Europe is desperate to succeed in business. Two years ago, the European Union’s Lisbon summit set a goal of becoming the world’s

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问题     Europe is desperate to succeed in business. Two years ago, the European Union’s Lisbon summit set a goal of becoming the world’s leading economy by 2010. But success, as any new-age executive coach might tell you, requires confronting the fear of failure. That is why Europe’s approach to bankruptcy urgently needs reform.
    In Europe, as in the United States, many heavily indebted companies are shutting up shop just as the economy begins to recover. Ironically, the upturn is often the moment when weak firms finally fail. But America’s failures have a big advantage over Europe’s weaklings: their country’s more relaxed approach to bankruptcy.
    In the United States the Chapter 11 law makes going bust an orderly and even routine process. Firms in trouble simply apply for breathing space from creditors. Managers submit a plan of reorganization to a judge, and creditors decide whether to give it a go or to come up with one of their own. Creditors have a say in whether to keep the firm running, or to liquidate it. If they keep it running, they often end up with a big chunk of equity, if not outright control.
    But shutting a bust European company is harder in two other ways. First, with no equivalent of Chapter 11, bankruptcy forces companies to stop trading abruptly. That damages the value of the creditors’ potential assets, and may also cause havoc for customers. Second, a company that trades across the European Union will find that it has to abide by different bankruptcy laws in the 15 member states, whose courts and administrators may make conflicting and sometimes incompatible stipulations.
    The absence of provision for negotiations between companies and creditors increases the temptation for government to step in. When governments do not come to the rescue, the lack of clear rules can lead to chaos. As a result of all this, Europe’s teetering firms miss the chance to become more competitive by selling assets to others who might manage them more efficiently. Their sickly American rivals survive, transformed, to sweep the field.
    An opportunity now exists to think again about Europe’s approach to bankruptcy. The European Union is expected to issue a new directive on the subject in May. Germany has begun to update its insolvency law. And last year Britain produced a white paper saying that a rigid approach to bankruptcy could stifle the growth needed to meet Lisbon’s goals.

选项 A、to strive for the lead in the world’s economy.
B、to subject more companies to bankruptcy.
C、to revise an approach to bankrupt stipulations.
D、to have advantage over American firms.

答案A

解析 题干问:"欧联邦在里斯本的最高会议的目的是…"。本题考查的是文章的背景。从文章第一句看出,他们的目的是"想得到世界经济的主导地位"。而选项"让更多公司破产"不符合原文题意,"改变破产的方法"不是里斯本最高会议的目标,"比美国公司更具有优势"在原文有提及,但不符合本题题意。
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