The world is going through the biggest wave of mergers and acquisitions ever witnessed. The process sweeps from hyperactive Amer

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问题     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. 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, for instance, after the reforms of the early 1990s, multinationals 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.
    I believe that the most important forces behind the massive M&A wave are the same that underlie the globalization process: falling transportation and communication costs, lower trade and investment barriers and enlarged markets that require enlarged operations capable of meeting customer’s demands. All these are beneficial, not detrimental, to consumers. As productivity grows, the world’s wealth increases.
    Examples of benefits or costs of the current concentration wave are scanty. Yet it is hard to imagine that the merger of a few oil firms today could recreate the same threats to competition that were feared nearly a century ago in the U.S., when the Standard Oil 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—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, Some experts warned against the megamergers 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 infringements to fair competition? And should one country take upon itself the role of "defending competition" on issues that affect many other nations?
According to the author, one of the driving forces behind M&A wave is________.

选项 A、the greater customer demands
B、a surplus supply for the market
C、a growing productivity
D、the increase of the world’s wealth

答案A

解析 根据本题关键词M&A wave,答案定位到第三段。本题问的是并购浪潮的主要动力之一是什么。根据第三段第一句的falling transportation and communication costs, lower trade and investment barriers and enlarged markets that require enlarged operations capable of meeting customer’s demands可知,企业并购浪潮的动力有三个:下降的运输和通讯的成本,较低的贸易和投资壁垒,消费者不断增长的需求促使市场的扩大,选项A与第三个动力含义相同,是正确选项。选项B正反混淆,文章说的是扩大市场以满足消费者的需求(enlarged markets…meeting customer’s demands),而该选项说的是市场供给过剩,供给和需求是相对应的两个方面。选项C、D正反混淆,第三段第三句说的是:并购推动生产力发展,从而使世界财富增长。所以,生产力增长和世界财富的增长是并购所带来的结果,并不是其动力(即原因)。第三段:三个动力推动企业并购,其结果有利于消费者和世界财富的增长。
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