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3 World Trade Organization Director-general Renato Ruggiero predicted that the WTO would boost global incomes by ﹩1 trillion in the next ten years. The pact paves the way for more foreign investment and competition in telecom markets. Many governments are making telecom deregulation a priority and making it easier for outsiders to enter the telecom- munication business. The pace varies widely. The U. S. and Britain are well ahead of the pack, while Thai- land won’t be fully open until 2006. Only 20% of the ﹩ 601 billion world market is currently open to competition. That should jump to about 75% in a couple of years—largely due to the Telecom Act in the U. S. last year that deregulated local markets, the opening up of the European Union’s markets from Jan. 1, 1998 and the deregulation in Japan. The WTO deal now provides a forum for the inevitable disputes along the way. It is also symbolic.. the first major trade agreement of the post-industrial age. Instead of being obsessed with textile quotas, the WTO pact is proof that governments are realizing that in an information age, telecom is the oil and steel of economies in the future. Businesses around the world are already spending more in total on telecom services than they do on oil. Consumers, meanwhile, can look forward to a future of lower prices—by some estimates, international calling rates should drop 80% over several years—and better serv- ice. Thanks in part to the vastly increased call volume carded by the fiber-optic cables that span the globe today, calling half a world away already costs little more than telephoning next door. The monopolies can no longer set high prices for international calls in many countries. In the U. S. , the world’s most fiercely competitive long distance market, fre- quent callers since last year have been paying about 12 cents a minute to call Britain, a price not much more than domestic rates. The new competitive environment on the horizon means more opportunities for compa- nies from the U. S. and U. K. in particular because they have plenty of practice at the roughand tumble of free markets. The U. S. lobbied hard for the WTO deal, confident that its firms would be big beneficiaries of more open markets. Britain has been deregulated since 1984 but will see even more competition than before, in December, the government issued 45 new international licenses to join British Telecom so that it will become a strong competitor in the international market. However, the once-cosseted industry will get rougher worldwide. Returns on capital will come down. Risks will go up. That is how free markets work. It will look like any other business. The tone of this passage can be described as______.
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In Zurich, a leading canton in the Swiss Confederation, it has been proposed to teach one foreign language—English—in primary schools. This would represent a change (21) Zurich’s elementary school kids now study English and French. Voters will decide whether French will be (22) Some educators (23) that two foreign languages are too much for kids. Supporters of one foreign language believe that kids fail to reach strong (24) in German, the mother tongue for schoolchildren in Zurich. In fact, Zurich kids speak Swiss German, which is (25) an oral language. In school they have to learn standard German, which (26) is a foreign language. (27) you add them all together Zurich kids are learning four languages. All of Switzerland will watch what Zurich voters decide because Zurich is an influential canton and others may (28) . Yet some German-speaking cantons have already decided to (29) plans to reduce the number of foreign languages. (30) what happens, Swiss kids will be fluent in more than one language which is a definite asset in today’s (31) economy. It is also a definite asset in learning other subjects. Studies (32) in American universities have found that kids who study in duallanguage schools outperform their (33) who are taught in English only. Apparently, kids educated in two languages develop a mental (34) that monolingual kids lack. Perhaps four languages are too many in elementary schools, but two is not (35) at all.
St. Petersburg. The very name brings to mind some of Russia’s greatest poets, writers and composers. Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky. Others thought it was just too soon. Old, run-down Soviet Leningrad, they said, was not the St. Petersburg of 19th-century literature. What, then, is St. Petersburg In the confusing post-Soviet world, no one really knows. The quiet, if Soviet-style, dignity is gone. The revolutionary sayings are down, and gaudy advertising up. Candy bars and cigarettes are sold from boxy, tasteless kiosks. And clothing
3 World Trade Organization Director-general Renato Ruggiero predicted that the WTO would boost global incomes by ﹩1 trillion in the next ten years. The pact paves the way for more foreign investment and competition in telecom markets. Many governments are making telecom deregulation a priority and making it easier for outsiders to enter the telecom- munication business. The pace varies widely. The U. S. and Britain are well ahead of the pack, while Thai- land won’t be fully open until 2006. Only 20% of the ﹩ 601 billion world market is currently open to competition. That should jump to about 75% in a couple of years—largely due to the Telecom Act in the U. S. last year that deregulated local markets, the opening up of the European Union’s markets from Jan. 1, 1998 and the deregulation in Japan. The WTO deal now provides a forum for the inevitable disputes along the way. It is also symbolic.. the first major trade agreement of the post-industrial age. Instead of being obsessed with textile quotas, the WTO pact is proof that governments are realizing that in an information age, telecom is the oil and steel of economies in the future. Businesses around the world are already spending more in total on telecom services than they do on oil. Consumers, meanwhile, can look forward to a future of lower prices—by some estimates, international calling rates should drop 80% over several years—and better serv- ice. Thanks in part to the vastly increased call volume carded by the fiber-optic cables that span the globe today, calling half a world away already costs little more than telephoning next door. The monopolies can no longer set high prices for international calls in many countries. In the U. S. , the world’s most fiercely competitive long distance market, fre- quent callers since last year have been paying about 12 cents a minute to call Britain, a price not much more than domestic rates. The new competitive environment on the horizon means more opportunities for compa- nies from the U. S. and U. K. in particular because they have plenty of practice at the roughand tumble of free markets. The U. S. lobbied hard for the WTO deal, confident that its firms would be big beneficiaries of more open markets. Britain has been deregulated since 1984 but will see even more competition than before, in December, the government issued 45 new international licenses to join British Telecom so that it will become a strong competitor in the international market. However, the once-cosseted industry will get rougher worldwide. Returns on capital will come down. Risks will go up. That is how free markets work. It will look like any other business. In the last paragraph the word "lobby" probably means " ______. "
2 At home Theodore Roosevelt had affection, not compliments, whether these were unintentional and sincere or were thinly disguised flattery. And affection was what he most craved from his family and nearest friends, and what he gave to them without stint. As I have said, he allowed nothing to interrupt the hours set apart for his wife and children while he was at the White House; and at Oyster Bay there was always time for them. A typical story is told of the boys coming in upon him during a conference with some important visitor, and saying reproachfully, "It’s long after four o’clock, and you promised to go with us at four. " "So I did," said Roosevelt. And he quickly finished his business with the visitor and went. When the children were young, he usually saw them at supper and into bed, and he talked of the famous pillow fights they had with him. House guests at the White House some times unexpectedly caught sight of him crawling in the entry near the children’s rooms, with two or three children riding on his hack. Roosevelt’s days were seldom less than fifteen hours long, and we can guess how he regarded the laboring men of today who clamor for eight and six, and even fewer hours, as the normal period for a day’s work. He got up at half-past seven and always finished breakfast by nine, when what many might call the real work of his day began. The unimaginative laborer probably supposes that most of the duties which fall to all industrious President are not strictly work at all;but if any one had to meet for an hour and a half every forenoon such Congressmen and Senators as chose to call on him, he would understand that that was a job involving real work, hard work. They came every day with a grievance, or an appeal, or a suggestion, or a favor to ask, and he had to treat each one, not only politely, but more or less differently. Early in his Administration I heard it said that he offended some Congressmen by denying their requests in so loud a voice that others in the room could hear him, and this seemed to some a humilia- tion. President McKinley, on the other hand, they said, lowered his voice, and spoke so softly and sweetly that even his refusal did not jar on his visitor, and was not heard at all by the bystanders. If this happened, I suspect it was because Roosevelt spoke rather explosively and had a habit of emphasis, and not because he wished in any way to send his petitioner’s rebuff through the room. Nor was the hour which followed this, when he received general callers, less wearing. As these persons came from all parts of the Union, so they were of all sorts and temperaments. Here was a worthy citizen from Colorado who, on the strength of having once heard the President make a public speech in Denver, claimed immediate friendship with him. Then might come an old lady from Georgia, who remembered his mother’s people there, or the lady from Jacksonville, Florida, of whom I have already spoken. Once a little boy, who was almost lost in the crush of grown-up visitors, managed to reach the President. "What can I do for you" the President asked; and the boy told how his father had died leaving his mother with a large family and no money, and how he was selling typewriters to help support her. His mother, he said, would be most grateful if the President would accept a typewriter from her as a gift. So the President told the little fellow to go and sit down until the other visitors had passed, and then he would attend to him. No doubt, the boy left the White House well contented--and richer. How was President Roosevelt’s offending denial of some Congressmen’s requests explained
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