2012職稱英語綜合類A級真題及答案
發布時間：2012-11-23 共6頁
- 第1頁：第1部分：詞匯選項
- 第2頁：第2分：閱讀判斷
- 第3頁：第3部分：概括大意
第3部分：概括大意和完成句子(第23~30題，每題1分，共8分)
下面的短文后有2項測試任務：(1)第23~26題要求從所給的6個選項中為指定段落每段選擇1個小標題;(2)第27~30題要求從所給的6個選項中為每個句子確定一個最佳選項。
How technology pushes down price
The Treaty of Breda, signed in 1667 after a war between the English and Dutch in which the English were worsted, gave the Dutch the big prize: Run, a small island in the Indonesian archipelago which was the world's principal source of nutmeg. The margin on nutmeg at the time was around 3,200%. The English, as a consolation prize, got Manhattan. As an illustration of the long-term fall in food prices compared with other goods, that is a sharp one. But deflation has characterized the food business for centuries, because of continual advances in food production and distribution technology.
Consumers have benefited greatly from those advances. Malthusians, whose descendants until quite recently predicted that the world would run out of food, have thereby been confounded. More and more food is being produced by fewer and fewer people with less and less capital; it is therefore ever more plentiful and cheaper. Since demand is to some extent limited by the size of people's stomachs, spending on food compared with other goods has been falling for many years, and continues to drop (see chart 4).
Genetically modified (GM) seeds are the latest manifestation of a production revolution that started www.haxgd.comarkets to develop. Supermarkets have helped push dowww.haxgd.compared www.haxgd.comong retailers has led to another stage in the shift in power down the food chain. Once upon a time, power lay with landlords. In the 20th century, as processing and distribution became more important, so did the food producers. Lord Haskins, Tony Blair's adviser on farming, recalls going to food industry conferences in the 1970s, when there would be a line of Rolls-Royces outside, all belonging to producers.
Retailer concentration has shifted powww.haxgd.commercial director. “If you're a sub-global brand, life's much harder.”The shift in power to retailers has put pressure on producers' margins, hence huge programmes of cuts. Since 2000, Uni-lever has cut its workforce by 33,000 to 245,000 and dropped lots of minor brands as part of its “path to growth” strategy. Cadbury is the latest to announce big cuts: in October it said that it will be shutting 20% of its 133 factories and cutting 10% of its 55,000 global workforce. These cuts should help keep costs, and thus the price of food, low.Does cheap food make people unhealthy? In some ways. Hydrogenated vegetable oil, for instance—vegetable fat made solid by adding hydrogen atoms—is the nutritionists' current bête noire. Widely used as a cheap substitute for butter and cream, it is the main dietary source of trans fats. Trans fats are heavily implicated in heart disease; companies are taking them out of products for fear of lawsuits.Cheap food may also make people eat more. In a paper entitled “Why have Americans become more obese?” David Cutler, Jesse Shapiro and Edward Glaeser, a group of Harvard economists, note that, among OECD countries, obesity is correlated to the level of regulation: the more food laws, the more protected local producers are, the harder it is to import technology, the slimmer people tend to be. They reckon that is because of price: the less regulated a country, the cheaper a Big Mac tends to be. But it could be another factor: heavily regulated countries might, for instance, be places with stronger family ties where real meals have survived and people eat fewer snacks and less fast food.
Giving people bigger portions is an easy www.haxgd.companies are under pressure to stop selling people more for less. But it is a hard trend to reverse, as Mr Lombardi points out. “How about I give you a third less food for $1 less? I don't think so.”
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A. Huge retailers force producers to cunt costs
B. Consumers like supermarkets
C. Technology helps reduce food prices
D. Food comes cheaper in larger portions
E. Chain stores provide better service
F. Bigger supermarkets offer lower prices
27. Big supermarkets can offer food at lower prices because they can buy in___
28. Some food producers have reduced___
29. Besides cutting its workforce, unilever also abandoned its___
30. Buyers like bigger portion because they think they have got___
A. their workforce
B. huge portions
C. large quantities
D. their money
E. a good barging
F. minor brands
答案：23.C technology helps reduce food prices24. F bigger supermarkets offer lower prices25. A. Huge retailers force producers to cut costs26.D. food comes cheaper in larger portions27. Big supermarkets can offer food at lower prices because they can buy ___.答案為C: in bulk = in large quantities28. Some forced producers have reduced ___答案為F。minor brands29.Besides cutting its cost, Unilever also abandoned its ____答案為A. their workforce 30.Buyers like big portions because they think they have got ___.答案為E。a good bargain = a better deal
