cents
C．rely on conformity to a standard pattern
D．are mostly underestimated by management

单项选择题

Aimlessness has hardly been typical of the postwar Japan whose productivity and social harmony are the envy of the United States and Europe. But increasingly the Japanese are seeing a decline of the traditional work-moral values. Ten years ago young people were hardworking and saw their jobs as their primary reason for being, but now Japan has largely fulfilled its economic needs, and young people don’’t know where they should go next. 　　The coming of age of the postwar baby boom and an entry of women into the male-dominated job market have limited the opportunities of teen-agers who are already questioning the heavy personal sacrifices involved in climbing Japan’’s rigid social ladder to good schools and jobs. In a recent survey, it was found that only 24.5 percent of Japanese students were fully satisfied with school life, compared with 67.2 percent of students in the United States. In addition, far more Japanese workers expressed dissatisfaction with their jobs than did their counterparts in the 10 other countries surveyed. 　　While often praised by foreigners for its emphasis on the basics, Japanese education tends to stress test taking and mechanical learning over creativity and self-expression. "Those things that do not show up in the test scores--personality, ability, courage or humanity--are completely ignored," says Toshiki Kaifu, chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’’s education committee. "Frustration against this kind of thing leads kids to drop out and run wild. "Last year Japan experienced 2,125 incidents of school violence, including 929 assaults on teachers. Amid the outcry, many conservative leaders are seeking a return to the prewar emphasis on moral education. Last year Mitsuo Setoyama, who was then education minister, raised eyebrows when he argued that liberal reforms introduced by the American occupation authorities after World War Ⅱ had weakened the" Japanese morality of respect for parents." 　　But that may have more to do with Japanese life-styles. "In Japan," says educator Yoko Muro, "it’’s never a question of whether you enjoy your job and your life, but only how much you can endure." With economic growth has come centralization ,fully 76 percent of Japan’’s 119 million citizens live in cities where community and the extended family have been abandoned in favor of isolated, two- generation households. Urban Japanese have long endured lengthy commutes (travels to and from work) and crowded living conditions, but as the old group and family values weaken, the discomfort is beginning to tell. In the past decade, the Japanese divorce rate, while still well below that of the United States, has increased by more than 50 percent, and suicides have increased by nearly one-quarter. The change in Japanese life-style is revealed in the fact that__________.

A．the young are less tolerant of discomforts in life
B．the divorce rate in Japan exceeds that in the U. S.
C．the Japanese endure more than ever before
D．the Japanese appreciate their present life

单项选择题

Financial engineers don’’t wear white lab coats. They don’’t experiment on rats or perform gas chromatography(气相层析). Their raw material-money-isn’’t as showy as what biologists and physicists investigate. But the innovations they produce will contribute just as much to economic growth. 　　Maybe more, in fact, because without the science of finance, all other sciences are just a bunch of neat concepts. Ideas begin to tribute to human betterment when they’’re financed-by venture capital, stock offerings, loans, or buyouts. A smoothly operating financial system showers money on good ideas. Equally important, it cuts off funding to tired ideas and tired companies, so their assets can be employed more efficiently elsewhere. 　　In the 21st century economy, innovation in finance will increase in concert with the increase in competition. Partly because of deregulation and globalization, competition should get tougher, and margins thinner. As products such as home mortgage loans become commoditized, financial- service companies will be forced to get more creative. 　　Financial technology will keep feeding off information technology. The secret to success will be a strong software platform, which will lower the cost of general services while making it possible to create high-margin variations as well. A few companies that get it right can spin away from the rest and become stronger and stronger. 　　In the new world of finance, size counts. Big companies enjoy economies of scale and name recognition, and they can be safer because their bets are spread across more regions and market segments. The value of U. S. bank mergers in the first half of 1998 was greater than that of the three previous years combined. The mergers are occurring across industries as well. 　　At the other extreme will be specialists that survive by doing one thing either very cheaply or exceptionally well. By offering lower prices or better service, specialists will discipline the financial supermarkets; the big guys know their customers can walk away if they get a raw deal. "There is no way we are going to maximize a short-term transactional benefit at the risk of destroying a long-term relationship," says Chase Manhattan Corp. Vice-Chairman Joseph G. Sponholz. 　　Predictably, the biggest winners from financial innovation will be companies, and families that have complex finances. Banks already show signs of losing interest in people who want just plain checking accounts. 　　But as incomes and wealth rise, more people will find themselves thrust into the role of asset managers. Businesses, too, will have to become more sophisticated-if only to keep pace with financially innovative rivals. In the current century, financial companies will

A．take great pains to counter any other rival business firms.
B．repel deregulation and globalization of financial service.
C． employ information technology to make more profits.
D．nvest in IT industry to create advanced software.

单项选择题

Throughout history, gold has been a precious material, eagerly sought and cherished. It was probably the first metal to be mined because it is beautiful and imperishable (which will always exist or cannot wear out), and because beautiful objects can be made from it-even with primitive tools. The amount of gold known to ancient peoples probably totaled not much more than the amount produced each year by the world’’s largest gold mine located in the Witwatersrand district of South Africa. Stores of gold discovered by archaeologists in Greece, Scythia, and Egypt, as well as the gold from Indian treasuries in Mexico and Peru, represented years of patient collection of small quantities from streams and veins (矿脉) , often by slave labor. 　　The essential value of gold has always been known, even before gold was used in coinage. It remains the only universally recognized standard of value in international monetary exchange. Most of the world’’s refined gold is absorbed by governments and central banks to provide backing for paper currency. But the amount of gold used in arts and in industry is increasing. In addition to its use for jewelry, decorative finishes, and dentistry, its special properties have led to many applications in modern science and technology. Surface coatings of gold protect earth satellites from heat and corrosion, and certain electrical components and circuits of spacecraft are made of gold when extreme reliability is required. 　　Gold was first produced in the United States from the southern Appalachian region, beginning about 1792. These deposits, though rich, were relatively small and were quickly depleted. The discovery of gold at Sutter’’s Mill in California sparked the gold rush of 1849-50. Hundreds of mining camps sprang to life as new deposits were discovered. As a result, the production of gold increased rapidly. 　　During World War I and for some years thereafter, annual production declined to about two million ounces. When the price of gold was raised in 1934 to $35 an ounce, production increased rapidly. Shortly after the start of World WarⅡ, gold mines were closed and the government did not permit them to reopen until 1945. Since then the production of gold has not exceeded two million ounces a year. 　　The largest producing gold mine in the United States is the Homestake Mine in South Dakota, which yields about 575,000 ounces of gold each year. Other mines scattered throughout various parts of the world produce even larger amounts of this highly prized and eagerly sought yellowish material. To develop his ideas, the author uses

A． arguments and proofs.
B． personal opinions.
C． convincing examples.
D． factual descriptions.

单项选择题

Financial engineers don’’t wear white lab coats. They don’’t experiment on rats or perform gas chromatography(气相层析). Their raw material-money-isn’’t as showy as what biologists and physicists investigate. But the innovations they produce will contribute just as much to economic growth. 　　Maybe more, in fact, because without the science of finance, all other sciences are just a bunch of neat concepts. Ideas begin to tribute to human betterment when they’’re financed-by venture capital, stock offerings, loans, or buyouts. A smoothly operating financial system showers money on good ideas. Equally important, it cuts off funding to tired ideas and tired companies, so their assets can be employed more efficiently elsewhere. 　　In the 21st century economy, innovation in finance will increase in concert with the increase in competition. Partly because of deregulation and globalization, competition should get tougher, and margins thinner. As products such as home mortgage loans become commoditized, financial- service companies will be forced to get more creative. 　　Financial technology will keep feeding off information technology. The secret to success will be a strong software platform, which will lower the cost of general services while making it possible to create high-margin variations as well. A few companies that get it right can spin away from the rest and become stronger and stronger. 　　In the new world of finance, size counts. Big companies enjoy economies of scale and name recognition, and they can be safer because their bets are spread across more regions and market segments. The value of U. S. bank mergers in the first half of 1998 was greater than that of the three previous years combined. The mergers are occurring across industries as well. 　　At the other extreme will be specialists that survive by doing one thing either very cheaply or exceptionally well. By offering lower prices or better service, specialists will discipline the financial supermarkets; the big guys know their customers can walk away if they get a raw deal. "There is no way we are going to maximize a short-term transactional benefit at the risk of destroying a long-term relationship," says Chase Manhattan Corp. Vice-Chairman Joseph G. Sponholz. 　　Predictably, the biggest winners from financial innovation will be companies, and families that have complex finances. Banks already show signs of losing interest in people who want just plain checking accounts. 　　But as incomes and wealth rise, more people will find themselves thrust into the role of asset managers. Businesses, too, will have to become more sophisticated-if only to keep pace with financially innovative rivals. The startling growth of bank mergers indicates that

A． scale is of vital importance to the survival of financial systems.
B．financial-service companies need to turn out creative products.
C． demand for investment of capital is becoming greater and greater.
D．big companies want to risk their money on more than one result.

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