Reading comprehension (35 minutes)
Passage One
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.
Just five one-hundredths of an inch thick, light golden in color and with a perfect “saddle curl,” the Lay’s potato chip seems an unlikely weapon for global domination. But its maker. Frito-Lay. Thinks otherwise.” Potato chips are a snack food for the world,” said Salman Amin, the company’s head of global marketing. Amin believes there is no corner of the world that can resist the charms of a Frito-Lay potato chip. Frito-Lay is the biggest snack maker in America. owned by PepsiCo. And accounts for over half of the parent company’s $3 billion annual profits. But the U.S. snack food market is largely saturated, and to grow. the company has to look overseas. Its strategy rests on two beliefs: first a global product offers economies of scale with which local brands cannot compete. And second, consumers in the 21st century are drawn to “global” as a concept. ”Global” does not mean products that are consciously identified as American, but ones than consumes-especially young people-see as part of a modem, innovative(创新的)world in which people are linked across cultures by shared beliefs and tastes. Potato chips are an American invention, but most Chinese, for instance, do not know than Frito-Lay is an American company. Instead, Riskey, the company’s research and development head, would hope they associate the brand with the new world of global communications and business. With brand perception a crucial factor, Riskey ordered a redesign of the Frito-Lay logo(标识).The logo, along with the company’s long-held marketing image of the “irresistibility” of its chips. would help facilitate the company’s global expansion. The executives acknowledge that they try to swing national eating habits to a food created in America, but they deny that amounts to economic imperialism. Rater, they see Frito-Lay as spreading the benefits of free enterprise across the world. “We’re making products in those countries, we’re adapting them to the tastes of those countries, building businesses and employing people and changing lives,” said Steve Reinemund, PepsiCo’s chief executive. 【題組】26Passage Two
Question 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
In communities north of Denver, residents are pitching in to help teachers and administrators as the Vrain school District tries to solve a $13.8 million budget shortage blamed on mismanagement. ”We’re worried about our teachers and principals, and we really don’t want to lose them because of this,” one parent sail. “If we can help ease their financial burden, we will. ” Teachers are grateful, but know it may be years before the district is solvent(有综合能力的). They feel really good about the parent support, but they realize it’s impossible for then to solve this problem. The 22,000-student district discovered the shortage last month. “It’s extraordinary. Nobody would have imagined something happening like this at this level,” said State Treasurer Mike Coffman. Coffman and district officials last week agreed on a state emergency plan freeing yp a $9.8 million loan that enabled the payroll(工资单) to be met for 2,700 teachers and staff in time for the holidays. District officials also took $1.7 million from student-activity accounts its 38schools. At Coffman’s request, the District Attorney has begun investigating the district’s finances. Coffman says he wants to know whether district officials hid the budget shortage until after the November election., when voters approved a $212 million bond issue for schools. In Frederick, students’ parents are buying classroom supplies and offering to pay for groceries and utilities to keep first-year teachers and principals in their jobs. Some $36,000 has been raised in donations from Safeway. A Chevrolet dealership donated $10,000 and forgave the district’s $10,750 bill for renting the driver educating cars. IBM contributed 4,500 packs of paper. “We employ thousands of people in this community,” said Mitch Carson, a hospital chief executive, who helped raise funds. “We have children in the school, and we see how they could be affected.” At Creek High School, three students started a website that displays newspaper articles, district information and an email forum(论坛)。 “Rumors about what’s happening to the district are moving at lighting speed,” said a student. “We wanted to know the truth, and spread that around instead.”
.What has happened to the Vrain School District?
(A)A huge financial problem has arisen.
(B)Many schools there are mismanaged.
(C)Lots of teachers in the district are planning to quit.
(D)Many administrative personnel have been laid off.
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