Globalization What exactly does globalization mean? Concepts related to globalization include “internationalization”, “multidomestic marketing”, and “multinational or transnational marketing”, suggesting that the basic criterion is transactions across national boundaries. In the marketing and strategic management literature, globalization is conceptualized as a means to gain competitive advantage by locating different stages of production in different geographic regions according to the particular region’s comparative advantage. This conceptualization focuses only on the economic aspects of globalization; social, cultural and political factors are only considered in the context of achieving economic advantage. Thus, being “culturally sensitive” in global markets is being able to sell one’s product with enough ingenuity to avoid possible pitfalls arising from the seller’s ignorance of local customs. International marketing textbooks discuss such cultural pitfalls in great detail; however, the cultural contest of globalization is always framed by the economy. Broader conceptualization of globalization can be found in other disciplines such as sociology and anthropology. Waters defined globalization as “a social process in which the constraints of geography on social and cultural arrangements recede and in which people become increasingly aware that they are receding.” This conceptualization with its much broader scope, allows for the examination of a number of consequences of globalization, not jut economic but social, cultural and political ones. While there are a few different conceptualizations of globalization, researchers seem to be in agreement that there are at least three dimensions of globalization: economic, political and cultural. The economic aspects of globalization stem from the spread of the capitalist world economy and the resulting expansion of goods and services. The need for cheap raw materials, cheap labor and new markets saw the expansion of the capitalist world economy from one that was primarily Eurocentric to one that encompassed the entire world. This process was achieved by various means and often involved overcoming political resistances in the new markets. The political aspects of globalization involved establishing control over markets and raw materials through either the use of direct military power or the establishment of international institutions that control such markets. The rise of the nation-state is an example of the political aspect of globalization, although it is argued that advances in telecommunications and information systems and the resulting constructions of institutions that transience territorial boundaries are making the nation-state obsolete. If the economic and political aspects of globalization involve material and power exchanges, the cultural of globalization involves the expression of symbols that represents facts, meanings, beliefs, preferences, tastes and values. In fact, these symbolic exchanges are increasingly displacing economic and political exchanges in the spread of global mass culture. Traditional barriers of language pose no problems to modem means of cultural production such as satellite television and film. However, the new “global culture”, despite its manifestations through consumption of global products and symbols in different part of the globe, is essentially the culture of dominant groups centered in the West.
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Passage 2 Is there something as truth? For good many centuries “the search for truth” has been 1 _ the noblest activity of the human mind, but the seekers after truth have come to such 2conclusions that it often seems that very little progress has been made. 3 , there are many people who feel that we are actually going backward 4our knowledge. They 5 , often contemptuously, that we have more “knowledge” than our ancestors, but they think we are farther from the truth than ever, or even that we have 6the truth that we once possessed. If people look for anything long enough without finding it, the question naturally arises 7the thing is really there to find. You have seen a picture of an animal with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tall and maybe an eagle’s wings for good 8 . There is plenty of evidence that each part of this animal 9-but there is no 10 evidence that the parts ever occur in this combination. It is at least 11that the seekers after “truth” have made a similar mistake and invented a（n） 12combination. It is 13to consider that the noun truth comes from the adjective true, and that the Latin world for truth, verities, also comes form an adjective, versus. In both languages the notion of true -accurate, 14to facts-seems to have developed before the notion of truth. We cannot definitely prove this, 15even older words meaning “truth” may have been forgotten, but it seems 16 . If you want to find out whether a man has told the truth, you 17his words with facts. If they 18 , you decide that his statement was true. You may then say either that his words were true or that he spoke the truth－but you cannot simply 19words to find out whether there is something called truth in them. Your second statement is merely a grammatical 20of the first.1.
A. regarded B. considered C. pondered D. referred2.
A. illegal B. identical C. different D. profound3.
A. However B. Nevertheless C. In fact D. In contrast4.
A. to abandon B. to derive C. to enrich D. to accumulate5.
A. confess B. realize C. admit D. reveal6.
A. found B. missed C. lost D. enriched7.
A. while B. that C. when D. whether8.
A. measure B. luck C. reason D. sense9.
A. endures B. exists C. prevails D. emerges10.
A. appropriate B. unique C. reliable D. dependent11.
A. informative B. thoughtful C. considerable D. conceivable12.
A. unbelievable B. imaginary C. impressive D. idealized13.
A. enlightening B. delighting C. refreshing D. distressing14.
A. conforming B. complying C. matching D. resembling15.
A. although B. since C. if D. therefore16.
A. reasonable B. inevitable C. incredible D. distinguish17.
A. Separate B. discern C. compare D. distinguish18.
A. suit B. fit C. vary D. identify19.
A. survey B. audit C. examine D. investigate20.
A. distinction B. deformation C. specification D. variation -
One Number Gets It All—Phone, Fax or Voice Mail Tired of having to remember different numbers for your office phone, fax, pager or mobile phone? No room on your business card for the raft of numbers that are now part of everyday business contacts? The answer is at hand—or rather in a number. One number can now be used for all your different devices and communications, thanks to a new system devised by a technology company which uses the science available in the high-growth, hi-tech modem world. Instead of numbers belonging to different devices, the company assigns you one number belonging to you, the person. You have one number for phone, fax, pagers and mobile phones. All your calls and contacts come to this one number so that you can divert unwanted callers politely to your voice mail if you want. Voice messages that come into the same personal number can be turned into emails for delivery to the desktop of your computer or to another person’s computer. You can have trouble-free call-forwarding anywhere in the world. Those are some of the features of Bloodhound, a new service offered by Auckland-based computer telephony integrator—Powercall Technologies Ltd. General manager Nick Little said the company, a subsidiary of the Brocker Technology Group, came to the new one-number system when they wanted to set up in a new office. It would have cost $US 250 (RMB ￥2,000) a month to lease a small phone switchboard. To avoid the capital outlay or the hardware in the office, they set out instead to develop a switchboard based on a PC computer. Then, realizing the market was awash in such products, the company looked at ways to use its experience in voice mail, interactive voice response and unified messaging to develop new subscriber-based services. Mr. Little said Bloodhound, which costs $US 20 (RMB ￥160) a month for full phone, fax and messaging, side-stepped the number portability issue (whether phone owners can use the same number in different phone company systems or not) because subscribers were given not a telephone number, but their own personal number. “The number we issue is a virtual number belonging to the person. It does not terminate on a physical device," Mr. Little said. "The subscriber sets up devices behind the scenes." Bloodhound runs on NT servers and subscribers pay their telephone carriers for line connection and any toll charges. They also pay for calls received on mobile phones via Bloodhound at US$ 25c (RMB ￥2) a minute. But they can change phone carrier company or exchange without having to change all their stationery. Callers are greeted by an automated "virtual assistant", which locates the Bloodhound subscriber or takes messages. Calls can be screened, with known callers announced to the subscriber who can choose to accept a call or divert it to another person or voice mail. Fax can be forwarded to any location for printing, without the cellular charges associated with cellphone-based fax services. And if users have a sudden inspiration, they can call Bloodhound and dictate a message for recall later. Simon Morgan from advertising and direct marketing agency Carpe Diem has been a pilot user of the service throughout the year 2000. He said Bloodhound helped his five-person company present a consistent and professional face to the world. "One of our staff works from home part-time, but with a Bloodhound number available to the world as her office number. As far as the world is connected, she works in the office. It’s also useful if I’m working at a client site. I can use the ‘I am Here’ feature and get calls forwarded through."
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Tourism, Globalization and Sustainable Development Tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors of the global economy and developing countries are attempting to cash in on this expanding industry in an attempt to boost foreign investment and financial reserves. While conceding that the uncontrolled growth of this industry can result in serious environmental and social problems, the United Nations contends that such negative effects can be controlled and reduced. Before getting into the cold facts of global economics, let me begin with another story to warm up. I was perplexed when I recently read in the newspaper that Thailand’s forestry chief had said: “Humans can’t live in the forest because human beings aren’t animals. Unlike us, animals can adapt themselves to the wild or any environment naturally.” This was to legitimatize the government’s plan to remove hundreds of thousands of rural and hill tribe people from protected areas. This man, who is in charge of conserving the forests, is at the same time very strongly pushing to open up the country’s 81 national parks to outside investors and visitors in the name of “eco-tourism”. Can we conclude, then, that the forestry chief considers developers and tourists as animals that know how to adapt to the forest and behave in the wild naturally? While authorities want to stop the access to forest lands and natural resources of village people, another group of people—namely tourism developers and tourists with lots of money to spend—are set to gain access to the area. While authorities believe that local people, who have often lived in the area for generations, are not capable of managing and conserving their land and natural resources—under a community forestry scheme for example—they believe they themselves in cooperation with the tourist industry can properly manage and conserve “nature” under a national eco-tourism plan. Taking the above quote seriously, cynics may be tempted to say there is obviously a gap between “human rights” and “animal rights”. How is this story linked to globalization? First of all, that humans cannot live in the forest is—of course—not a Thai concept. It is a notion of Western conservation ideology—an outcome of the globalization of ideas and perceptions. Likewise, that eco-tourism under a “good management” system is beneficial to local people and nature is also a Western concept that is being globalized. In fact, Thailand’s forestry chief thinks globally and acts locally. A lesson that can be learned from this is that the slogan “Think Globally, Act Locally” that the environmental movements have promoted all the years, has not necessarily served to preserve the environment and safeguard local communities’ rights, but has been co-opted and distorted by official agencies and private industries for profit-making purposes. The tourism industry is demonstrating this all too well Many developing countries, facing debt burdens and worsening trade terms, have turned to tourism promotion in the hope that it brings foreign exchange and investment. Simultaneously, leading international agencies such as the World Bank, United Nations agencies and business organizations like the Word Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) have been substantially involved to make tourism a truly global industry. However, tourism in developing countries is often viewed by critics as an extension of former colonial conditions because from the very beginning, it has benefited from international economic relationships that structurally favor the advanced capitalist countries in the North. Unequal trading relationships, dependence on foreign interests, and the division of labor have relegated poor countries in the South to becoming tourism recipients and affluent countries in the North to the position of tourism generators, with the latter enjoying the freedom from having to pay the price for the meanwhile well-known negative impacts in destinations.
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Passage 2 The current emergency in Mexico City that has taken over our lives is nothing I couldever have imagined for me or my children. We were living in an environmental crisis, an air pollution emergency of unprecedented 1 . 2it really means is that just to breathehere is to 3 a dangerous game with your health. 4parents, what 5us most are reports that children are at higher 6because they breathe more times per minute. What more can we do to protect them and ourselves? Our pediatrician’s （儿科医师） medical 7was simple: 8the city 9 . We are foreigners and we are among the small minority that can afford to leave. We are herebecause of my husband’s work. We know that for us, this is a 10danger. 11 ,we can’t stand for much longer the fear we feel for our boys. We can’t stop them frombreathing. But for millions, there is no choice. Their lives, their jobs, their futures 12on being here. Thousands of Mexicans arrive each day in this city, 13for economic opportunities Thousands more are born here each day. Entire families work in the streets and 14live there. It’s a familiar sight: 15parents hawk goods at stoplights, their children play in the grassy highway dividers, breathing exhaust fumes. I feel 16complaining about my personal situation; we won’t be here long enough for our children to form the 17 thaw skies are colored only gray. The word “emergency” 18the unusual. But when daily life itself is an emergency, the concept loses its meaning. It is human nature to try to 19that which we can’t change, or to mislead ourselves 20believing we can adapt.1.
A. quality B. severity C. intensity D. density2.
A. Which B. Whatever C. How D. What3.
A. act B. conduct C. perform D. play4.
A. As B. Like C. With D. Unlike5.
A. terrorizes B. fears C. interrupts D. suffers6.
A. rate B. risk C. amount D. quantity7.
A. recommendation B. reference C. diagnosis D. comment8.
A. resign B. abandon C. forbid D. prohibit9.
A. consistently B. persistently C. permanently D. unconditionally10.
A. transient B. momentary C. temporary D. instant11.
A. Therefore B. Moreover C. Thus D. However12.
A. decide B. depend C. revolve D. concentrate13.
A. desperate B. fanatic C. insane D. furious14.
A. fundamentally B. literally C. practically D. essentially15.
A. since B. as C. now that D. if16.
A. guilty B. reasonable C. rational D. conscientious17.
A. impression B. suppression C. depression D. oppression18.
A. supplies B. implies C. designates D. complies19.
A. feel like B. dedicate to C. adapt to D. see to20.
A. to B. for C. onto D. into -
Expressionism Expressionism is an art movement that produced a wealth of wonderful works of art, and the lives of the artists who created them were no less colorful and exciting. The word "expressionism" can be used to describe art from different times and places, most of them were part of a movement that took place in Germany from 1905 to 1920. They shared some of the beliefs. Those beliefs were that art should try to change society, to make it less conservative. It should express the energy of nature—following in the footsteps of Vincent van Gogh—-and personal feeling rather than simply representing nature. It should feel "uncomfortable", which means it should challenge the traditional ways of looking at the world. This differed from the opinion of Henri Matisse who believed that art should be "comfortable". Expressionist art should be inspired by folk art, and the art of what were then called "primitive" people, for example from Africa. The aim of the Expressionists was to express personal feeling about what they were painting rather than representing it exactly as it was. It should have strong colors and shapes, be relatively direct, untutored and unplanned and should still contain recognizable things, but not be realistic. The lines could be distorted, and the colors could be strengthened or changed as in the art movement that began in 1905 called Fauvism. Expressionism was more than a style in painting. It could be found in theatre and cinema, literature and architecture. It was a sharing of ideas and experiences across all these media. The life stories of the Expressionist artists show just how much they had in common. Many began by studying applied art, such as furniture design, often to please their parents. Although they later made more personal art, they continued to make use of those technical skills. Both art critics and the public received this new movement with derision and outrage. Expressionist artists were trying to shock by challenging the traditional, conservative views held by many people. Gradually, however, it became accepted and even admired. All the Expressionists were affected by World War I (1914-18). Some fled from Germany and spent the war years in exile. Some never returned to their homeland. Most served in the war and some were killed. At first some of them hoped a war would change society for the better but they were soon disillusioned when they saw the destruction and suffering that it caused. In the years after the war, many Expressionist artist revealed the horrors they experienced in their work. After World War I, Expressionism became very fashionable in Germany, where art was allowed to flourish. This freedom ended in 1933 when Hitler declared all Expressionists were "degenerate". This led to them being sacked from their jobs or forced to leave Germany. In 1937 the Nazis took thousands of art works from German museums and put them in an enormous exhibition called the Degenerate Art Exhibition, to show how bad and decadent this art was. It presented a view of the world that went against their political and cultural ambitions to rid Germany of all inferior races.