閱讀 B?

SECTION B SKIMMING AND SCANNING (10 min)?
In this section there are seven passages with ten multiple-choice questions. Ski m or scan them as required and then mark your answers on your Coloured Answer Sheet.?

TEXT E?
First read the question.?

31. The primary purpose of the letter is to ___.?
A. illustrate the World Bank’s efforts in poverty-relief programmes?
B. call for further efforts by nations in sustainable development?
C. provide evidence for the World Bank’s aid to the private sectors?
D. clear up some misunderstanding about the World Bank?

Now go through TEXT E quickly to answer question 31.??
August 18th 199 ?

Dear Sir,?

In your July 28th article you noted that the Bank’s own internal analysis r ated one third of the projects completed in 1991 as unsatisfactory. But that sta tement fails to take account of the Bank’s criteria for ‘success’, which are exc eptionally strict. For instance, before a project can be considered successful, it must have at least a 10% rate of return. This rate is far higher than the min imum demanded by many bilateral aid donors, many of which require a return of on ly 5% or 6%. Thus, projects rated unsatisfactory under the Bank’s standards sti ll yield many benefits.?

You imply that, because it deals mainly with governments, the Bank does not sufficiently support private sector development. Here are the facts. The World?

Bank has:?

　　supported reforms in mere than 80 countries aimed at opening up trade, making p rices realistic and dismantling state monopolies which stifle individual enterpr ise nvested in infrastructure to facilitate business activity; assisted and advised over 200 privatization-related operations involving nearly US $ 25 billion in loans; provided mere than US $ 12 billion through an affiliate, the International Fina nce Corp. over the last 30 years to mere than 1,000 private companies in the dev eloping world; and through another affiliate, the Multi lateral Investment Guara ntee Agency, offered insurance against non-commercial risk to encourage foreign investment in poor countries.?

　　The record shows that, over the past generation, more progress has been mad e in reducing poverty and raising living standards than during any other compara ble period in history. In the developing countries:  life expectancy has been increased from 40 to 63 years; infant mortality has been reduced by 50% ;and per capita income has doubled.?

　　The World Bank consistently stresses that most of the credit for these adva nces should go to the countries themselves. Nevertheless, the Bank and organizat ions with which it collaborates-bilateral and international agencies and non-gov ernmental organizations-have played a valuable role in this progress. In the fut ure the Bank will continue to do its utmost to support its member countries in t heir efforts to achieve sustainable development.??

(LEANDRO V. CORONEL 
?Public Affairs?

The Worm Bank?

Washington)?
?
TEXT F?
First read the question.?

32. The author’s main argument is that ___.?
A. most farmers in developing countries face unemployment?
B. developing countries need agricultural aid to boost economy?
C. agricultural aid hints the economy in developing countries?
D. a well-developed agricultural sector provides a domestic market?

　　Now go through TEXT F quickly to answer question 32.?

　　Ours is an agrarian economy. We must become serf-sufficient in food to feed a rapidly growing population at an annual growth rate of more than 3 million pe ople. A well-developed agricultural sector would offset the need for food import and play an important role in the development process by providing a home marke t for the products of the industrial sector. This implies that the rate of indus trialization itself depends upon how fast agricultural incomes are rising. Devel opment in the agricultural sector in our country means a rise in the income leve l of 70 percent of the population who are related to this sector. Their increase d income in turn will give us mere voluntary savings and investment and thus a s ource of revenue through taxation and potential capital formation by the governm ent plus reduction in income inequalities between the urban population and rural masses. In this sense, aid received in the form of agricultural commodities hur ts the developing countries and benefits developed countries mere than proportio nately. Because most of the farmers in developing countries are already at a mer e subsistence level with a high rate of unemployment, disguised-unemployment and underemployment.?

　　The Chinese experience with rural development has demonstrated that agricu ltural modernization via labour-intensive techniques is a highly promising way t o create extra jobs without extensive geographic displacement of the farmers. Re garding the impact of transfer of agricultural commodities on the long-term grow th rate in the recipient country, it can be said that transfer of agricultural c ommodities under confessional terms may resuit in an ultimate lowering of the re cipient countries long-term growth rate.

TEXT G?
First read the question.?

33. The passage is most probably from ___.?
A. a review of a book on cowboys?
B. a study of cowboy work culture?
C. a novel about cowboy life and culture?
D. a school textbook on the cowboy history?

　　Now go through TEXT G quickly to answer question 33.?
　　A cowboy is defined by the work that he does. Any man can lay claim to that name if he lives on a ranch and works—— drives, brands, castrates, or murmurs ——a cattleman’s herd. In addition, working accounts for ways in which cowboy s portray themselves in their art: in 19th-century poems that they orally compose d and sang on the ranch, in 20th-century poems that they write, in books that th ey publish, and in art objects that they fashion, cowboys always represent thems elves as engaging in some form of labour. This book’s three fold purpose is, fi r st, to look at art that cowboys produce——art, that has never been studied befo re——and, second, to demonstrate that cowboy art values historically document l abour routines that cowboys have traditionally acted out in their work culture.?

　　I use the term work culture not only to suggest that cowboys are defined b y the work that they do, but also to argue that they are serf-represented in cul ture by poems, prose, and art that ail reveal cowboys to be men who are cultural ly unified by engaging in labour routines that they think of as cowboy work. Art deals with cowboy work, as well as with concerns about economics, gender, relig ion, and literature, even though these thoughts sometimes express themselves as concerns about cattle branding, livestock castration, and other tasks. The book ’ s third and most important function is, therefore, to show that artistic self-re presentations of labour also formulate systems of thought which cowboys use as a metaphor for discussing economies, gender, religion, and literature, sometimes equating branding with religious salvation, at other t imes defining spur making as freedom, and so on.??

TEXT H?
First read the question.?

34. The writer of this letter attempts to ___ the views in the editorial.?
A. refute
B. illustrate
C. support
D. substantiate
?
Now go through TEXT H quickly to answer question 34.?
October 3rd 199 ?

Dear Sir,?

　　In your editorial on August 31st, there seems to be some confused thinking in attempting to establish a direct relationship between the desire of the OAA airlines to negotiate more equitable agreements with the United States for air-t raffic rights and the cost of air travel for the public.?

　　It is simply untrue that the Asian carriers are not looking for increased access to the U.S. market, including its domestic market; they are, as part of b alanced agreements that provide equality of opportunity. So long as the U. S. ta kes the inequitable arrangements enshrined in current agreements as a starting p oint for negotiation, however, there is no chance that U.S. carriers will be gra nted more regional rights which further unbalance the economic opportunities ava ilable to each side. Most importantly from the consumer viewpoint, it has yet to be demonstrated that in those regional sectors where U.S. carriers currently op erate-such as Hong Kong/Tokyo-they have added anything in terms of price, qualit y of service, innovation or seat availability in peak seasons.?

　　Turning to cost, I am not sure to which Merrill Larrych study you are referri ng, but it would be simplistic to compare seat-mile costs of narrow-body operati on over U. S. domestic sectors with wide-body operation over international secto rs; comparative studies of seat-mile costs are valid only if they compare simila r aircraft operating over identical sectors. On this basis, International Civil Aviation Organization figures show that Asian carriers are highly competitive. O f course, given its operating environment Japan Air Lines will have high seat-mi le costs, while a carrier based in Southeast Asia, such as Singapore Airlines, w ill have relatively low costs. But it is a fallacy to assume this means ‘higher ticket prices or higher taxes’ for the ‘hapless Asian air traveller’ if he travels on JAL.??

　　The Japanese carriers have to compete in the Asian marketplace with others, and costs cannot simply be passed on to the consumer or taxpayer. The people wh o really pay the price or reap the reward of differing cost levels are the share holders.?

(RICHARD. T. STIRLAND?

Director General?

Orient Airlines Association?