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
A、Financial problems. B、Boredom. C、Fatigue. D、Lack of insurance schemes. D
A、Financial problems. B、Boredom. C、Fatigue. D、Lack of insurance schemes. D
admin
2011-02-11
24
问题
Chairperson: Good evening ladles and gentlemen. It’s nice to see so many of you here. Well, I’d like to introduce our two guests this evening: Mr. Andrew Frobisher, who has spent many years in Malaysia in the 1950s and 60s and knows the country very well indeed. And, on my right, Mr. Harry Benson who’s an agricultural economist.
Benson: Good evening.
Frobisher: Good evening.
Chairperson: Well, erm ... the purpose of this evening is to find out more about that fascinating substance, rubber, and the effects that it has on that fascinating country, Malaysia, Erm erm ... I believe erm ... er Mr. Frohisher, erm ... that Malaysia is at the same time an extremely rich and rather poor country. Erm ... how is this possible?
Frobisher: Yes, well, that’s quite true, Monica. Malaysia’s population is by now over 13 million, and er per head o... on paper the citizens are richer than those of the UK. But...
Benson: But of course that wealth is not so evenly distributed. In fact in 1981, it was estimated that 37% of the population were below the poverty line...
Frobisher: Yeah, well ... whatever that means ... and anyway shouldn’t it be, er, was below the poverty line.
Benson: Yes, of course. Sorry, Andrew.
Frobisher: Yes, well, erm ... as I was saying, much of Malaysia’s wealth is based on rubber. Now I remember my planting days...
Benson: Yes, yes, yes, you’re quite right there Andrew. Rubber represents about 20% of the Gross National Product and 30% of export earnings. This puts Malaysia in a very good position internationally since rubber is an example of what we might call a "post-industrial industry".
Frobisher: Well, what do you mean by that?
Benson: Er ... excuse me ... yes, what does that mean?
Frobisher: What is a pest-industrial erm ... society?
Benson: Manufacturing industries are based on fossil fuels, for example, coal and oil. Now, the problem is that these will not last forever. They are finite. Sooner or later they will run out! Now, rubber is a natural product. The energy source involved in its creation is sunlight. Now sunlight, we hope, will outlast coal and oil, and best of all, sunlight is free. So, it is much cheaper to produce natural rubber which as we all know comes from trees, than to use up all those fossil fuels, both as fuels and as raw materials, in making synthetic rubber in factories. Rubber is one of the world’s strategic products, so you can see what a good position Malaysia is in, and it would help if she could produce more...
Chairperson: Er ... well, what stands in the way then?
Frobisher: Ah, well, well it’s the way they go about cultivating it. You see, I remember in my day just after...
Benson: Yes, most people have this image of vast estates, centrally run, but that’s just not the case, even if almost a quarter of the population is involved, one way or another, with the production of rubber ...
Frobisher: Yeah well, that’s if you count the families...
Benson: Oh, yes, yes, yes, almost 3 million people are involved, but the picture is a very fragmented one. Do you realize that there are 2 million hectares of land under cultivation for rubber in Malaysia, but that 70% of this area is divided among smallholders-half a million of them-who between them produce 60% of the country’ s rubber?
Frobisher: Well, there’s nothing wrong with that i ... in terms of quality of life, though I remember, yes, quite right ... just after the war there was...
Benson: Yes, quite right. But being a smallholder does present problems. For example, when it comes to replacing old trees-you’ll know about this, Andrew-and the average useful life of a rubber tree is about 30 years, this can cause financial problems for the small farmer. The problem is being tackled, however, by some very enlightened insurance schemes available to the smallholder which can give him help through the difficult year. After all, the new trees take some years to mature and start producing rubber.
Frobisher: Yes, indeed they do. I ... I ...
Benson: Look, I’ve got an overhead projection here, which I think will be useful to make the various problems and their solutions dearer to us all.
Frobisher: Overhead projection. There wasn’t anything wrong with the blackboard in my time, you know...
Benson: No, but this is clearer and neater and up-to-date. So, here you see a summary of the position of rubber in Malaysia’s economy and here is the first problem, and the solution that has been found through these insurance schemes.
Chairperson: Hm, yes, I see. That’s really very clear.
Benson: Now for the second and really major problem.
Frobiseher: And may I ask what that is?
Benson: Boredom and fatigue.
Frobisher: Boredom and fatigue? What?
Chairperson: What do you mean by that?
Benson: Well, as with so many societies, the young people are leaving the land for the cities, leaving no one behind to carry on their parents’ business. The root cause seems to be simple, boredom. Rubber is just not that entertaining a product to be involved with. It is labour-intensive in the extreme. Each tree on a plantation has to be tapped, by hand, every other day.
Chairperson: Tapped?
Benson: Yes.
Frobisher: Yes, well, we...
选项
A、Financial problems.
B、Boredom.
C、Fatigue.
D、Lack of insurance schemes.
答案
D
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/hGYO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
NowadaysmanynovelsareadaptedintofilmsorTVplays.Whatdoyouthinkoffilmadaptationsofliterature?Writeacommentof
"IfWintercomes,canSpringbefarbehind?"isanepigrammaticlineby______.
Foraclearerpictureofwhatthestudentknows,mostofteachersuse【M1】_______anotherkindofexaminationinadditionto
A、Theawardispaiddirecttoacollege.B、Theawardinvolvestuitionandothercoursefees.C、Theawardispaiddirecttolocal
Proponentsofdifferentjazzstyleshavealwaysarguedthattheirpredecessors,musicalstyledidnotincludeessentialcharacte
Proponentsofdifferentjazzstyleshavealwaysarguedthattheirpredecessors,musicalstyledidnotincludeessentialcharacte
JapaneseattackedthePearlHarborin______.
当大痛苦来临时,就没有时间流泪了。当天地真正寒冷时,人们就彼此靠近了。对于死亡,对于悲剧,既然无法挽回、无法逃避,就只有面对,往好处想:“我在故我思”。每次看到地震后光秃秃的山头,我就想,那上面会由人们种出更蓊郁的森林。每次看到废墟的画面,
从20世纪下半叶起,英语作为全球通用语言的地位进一步得到巩固和发展。英语已经不再是非英语国家和英语国家的人们进行交流时的工具,而更多地成为非英语国家之间的人们进行沟通的共用语言。英语在非英语国家的发展已经造成了许多带有浓厚地域特色的变体,它们的诞生已经或将
A、$148million.B、$227million.C、$59.3million.D、$55.8million.C本题为细节题。根据原文(With$59.3milliononopeningdayFriday,Sony’s
随机试题
失望的情感表现为()
白术适宜何种出汗
患者女,42岁。发现“风湿性瓣膜病6年”,2周前因感冒出现呼吸困难,咳嗽,不能平卧。查体:半卧位,颈静脉充盈,双肺底湿性啰音,心率125次/分,心律不齐,心尖区舒张期杂音,肝肋下0.5cm,下肢轻度水肿。其麻醉处理正确的是
患者男性,65岁,吸烟30年,有高血脂、冠心病,血压升高6年,最高达160/90mmHg。眼底检查为眼底出血、棉絮状渗出,符合患者女性,60岁,血压升高17年,最高达200/120mmHg。眼底检查为出血、渗出物伴视乳头水肿,符合
小儿厌食脾胃气虚的治疗原则是()
下列关于期货交易所监督和管理的说法,正确的有()。
人以知识经验为基础对感知的事物加以处理,并做出解释或判断的信息组织加工过程是()
当线性表的元素总数基本稳定,且很少进行插入和删除操作,但要求以很快的速度存取线性表的数据元素时,应采用【】存储结构。
对考生文件夹下WC)RD.DOC文档中的文字进行编辑、排版和保存,具体要求如下:【文档开始】第二代计算机网络——多个计算机互联的网络20世纪60年代末出现了多个计算机互联的计算机网络,这种网络将分散在小同地点的计算机经通信线路
Onecalledherbossa"bitchfromhell"whileanotheradmitted"lyingthroughhisteeth"atinterview.BoththeBritishjob【B1】_
最新回复
(
0
)