TEXT B Cancun means "snakepit" in the local Mayan language, and it lived up to its name as the host of an important World Trade Organization meeting that began last week. Rather than tackling the problem of their high agricultural tariffs and lavish farm subsidies, which victimize farmers in poorer nations, a number of rich nations derailed the talks. The failure by 146 trade delegates to reach an agreement in Mexico is a serious blow to the global economy. And contrary to the mindless cheering with which the breakdown was greeted by antiglobalization protesters at Cancun, the world’s poorest and most vulnerable nations will suffer most. It is a bitter irony that the chief architects of this failure were nations like Japan, Korea and European Union members, themselves ads for the prosperity afforded by increased global trade. The Cancan meeting came at the midpoint of the W.T.O.’ s "development round", of trade liberalization talks, one that began two years ago with an eye toward extending the benefits of freer trade and markets to poorer countries. The principal demand of these developing nations, led at Cancun by Brazil, has been an endto high tariffs and agricultural subsidies in ,the developed world, and rightly so. Poor nations find it hard to compete against rich nations’ farmers, who get more than $300 billion in government handouts each year. The talks appeared to break down suddenly on the issue of whether the W.T.O. should extend its rule- making jurisdiction into such new areas as foreign investment. But in truth, there was nothing abrupt about the Cancun meltdown. The Japanese and Europeans had devised this demand for an unwieldy and unnecessary expansion of the W.T.O.’ s mandate as a poison pill--to deflect any attempts to get them to turn their backs on their powerful farm lobbies. Their plan worked. The American role at Cancun was disappointingly muted. The Bush administration had little interest in the proposal to expand the W.T.O.’ s authority, but the American farm lobby is split between those who want to profit from greater access to foreign markets and less efficient sectors that demand continued coddling from Washington. That is one reason the United States made the unfortunate decision to side with the more protectionist Europeans in Cancun, a position that left American trade representatives playing defense on subsidies rather than taking a creative stance, alongside Brazil, on lowering trade barriers. This was an unfortunate subject on which to show some rare trans-Atlantic solidarity. The resulting "coalition of the unwilling" lent the talks an unfortunate north-versus-south cast. Any hope that the United States would take the moral high ground at Cancun, and reclaim its historic leadership in pressing for freer trade, was further dashed by the disgraceful manner in which the American negotiators rebuffed the rightful demands of West African nations that the United States commit itself to a clear phasing out of its harmful cotton subsidies. American business and labor groups, not to mention taxpayers, should be enraged that the administration seems more solicitous’ of protecting the most indefensible segment of United States protectionism rather than of protecting the national interest by promoting economic growth through trade. For struggling cotton farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, and for millions of others in the developing world whose lives would benefit from the further lowering of trade barriers, the failure of Cancun amounts to a crushing message fiom the developed world --one of callous indifference. The author mentions that Cancun means "snakepit" in the local Mayan language. Snakepit possibly means______.
A. a place or state of chaotic disorder and distress
B. snake hole
C. snake trap
D. a place or situation of potential danger
TEXT C Skeletal remains with animal bone blades tied to the feet testify to skating’s existence as early as 10,000 BC. These remains were found in the Netherlands. Scandinavia is called the mother of skating because of the sport’s popularity there, beginning around 1000AD. Ice skating was primarily a means of transportation at first, although documents from the Netherlands indicate that speed races were held in towns as early as the 15th century. American athlete Jackson Haines is known as the father of modem figure skating. Haines was born in 1840 in New York City. After studying dance and ballet, he became a dancing master and applied his dancing techniques to figure skating. He performed around the world and became well known for his imaginative and artistic techniques. Haines’ s style was enthusiastically received in Europe and eventually became accepted internationally. The formation of national and international skating organizations began during the 1890s. In 1892 the International Skating Union (ISU) was established. Today the ISU defines the rules and sets performance standards for speed skating, figure skating, and ice dancing competitions. Also in the late 1800s the National Amateur Skating Association of the United States and the International Skating Union of America were founded. In 1921 national standards were set down for skating, and the United States Figure Skating Association (USFSA) was formed to govern the sport in the United States, superseding the earlier organizations. Speed skating in the United States is governed by the United States International Speed Skating Association and the Amateur Speedskating Union of the United States, both of which are affiliated with the ISU. The first official men’s world speed skating championships were held in 1893. Women’s world champion- snip speed skating events first took place ’in 1947. The first men’s world figure skating championships were held in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 1896, and in 1906 the first women’s championships were held in Davos, Switzerland. Figure skating was included in the Summer Olympics of 1908 and 1920 and at the first Winter Olympics in 1924, where men’s speed skating events were also held. Women’s speed skating made its Olympic debut in the 1960 Olympic Games. Ice dancing was added to Olympic competition in 1976, and short-track speed skating was first included in the 1988 Games. Norway’s Sonja Henie played a large role in popularizing figure skating during the 1920s and 1930s. On the strength of her athletic jumps, modem costumes, and inventive choreography she won gold medals at the Winter Olympic Games in 1928, 1932, and 1936. Henie later skated in ice shows and in motion pictures, inspiring many people to take up skating. American skater Dick Button, a five-time world champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist, brought outstanding athleticism to skating. Along with inventing the flying camel sit spin, he was also the first skater to successfully complete a double axel and a triple jump in competition. In the1970s Soviet pairs skaters Oleg and Ludmila Protopopov transformed pairs skating with their elegant, bailetlike movements. In the 1980s British ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean dominated competition with innovative routines that broke away from ice dancing traditions. The development of modem speed skating is credited to Jaap Eden, a Dutch skater bom in 1873. He set a world record in 1894, completing a 5000-meter race in 8 minutes 37.6 seconds. Since then Eden’ s record has been broken many times and today the best skaters complete the same distance in a little over 6 minutes, primarily as a result of more sophisticated training methods. Other successful speed skaters include Eric Heiden of the United States, a three-time world champion who won five gold medals during the 1980 Winter Olympics; Norway’s Johann Olav Koss, who set three new world records during the 1994 Winter Olympics; and Dan Jansen of the United States, who dominated speed skating for more than ten years from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, capping his success with a gold medal and a world record in the 1000-meter long-track race at the 1994 Olympics. Successful female speed skaters include Germany’s Gunda Niemann, who won seven all- around world championship titles between 1991 and 1998, and Bonnie Blair of the United States, who won a total of five Olympic gold medals in the 1988, 1992, and 1994 Olympics. Blair was also the first woman to skate 500 meters in less than 39 seconds. What does the article mainly want to tell us
A. History of skating.
B. Development of skating.
C. Skating tendencies.
D. Skating.