passage4

注解：標(biāo)題為紅色，翻譯為藍(lán)色，分析為綠色。

? ? ? ? ? The world is going through the biggest wave of mergers and acquisitions ever witnessed. The process sweeps from hyperactive America to Europe and reaches the emerging countries with unsurpassed might【might強(qiáng)大力量】. Many in these countries are looking at this process and worrying:"Won't the wave of business concentration turn into an uncontrollable anti-competitive force?"? ? ?

????????????There's no question that the big are getting bigger and more powerful.Multinational corporations accounted for less than 20% of international trade in 1982. Today the figure is more than 25% and growing rapidly. International affiliates account for a fast-growing segment of production in economies that open up and welcome foreign investment. In Argentina阿根廷, for instance, after the reforms of the early 1990s, multinationals跨國公司went from 43% to almost 70% of the industrial production of the 200 largest firms. This phenomenon has created serious concerns over the role of smaller economic firms, of national businessmen and over the ultimate stability of the world economy.

【firm公司，film電影】

????????????I believe that the most important forces behind the massive M&A【M&A指第一段提及的mergers and acquisitions】 wave are the same that underlie【構(gòu)成……的基礎(chǔ)】?the globalization process: falling transportation and communication costs, lower trade and investment barriers and enlarged markets that require enlarged operations capable of meeting customers' demands. All these are beneficial, not detrimental有害的, to consumers. As productivity grows, the world's wealth increases.

????????Examples of benefits or costs of the current concentration wave are scanty稀少的. Yet it is hard to imagine that the merger of a few oil firms today could re-create the same threats to【threat to {noun}對...的威脅，treat to?{verb}做..來款待】 competition that were feared nearly a century ago in the U.S., when the Standard 0il trust was broken up. The mergers of telecom companies, such as WorldCom, hardly seem to bring higher prices for consumers or a reduction in the?pace of technical progress. On the contrary, the price of communications is coming down fast. In cars, too, concentration is increasing-witness Daimler and Chrysler, Renault and Nissan【戴姆勒與克萊斯勒，雷諾與尼桑（都是美國汽車品牌名）】-but it does not appear that consumers are being hurt.

????????????Yet the fact remains that the merger movement must be watched.A few weeks ago, Alan Greenspan warned against the megamergers強(qiáng)強(qiáng)聯(lián)合【指大規(guī)模的企業(yè)合并】 in the banking industry. Who is going to supervise, regulate and operate as lender of last resort with the gigantic banks that are being created? Won't multinationals shift production from one place to another when a nation gets too strict about?【strict?about?嚴(yán)格的】infringements侵犯 to fair competition? And should one country take upon itself the role of "defending competition"on issues that affect many other nations, as in the U S. vs. Microsoft case?

一、文章結(jié)構(gòu)分析

本文是關(guān)于企業(yè)兼并與收購的一篇文章。作者從目前的兼并與收購浪潮現(xiàn)象著手，分析其產(chǎn)生的原因及帶來的影響。

第一段：首句提出世界正在經(jīng)歷一場兼并與收購浪潮，段尾以問句的方式提出文章主題：

這種兼并是否會演變成一種無法控制的反競爭力量？

第二段：用數(shù)據(jù)證明了企業(yè)合并形式之一，即跨國公司貿(mào)易的增長。

第三段：解釋了造成企業(yè)合并現(xiàn)象的原因。

第四段：分析了合并熱潮的影響，認(rèn)為它沒有給消費(fèi)和技術(shù)進(jìn)步帶來危害，還有可能使世界財富增長。該段論證中既進(jìn)行推理也使用了例證。

第五段：第一句為本段主題，即：人們對這種兼并還需要加以注意。論證中使用較多反意疑問句以加強(qiáng)語氣。

33.What is the typical trend of businesses today?

[A] to take in more foreign funds.

[B] to invest more abroad.

[C] to combine and become bigger.

[D] to trade with more countries.

33.當(dāng)今企業(yè)發(fā)展的主要趨勢是？

【A】吸收更多外資

【B】更多地向海外投資

【C】合并并且變得更龐大

【D】與更多國家做生意

34. According to the author, one of the driving forces behind M&A wave is ____

[A] the greater customer demands.

[B] a surplus supply for the market.

[C] a growing productivity.

[D] the increase of the world's wealth.

?34.按照作者觀點(diǎn)，推動合并和收購浪潮的動力之一是______.。

【A】顧客更大的需求

【B】對市場的供給過分充裕

【C】日益增長的生產(chǎn)率

【D】世界財富的增長

35.From paragraph 4 we can infer that______.

[A] the increasing concentration is certain to hurt consumers?

[B] WorldCom serves as a good example of both benefits and costs?

[C] the costs of the globalization process are enormous?

[D] the Standard 0il trust might have threatened competition

35.從第4段中，可以推斷出__________。

【A】日益增長的合并浪潮肯定會損害顧客的利益

【B】世界通信公司是關(guān)于合并并且利弊兼有的一個很好的例子

【C】全球化過程成本巨大

【D】標(biāo)準(zhǔn)石油聯(lián)合公司可能對競爭形成過威脅

36. Toward the new business wave, the writer's attitude can he said to be ________.

[A] optimistic

[B] objective?

[C] pessimistic

[D] biased

36.作者對新出現(xiàn)的企業(yè)合并浪潮的態(tài)度是_________。

【A】樂觀的

【B】客觀的

【C】悲觀的

【D】有偏見的

二、核心詞匯與超綱詞匯

（1）affiliate（n./v.）分公司，附屬機(jī)構(gòu)；使附屬于

（2）detrimental（a.）不利的。~to...對……不利的

（3）hyperactive（a.）極其活躍的；

hyper是一詞綴，常與形容詞或名詞結(jié)合，意為“過度的”，

如：hypercritical吹毛求疵的

（4）infringement（n.）侵害

（5）megamerger（n.）大型合并；

mega-是一詞綴，意為“大，強(qiáng)”，

如megacity特大城市

（6）merger（n.）合并，歸并；

acquisition獲得，收購

（7）take upon oneself承擔(dān)

（8）warn against 告誡、提防（不要做某事）；

warn sb.of sth.提醒某人某事

三、閱讀答案：C A D B

四、全文翻譯：?

????????????世界正在經(jīng)歷一場從未見過的巨大的并購浪潮。這個浪潮從異?；钴S的美國席卷到歐洲，并以不可比擬的威力影響到正在崛起的國家。這些國家的許多人看著這個浪潮，憂慮著：“企業(yè)合并的浪潮會不會產(chǎn)生一種無法控制的反競爭力量？”

????????????無疑，大企業(yè)正在變得更大、更強(qiáng)?？鐕驹?982年只占有國際貿(mào)易不到20%的份額。目前，這個數(shù)字上升到25%，并且還在迅速上升。在那些對外開放并歡迎外資的國家的經(jīng)濟(jì)中，國際分公司在國民生產(chǎn)中形成一個快速增長的部門。例如，在阿根廷，經(jīng)過90年代初的改革之后，跨國公司在200家大型企業(yè)的工業(yè)生產(chǎn)中從43%增加到幾乎70%。這個現(xiàn)象使得人們非常擔(dān)憂小型企業(yè)，民族資本的作用，也使得人們對世界經(jīng)濟(jì)的最終穩(wěn)定產(chǎn)生了憂慮。

????????????我認(rèn)為，推動這次巨大的并購浪潮的最主要的力量，也是推動全球化進(jìn)程的力量，就是運(yùn)輸與通訊費(fèi)用的降低，貿(mào)易與投資障礙的減少，以及市場的擴(kuò)大和為滿足市場需求的生產(chǎn)的擴(kuò)大。所有這些對消費(fèi)者來說都有益而無害。隨著生產(chǎn)力的提高，世界的財富也就增長了。

????????????目前這場合并浪潮的利與弊并無多少實例。但是很難想象當(dāng)今的幾個石油公司的合并能夠重新造成100年前美國標(biāo)準(zhǔn)石油公司被解散時人們擔(dān)心它對競爭造成的威脅。通訊公司的合并，如世界通訊公司，似乎沒有給消費(fèi)者帶來更高的價格，或者滯緩了技術(shù)進(jìn)步的速度。在汽車行業(yè)，合并也同樣在增加，看看戴姆勒與克萊斯勒，雷諾與尼桑，但仿佛消費(fèi)者并未受到傷害。

????????????但是事實仍然是，合并運(yùn)動必須受到嚴(yán)密監(jiān)視。幾星期以前，格林斯潘對銀行業(yè)的大規(guī)模合并發(fā)出了警告。如果如此巨大的銀行出現(xiàn)，誰來充當(dāng)最終的借貸者，發(fā)揮監(jiān)督、管理和運(yùn)作的作用？當(dāng)一個國家對破壞公平競爭的行為的處理過于嚴(yán)格時，跨國公司會不會把它們的產(chǎn)業(yè)從一個地方轉(zhuǎn)到另一個地方？在事情將影響所有國家的情況下，一個國家是否應(yīng)該獨(dú)自擔(dān)負(fù)起“保護(hù)競爭”的責(zé)任，如美國政府訴訟微軟公司的案件？