首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
You will hear a talk given by a spokesman of the U. S. International Communication Department. He talks about a number of privat
You will hear a talk given by a spokesman of the U. S. International Communication Department. He talks about a number of privat
admin
2013-01-18
68
问题
You will hear a talk given by a spokesman of the U. S. International Communication Department. He talks about a number of privately owned telephone discounters attacking the cartel of national telephone monopolies that keeps the price of international calls high.
You have to complete the sentences (23—30) by choosing the correct ending. Mark one letter (A, B or C).
For decades the world’s telephone companies, nearly all state-owned monopolies, have jointly set the rates for international calls. Now a handful of nimble, privately owned telephone discounters are using loopholes in regulations written to protect national telephone monopolies to undercut the cartel’s high prices. Eventually, that could lead to the break-up of the cartel itself.
The small firms leading the trend are interesting for the way they do business rather than for the amount of business they do.
But because their activities expose monopoly overpricing so dramatically, they could help to bring about changes that are vastly out of proportion to their size.
The American market for international calls is more open to competition than those of most other countries, so calls out of America are usually far cheaper than the calls into it. The discounters exploit this difference by routing calls from foreign subscribers to computerized switches in America, undercutting normal rates by a third or more.
One technique, known as "ring-back", involves giving a customer in, say, Paris a free telephone number to a computerized switch in America. When the customer calls, the switch automatically calls him back and puts him through to his American destination. Since the call technically originates with the switch, France Telecom’s monopoly on outgoing calls remains unbroken but the caller in Paris is charged American rates.
A second technique, called "third-country calling", involves routing international calls via America to take advantage of cheap American rates on the second leg of the journey. On intercontinental calls the saving is usually so great that it more than makes up for the extra distance travelled.
One of the best-known discounters, 5/2 year old, International Discount Telecommunications (IDT), uses third-country calling to provide calls between countries whose own telephone companies are not on speaking terms, such as Syria and Israel, and Iraq and Kuwait.
Today’s small discounters may be shortlived.
But if the small discounters do go out of business, it will be because they have launched a trend. This year, America’s established international carriers have started touting for business from overseas customers themselves. In April American Telephone & Telegraph (AT & T) launched a third-country calling service of its own. Dubbed World Connect, the service lets customers use a personal identification number to call from 45 different countries of the world via switches in America. Customers pay call charges in dollars, along with their normal domestic bills. In June AT & T’s biggest rival, MCI, launched a similar service, called World Reach. Both products supplement the firms’long-established "call-home" services, which make it easier for travelling Americans to call home.
Though AT&T and MCI both hotly deny selling international calls to foreigners explicitly, some foreign carriers certainly fear this. Neither AT&T nor MCI has been allowed to offer its new services in Japan, Australia, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Argentina or Mexico. The small discounters have run into similar problems.
选项
A、Iraq
B、Japan
C、Syria
答案
B
解析
本文中最后一段提到了几个国家,如Japan,Australia,Spa.in,Italy,Brazil,Argentina or Mexico拒绝了新业务,但是没有提到,Iraq(伊拉克)和Syria(叙利亚)。因此,只有B(日本)拒绝了AT&T的新业务。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/JczO777K
本试题收录于:
BEC中级听力题库BEC商务英语分类
0
BEC中级听力
BEC商务英语
相关试题推荐
•writeananswertooneofthequestions2-4inthispart.•Write200-250wordsontheanswerpaper.•Writethequestionnumber
•TheCustomerServicesDepartmentofyourfastfoodchainrestaurantconductedstafftraininginordertoreducethenumberofco
•Thepiechartshowsthehumanresourcescomponentsofaninternationalcompany.•Usingtheinformationfromthepiechart,wr
Thegraphsbelowshowthechangingsharepricesoftwoprivatecompanieswhichwentpublicandissuedsharesonthestockexchan
•Thebarchartsbelowshowthenumberofcomplaintsmadebyconsumersaboutdifferenttypesofproductsandservicesintheyea
Writeananswertooneofthequestions2-4inthispart.Writeyouranswerin200-250words.Question2Thenumberofstaff
ThechartbelowcomparesthenumbersofmaleandfemaleexecutivesindifferentagerangesinStarWorld,alargeITcompany.Us
Aninternationalbusinessmagazinerecentlypublishedanarticleaboutyourcompany.However,thearticlecontainedanumberof
Thegraphbelowshowsthenumberofpermanentfull-time,permanentpart-timeandtemporarycontractemployeesinasoftwaredesi
•Thegraphsbelowshowthechangingsharepricesoftwoprivatecompanieswhichwentpublicandis-suedsharesonthestockexc
随机试题
大宗货物租船订舱的提出办理时间一般应为()。
男性,45岁,间断腹痛、腹泻3年,排便4~5次/天,便不成形,无脓血、黏液,服黄连素、氟哌酸可稍缓解,近半月症状加重,大便7~8次/日,查大便常规正常。治疗哪种方法最适当
在引起产褥感染的病原体中临床最常见的是
A.检查者偏倚B.回忆偏倚C.报告偏倚D.选择性偏倚E.无应答偏倚由于某些原因受检者未接受检查而造成的偏倚是
幽门梗阻病人长期呕吐可引起的水电解质酸碱失衡的类型是()
宪法的基本特征是()
下列属于高填方路基沉降病害防治措施的是( )。
阅读下面这首诗歌,完成试题。清溪行①李白清溪清我心,水色异诸水。借问新安江②,见底何如此?人行明镜中,鸟度屏风里。向晚猩猩啼,空悲远游子。【注】①清溪
把“三个代表”重要思想确立为党的指导思想并写进党章的会议是()。
西太平洋是全球海山系统分布最为集中的海域,人类对此处海山的认识却非常有限。西太平洋的马里亚纳海沟是板块俯冲地带,海底地质运动非常活跃,海山火山岩的物质组成及成因等是海洋地质科学家感兴趣的问题;西太平洋的暖池和北赤道流等对中国气候有重要影响,是物理海洋科学家
最新回复
(
0
)