题目内容
（请给出正确答案）
How many businesses in the U. S. can be called "small"？
A．5%
B．40%
C．50%
D．95%
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How many businesses in the U. S. can be called "small"？
A．5%
B．40%
C．0.5
D．0.95
How many businesses offered free shipping two years ago？
A．Nearly half of online retailers.
B．83 percent of online retailers.
C．18 percent of online retailers.
D．64 percent of online retailers.
How to Start a Small Business in the US
People from other countries often take America as the "land of opportunity". Americans, too, believe that the country gives no end of chances to those who want to open their own businesses. Today, many Americans are still trying hard to become small business people, although only one out of two remains in operation after the first two years.
Many people start their small businesses for the wrong reasons. They want to get away from the paper work of their present jobs, or to exchange the responsibility of their present jobs for free life styles. But more, not less, paper work and responsibility come with ownership of a small business.
Thomas is the owner of the news magazine Mother Earth, which is now quite successful. He says that he had to work sixty hours without stopping when he was trying to bring out the first issue.
Thomas had waited for years after he came up with the idea for Mother Earth. During that time, he collected as much information as he could about his business. He borrowed books from the library, talked to successful people in the field, and began planning carefully the amount of money and the kinds and numbers of supplies he would need. When he finally opened with a capital of $ 1,500 ,he set up his office in the kitchen and his printing press in the garage. Owing to his devotion(投入)to business, his talent, and his skill in management, Mother Earth now has a circulation(发行量) of 300,000.
Not all small businesses are doing as fine as Mother Earth as 50% of the 450,000 that start in America every year fail. Still, 95% of businesses in the US can be called "small". Altogether these businesses amount to 40% of America's gross national product(国民生产总值).
According to the passage, which of the following is true of the small businesses in the U.S.？
A．All of them close down in the first two years.
B．Most of them fail within the first two years.
C．They all make big profits.
D．Only half of them continue to operate after the first two years.
In the first sentence the word" amazed" means ______.
A．interesting
B．satisfied
C．surprised
D．shocked
A．There are many competing uses for a finite supply of wood, and suppliers give the lumber and paper industries a higher priority than they give individual consumers.
B．Wood produces thick smoke in burning, and its extensive use in densely populated cities would violate federal antipollution guidelines.
C．There are relatively narrow limits to how far wood can be trucked before it becomes more economical to burn the gasoline used for transportation instead of the wood.
D．Most apartment dwellers do not have adequate storage space for the amount of wood necessary to supply energy for heating.
E．Most commercial users of energy are located within range of a wood supply, and two-thirds of United States homes are located outside of metropolitan areas.
SECTION B INTERVIEW
Directions: In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Questions 1 to 5 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the following five questions.
Now listen to the interview.
听力原文：W: With me today is Peter Williams from Kingston University. Welcome! Peter. changed to make them more relevant to small businesses.
W: Well, I wish you every success with the course.
M: Thank you.
W: Pete, you have recently done a large research study on training in small businesses. What made you focus on small businesses？ After all, most of your experience has been with the huge multinational Cleantex. And in fact you did run their training department, didn't you？
M: Well, you are partly right. You see, when I joined the university a year ago they wanted me to start a training program for small businesses. I'd just sold my own small business, which I'd started when I left Cleantex. The 8 years I ran my own business taught me more aboul training than all my years with Cleantex. But I felt I couldn't base a training program on my experience alone. So I decided to do research first.
W: And how much training did you find in most small companies. Can they afford to do much training？
M: Well, firstly small businesses are often accused of not doing enough training. But that is the opinion of big businesses of course. It's tree that the government is encouraging small firms to increase their training budgets. They're trying to introduce financial assistance for this. But I have to say I find lots of training going on. (1) The real problem is that most small businesses don't always know how much training they're providing or how much it's actually costing them.
W: But surely businesses have budgets and training records.
M: Unfortunately most small companies don't set aside a specific training budget. (2) It's not that they don't want to spend the money but that they operate differently. You see, things change very quickly in small firms and it's impossible to predict the training needs. An employee can be moved to a new project very suddenly and then training has to be organized within days. And most small businesses prefer to use their experienced staff to do any training on the job.
W: Did you manage to work out the costs of training？
M: Well, it took time to work out the indirect costs. (3) You see, most small business managers don't include these costs in their calculations. Most of them keep records of obvious expenses, like, many expenses like external courses, travel, training manuals, and videos, etc. But not many firms have specific training accounts and they don't include the time managers spend on training, waste of materials, loss of productivity and so on. I spent hours with company accountants t .rying to see where these hidden costs were.
W: How much are small firms spending on training？
M: More than half of the businesses I surveyed spent at least 1% of their annual salary bill on training. And some of these spent up to 5% of their pay roll. In fact smaller firms are investing on average over 10% more on training per employee than larger firms.
W: How good is that training？
M: As I said, small firms usually get an experienced employee to show new staff how to do that job. This can be useful if the person is carefully selected and well-trained himself. But it's not really enough. The trainee needs to do the job with the experienced employee on hand for guidance and feedback. This gets trainees much better skills than any packaged courses.
W: And has your study helped you plan new courses for small businesses？
M: Definitely. I now understand what they want and how they want it delivered. I now know that small firms were only investing in training if it immediately helped their enterprise. But most formal training focuses on long-te
A．They spend too little on training.
B．They are unaware of their training expenses.
C．They receive state subsidies for training.
D．They increase their training budgets.
听力原文：F: With me today is Tom Henderson from ECN University. Welcome! Tom.
M: Thank yon.
F: Tom, you recently did a large research study on training in small business concerns. What made you focus on small business concerns？ After all, most of your experience has been with the huge multinational, DCF. And in fact you eventually ran their training. department, didn't you？
M: Well, you are partly right. You see, when I joined the university a year ago they wanted me to start a training program for small businesses. I'd just sold my own small business, Which I'd started when I left DCF. The 8 years I ran my own business which taught me more about training than all my years with DCF. But I felt I couldn't base a training program on my experience alone. So I decided to do research first.
F: And how much training did you find in most small companies？ Can they afford to do much training？
M: Well, firstly small businesses are often accused of not doing enough training. But that is the opinion of big businesses of course. It's true that the government is encouraging small firms to increase their training budgets. They're trying to introduce financial assistance for this. But I have to say I find lots of training going on. The real problem is that most small businesses don't always know how much training they're providing or how much it's actually costing them.
F: But surely businesses have budgets and training records.
M: Unfortunately most small companies don't set aside a specific training budget. It's not that they don't want to spend the money but that they operate differently. You see, things change very quickly in small firms and it's impossible to predict the training needs. An employee can be moved to a new project very suddenly and then training has to be organized within days. And most small businesses prefer to use their experienced staff to do any training on the job.
F: Did you manage to work out the costs of training？
M: Well, it took time to work out the indirect costs. You see, most small business managers don't include these costs in their calculations. Most of them keep records of obvious expenses, for example, many expenses like external courses, travel, training manual, and videos, etc. But not many firms have specific training accounts and they don't include the time managers spend on training, waste of materials, loss of productivity and so on. I spent hours with company accountants trying to see where these hidden costs were.
F: How much are small firms spending on training？
M: More than half of the businesses I surveyed spent at least 1% of their annual salary bill on training. And some of these spent up to 5% of their payroll. In fact smaller firms are investing on average over 10% more in training per employee than larger firms.
F: How good is that training？
M: As I said, small firms usually get an experienced employee to show new staff how to do that job. This can be useful if the person is carefully selected and well-trained himself. But it's not really enough. The trainee needs to do the job with the experienced employee on hand for guidance and feedback. This gives trainees much better skills than any packaged courses.
F: And has your study helped you plan new courses for small businesses？
M: Definitely. I now understand what they want and how they want it delivered. I now know that small firms were only investing in training if it immediately helped their enterprise. But most formal training focuses on long-term business needs. Most small businesses can't plan far ahead. They want direct results from training in skills they need now. New technologies and IT skills are identified as a priority by all the firms I surveyed.
F: What is the first course the university offers to small businesses？
M: Up till now most of short courses for companies in general have dealt with helping businesses grow. These aren't really appropriate for small companies as growth can
A．He was managing the training department of a large company.
B．He was running a training programme at a university.
C．He was running his own small business.
Not all marketplace opportunities are real opportunities for every business. Only those which a business can successfully exploit -- those which match its capabilities -- come into this category. The process of analysing marketing opportunities therefore begins with an internal analysis of a business itself -- a process which must include not only the specifically market-related aspects of its operations, such as sales and advertising, but also other aspects, such as financial resources, work-related aspects of its operations, such as sales and advertising, but also other aspects, such as financial resources, work-force skills, technology and so on. A useful framework for undertaking this internal analysis is to divide these aspects into four areas: customers, sales, marketing activities and other factors. We must determine who the business’s customers are, how many there are and what their requirements are. We must then estimate how many products the business can be expected to sell in order to determine what product development will be required. Product development includes market re- search, which is vital to ensure that the business’s products are right for the market, and to enable the business to set pricing and discount policies which will maximise sales. Finally, we must examine how all of these factors relate to other aspects of the business that may affect sales levels, such as management and work-force skills and corporate goals.
Having carefully analysed these internal factors, it is time to look at the outside world. An external analysis also needs to examine carefully a wide range of areas -- such as legal/political factors; economic factors; cultural/social factors; technology; institutions and competition. There may be restrictions on the production or sale of particular products: for example, the age restrictions that exist in many countries on the sale of alcohol; and tobacco will obviously influence the size of the market for these products. Rising or falling interest rates affect people's disposable income, and may alter demand and therefore market size. Development of the society and its population, and how people’s requirements will be affected, must also be considered. New technologies may affect both people’s expectations and other products that are likely to become available. Consequently it may be expected that traditional, social and economic institutions will alter over time, so that people may no longer buy, sell and distribute products in traditional ways through wholesalers and retail outlets; instead they will order products from home using the latest computer and cable television technology. And lastly, we must consider any potential competition from other businesses at home or overseas which produce similar products, and whether or not our business would be able to remain profitable even with this competition.
Identifying the competition is in many respects the most important aspect of an external market analysis and, to be useful, it must be as objective as possible. Many marketers greatly overestimate or underestimate the competition that their business will face from other businesses, especially if they look at the competition from their own standpoint rather than seeing it through the eyes of their customers. In other words, many people identify competitors by looking at apparently similar products, how they are made and what features they have, rather than at the benefits these products have for users and at ways of meeting market needs. With personal computers, for instance, this approach
A．require no advertising
B．require few resources
C．match their capabilities
D．exploit new technology
In 1996 a survey by Thornton Hughes International discovered that more than a quarter of businesses in Europe have to wait more than 90 days to be paid and 8% of businesses are forced to wait more than 120 days. Late payers often say they settle their accounts late because of recession but there is evidence that many firms are using late payment as a method of improving their own cashflow. A survey shows that 36% of delays in payment are intentional. By delaying the settlement of their accounts businesses transfer their financial problems to other businesses. It is usually the smallest firms that suffer most from this kind of behavior.
There are now plans to do something about this problem. The European Commission (the governing body of the European Union) suggests there should be legal penalties for late payment. Late payers should be legally required to pay interest on the debt. To be effective, the interest rate would be high. Finally, a system of fins (to be paid in addition to the interest payments) should be introduced. A recent survey in the UK revealed that 35% of transactions are carried out without any contract at all. It was therefore unclear when payments were due. In Denmark even though the problem is smaller, the authorities have decided to deal with it by automatically applying a legal payment period when there is no written contract. This ensures that payment is fixed at 30 days after the creditor has requested payment.
Many of the cash problems of small and medium-sized companies are, in fact, caused by national and local government agencies settling their accounts late. The European Commission has proposed that this area should be looked at. They point out that in some countries, for example the USA, interest on arrears is already paid automatically by public authorities. In France cities publish dates of their payments to contractors to show how quickly they settle their debts.
The European Commission suggests several other ways of dealing with the problem of late payment. Firstly, they suggest offering courses for small businesses. These courses would include legal advice on drafting contracts and on methods of obtaining payment for outstanding debts. Secondly, they would offer workshops to the public officials who are responsible for dealing with contracts. Thirdly, they suggest national campaign to persuade large organizations not to take advantage of their greater financial strength and size when they are dealing with smaller businesses. Part of the publicity would be the message that if we work together to make payment periods shorter we can help not only the financial health of small and medium-sized businesses, but also that of the economy as a whole.
Which reason is not mentioned directly for the bankruptcies of businesses, according to this passage？
A．Late payment of invoices.
B．The declining markets.
C．The rising overheads of companies.
D．The lack of cashflow.
听力原文： Henry Ford, the famous U. S. inventor and car manufacturer once said "The business of America is business. "By this he meant that the U. S. way of life is based on the values of the business world. A brief glimpse at a daily newspaper vividly shows how much people in the United States think about business. Business news can appear in every section. Most national news has an important financial aspect to it. Moreover, business news appears in some of the unlikeliest places. The world of arts and entertainment is often referred to as "the entertainment industry" or "show business."
The positive side of Henry Ford's statement can be seen in the prosperity that business has brought to U. S. life. One of the most important reasons so many people from all over the world come to live in the United States is the dream of a better job. However, the biggest companies are seen in opposition to labor. Throughout U. S. history working people have had to fight hard for higher wages, better working conditions, and the right to form. unions. Today, many of the old labor disputes are over, but there is still some employee anxiety. Downsizing--the laying off of thousands of workers to keep expenses low and profits high--creates feelings of insecurity for many.
The United States is a typical country
A．which encourages free trade at home and abroad.
B．where people's chief concern is how to make money.
C．where all businesses are managed scientifically.
D．which normally works according to the federal budget.
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