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Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage. The increase in global trade means that international companies cannot afford to make costly advertising mistakes if they want to be competitive. Understanding the language and culture of target markets in foreign countries is one of the keys to successful international marketing. Too many companies, however, have jumped into foreign markets with embarrassing results. Translation mistakes are at the heart of many blunders in international advertising. General Motors, the US auto manufacturer, got a costly lesson when it introduced its Chevrolet Nova to the Puerto Rican market. "Nova" is Latin for "new (star)" and means "star" in many languages, but in spoken Spanish it can sound like "nova", meaning "it doesn’t go". Few people wanted to buy a car with that cursed meaning. When GM changed the name to Caribe, sales picked up dramatically. Marketing blunders have also been made by food and beverage companies. One American food company’s friendly "Jolly Green Giant" (for advertising vegetables) became something quite different when it was translated into Arabic as "Intimidating Green Ogre". When translated into German, Pepsi’s popular slogan, "Come Alive with Pepsi" came out implying "Come Alive from the Grave". No wonder customers in Germany didn’t rush out to buy Pepsi. Even a company with an excellent international track record like Kentucky Fried Chicken is not immune to the perils of faulty translation. Many sales were lost when the catch phrase "finger licking food" became "eat with your fingers off" in Chinese translation. A manufacturer of one laundry detergent also made an expensive mistake in the Middle East. Its advertisements showed a picture of a pile of dirty clothes on the left, a box of the company’s detergent in the middle, and clean clothes on the right. Unfortunately, the message was incorrectly interpreted because most people looked at it from right to left, the way Arabic is read. Having awakened to the special nature of foreign advertising, companies are becoming much more conscientious in their translation and more sensitive to cultural distinctions. The best way to prevent errors is to hire professional translators who understand the target language and its idiomatic usage, or to use a technique called "back translation" to reduce the possibility of blunders. The process uses one person to translate a message into the target language and another to translate it back. Effective translators aim to capture the overall message of an advertisement because a word-for-word duplication of the original rarely conveys the intended meaning and often causes misunderstandings. It can be inferred that Chevrolet Nova ______.
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Mass transportation revised the social and economic fabric of the American city in three fundamental ways. It speeded up physical expansion, it sorted out people and land uses, and it 62 the inherent instability of urban life. By opening vast areas of unoccupied land for residential expansion, the buses, 63 , commuter trains, and electric trolleys pulled settled regions outward two to four times more 64 from city centers than they were in the pre-modern era. In 1850, for example, the borders of Boston lay 65 two miles from the old business district; by the turn of the century the 66 ex tended ten miles. Now those who could afford it could live far removed from the old city center and still 67 there for work, shopping, and 68 The new accessibility of land around the periphery (外围) of almost every, major city 69 an explosion of real estate development and fueled what we now 70 as urban sprawl (城市蔓延). Between 1890 and 1920, for example, some 250,000 new 71 lots were recorded within the borders of Chicago, 72 of them located in outlying areas. Over the same period, another 550,000 were plotted outside the city limits 73 within the metropolitan area. Anxious to take 74 of the possibilities of commuting, real estate developers added 800,000 potential building sites to the Chicago region in just thirty years—lots that could have housed five to six million people. Of course, many were never 75 ; there was always a huge surplus of subdivided, but vacant, land around Chicago and other cities. These 76 pre sent a feature of residential expansion 77 to the growth of mass transportation: urban sprawl was 78 unplanned. It was carried out by thousands of small investors who paid little care to coordinated land use or to future land users. Those who purchased and prepared land for residential purposes, particularly land near or outside city borders 79 transit lines and middle-class inhabitants were anticipated, did so to create demand 80 much as to respond to it. Chicago is a prime example of this 81 . Real estate subdivision there proceeded much faster than population growth.
Questions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage. I’ve always been an optimist and I suppose that is rooted in my belief that the power of creativity and intelligence can make the world a better place. For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved learning new things and solving problems. So when I sat down at a computer for tile first time in seventh grade, I was hooked. It was a clunky old teletype machine and it could barely do anything compared to the computers we have today. But it changed my life. Computers have transformed how we learn, giving kids everywhere a window into all of the world’s knowledge. They’re helping us build communities around the things we care about and to stay close to the people who are important to us, no matter where they are. Like my friend Warren Buffett, I feel particularly lucky to do something every day that I love to do. He calls it "tap-dancing to work." My job at Microsoft is as challenging as ever, but what makes me "tap-dance to work" is when we show people something new, like a computer that can recognize your handwriting or your speech, or one that can store a lifetime’s worth of photos, and they say, "I didn’t know you could do that with a PC! " But for all the cool things that a person can do with a PC, there are lots of other ways we can put our creativity and intelligence to work to improve our world. There are still far too many people in the world whose most basic needs go unmet. Every year, for example, millions of people die from diseases that are easy to prevent or treat in the developed world. I believe that my own good fortune brings with it a responsibility to give back to the world. As a father, I believe that the death of a child in Africa is no less poignant or tragic than the death of a child anywhere else. And that it doesn’t take much to make an immense difference in these children’s lives. I’m still very much an optimist, and I believe that progress on even the world’s toughest problems is possible—and it’s happening every day. We’re seeing new drugs for deadly diseases, new diagnostic tools, and new attention paid to the health problems in the developing world. I’m excited by the possibilities I see for medicine, for education and, of course, for technology. And I believe that through our natural inventiveness, creativity and willingness to solve tough problems, we’re going to make some amazing achievements in all these areas in my lifetime. By calling it "tap-dancing to work", Warren Buffett thinks the author’s job is ______.
He offered the advice that ______ (信宅区内应设立更多的体育设施).
Wal-Mart Wal-Mart is more than just the world’s largest retailer. It is an economic force, a cultural phenomenon and a lightning rod for controversy. It all started with a simple philosophy from founder Sam Walton: Offer shoppers lower prices than they get anywhere else. That basic strategy has shaped Wal-Mart’s culture and driven the company’s growth.Now that Wal-Mart is so huge, it has unprecedented power to shape labor markets globally and change the way entire industries operate. History of Wal-Mart Sam Walton opened his first five-and-dime in 1950. His vision was to keep prices as low as possible. Even if his margins weren’t as fat as competitors, he figured he could make up for that in volume. He was right. In the early 1960s, Walton opened his first Wal-Mart in Rogers, Arkansas. The company continued to grow, going public in 1970 and adding more stores every year. In 1990, Wal-Mart surpassed key rival Kmart in size. Two years later, it surpassed Sears. Walton continued to drive an old pickup truck and share budget-hotel rooms with colleagues on business trips, even after Wal-Mart made him very rich. He demanded that his employees also keep expenses to a bare minimum—a mentality that is still al the heart of Wal-Mart culture more than a decade after Walton’s death. The company has continued to grow rapidly after his death in 1992 and now operates four retail divisions—Wal-Mart Supercenters, Wal-Mart discount stores, Neighborhood Market stores and Sam’s Club warehouses. Wal-Mart Strategy Let’s start with technology. Wal-Mart pushed the retail industry to establish the universal bar code, which forced manufacturers to adopt common labeling. The bar allowed retailers to generate all kinds of information—creating a subtle shift of power from manufacturers to retailers. Wal-Mart became especially good at exploiting the information behind the bar code. And thus it is considered a pioneer in developing sophisticated technology to track its stock and cut the fat out of its supply chain. Recently, Wal-Mart became the first major retailer to demand manufacturers use radio frequency identification technology (RFID). The technology, uses radio frequencies to transmit data stored on small tags attached to pallets (货盘) or individual products. RFID tags hold significantly more data than bar codes. The frugal culture, established by Walton. also plays into Wal-Mart’s success. The company has been criticized for the relatively poor wages and health care plans that it otters to rank-and file employees. It has also been accused of demanding that hourly workers put in overtime without pay. Store managers often work more than 70 hours per week. This culture is also present at the company’s headquarters. Wal-Mart is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, instead of an expensive city like New York. The building is unattractive and dull. You won’t catch executives in quality cars and you won’t see them dragging into work at 9:30 a.m. Executives fly coach and often share hotel rooms with colleagues. They work long hours, typically arriving at work before 6:30 a.m. and working halfdays on Saturdays. The central goal of Wal-Mart is to keep retail prices low—and the company has been very successful at this. Experts estimate that Wal-Mart saves shoppers at least 15 percent on a typical cart of groceries. Everything—including the technology and corporate culture—feeds into that ultimate goal of delivering the lowest prices possible. Wal-Mart also pushes its suppliers, some say cruelly, to cut prices. In The Wal-Mart Effect, author Charles Fishman discusses how the price of a four-pack of GE light bulbs decreased from $2.19 to 88 cents during a five-year period. The Power Because of Wal-Mart’s massive size, it has incredible power. It has driven smaller retailers out of business; forced manufacturers to be more efficient, often leading these suppliers to move manufacturing jobs overseas; and changed the way that even large and established industries do business. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that a new Wal-Mart in town spells doom for local pharmacies, grocery stores, sporting goods stores, etc. Economist Emek Basker, Ph.D., attempted to quantify the impact. Her study found that in a typical United States county, when a Wal-Mart opens, three other retailers close within two years and four close within five years. While the Wal-Mart might employ 300 people, another 250 people working in retail lose their jobs within five years in that county. Wal-Mart has life or death decisions over (almost) all the consumer goods industries that exist in the United States, because it is the number-one supplier-retailer of most of our consumer goods—not just clothes, shoes, toys, but home appliances, electronic products, sporting goods, bi cycles, groceries, food. The stories of how Wal-Mart pushes manufacturers into selling the same product at lower and lower prices are legendary. One example is Lakewood Engineering & Manufacturing Co. in Chicago, a fan manufacturer. In the early 1990s, a 20-inch box fan costs $20. Wal-Mart pushed the manufacturer to lower the price, and Lakewood responded by automating the production process, which meant layoffs. Lakewood also forced its own suppliers to knock down the prices of parts. Then, in 2000, Lakewood opened a factory in China, where workers earn 25 cents an hour. By 2003, the price on the fan in a Wal-Mart store had dropped to about $I0. Wal-Mart’s impact extends beyond just small suppliers. It also affects how even major, established companies like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo do business. At Wal-Mart’s request, Coke and its largest bottler Coca-Cola Enterprises announced that they are changing the way they deliver PowerAde in the United States, altering a basic distribution method for drinks that has been in place for more than a century. Coke also now allows Wal-Mart in on the research-and-development process. In 2005, Coke planned to launch one new diet cola called Coke Zero. At Wal-Mart’s re quest, it changed the name to Diet Coke with Splenda and launched a separate product called Coke Zero. This kind of retailer involvement was unheard of at Coke a decade ago. Pepsi also came up with a line of diet drinks, called Slice One, to initially be sold exclusively in Wal-Mart. The Controversy Wal-Mart is a polarizing force. The controversies have involved a broad range of topics from Wal-Mart selling guns, to the company’s environmental policies, to the kind of health care WalMart offers employees, to outsourcing of jobs. In this section, we will explore two of the biggest areas of controversies—labor practices at the company and Wal-Mart’s impact on the American economy. Wal-Mart has come under fire on a number of labor issues. There may be a dark side to the frugal culture. At the end of 2005, the company faced dozens of lawsuits across the country for allegedly not paying workers overtime. Women have also accused Wal-Mart of discrimination, and employees have said that it squashes efforts to unionize and doesn’t provide decent healthcare. Not everyone is down on Wal-Mart. Andrew Young, a former United Nations ambassador and former mayor of Atlanta, heads up a group backed by Wal-Mart that is supposed to spread a positive message about the company. "You need to look at who’s complaining about Wal-Mart," Young told USA Today in March 2006. "If it’s not 100 million people shopping there every week and it’s not 8,000 people competing for 500 jobs (at a new Atlanta store), who is it They’re complaining because they’re wrong and they don’t understand that ending poverty means generating wealth and not just fighting to redistribute the existing wealth." There is heated debate about whether Wal-Mart is good for the American economy, and well respected economists come down firmly on both sides of this debate. Some experts say it is good for the economy because it keeps prices low, both at its stores and at other retailers. Other experts argue that Wal-Mart is bad for the economy because it drives competing retailers out of business and forces manufacturers to move jobs overseas to keep expenses down. The power of manufacturers has been shifted to the hand of retailers thanks to ______.
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