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

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?
From Paragraph 4 we can infer that________.
选项 A、the increasing concentration is certain to hurt consumers
B、WorldCom serves as a good example of both benefits and costs
C、the costs of the globalization process are enormous
D、the Standard Oil trust might have threatened competition
答案D
解析 本题属于段落定位题，答案定位到第四段，虽然题干中没有关键词，但是我们可以根据选项中的关键词逐一排除干扰项。答案来源于第四段第二句中的Yet it is hard to imagine that…that were feared nearly a century ago in the U.S., when the Standard Oil trust was broken up，其大意为：很难想象当今石油公司的合并可能会像100年前美国标准石油公司一样，对竞争造成同样的威胁，那时人们对该公司的这种担心导致了它的解散。其言外之意就是100年前美国标准石油托拉斯可能对竞争造成过威胁，因此选项D与该句含义相同，是正确选项。选项A过于绝对，根据第五句but it does not appear that consumers are being hurt可知，并购不一定会损害消费者的利益。根据第三、四句的内容：世界通信没有给消费者带来更高的价格，或者降低技术进步的速度。相反，通信的价格在迅速下降。可见文中所讲的都是关于世界通信公司合并的好的一面，并没有讲不好的一面，所以不能说both benefits and costs(利弊兼有)，因此选项B属于扩大范围。选项C来自第三段第一句的are，the same that underlie the globalization process和第四段第一句的Examples of benefits or costs of the current concentration wave are scanty，但对the globalization process (全球化过程)的具体描述在文中并没有出现，并且文中只是说了合并的一些好处，并没有讲全球化进程的成本问题，所以，选项C是跨段选项，且无中生有。第四段：证明并购浪潮利弊的实例并不多，但从目前的几例并购来看，对消费者是有益无害的。
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