Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning)Directions: In this part you will have
Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning)
Directions: In this part you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions, on, Answer Sheet 1. For questions 1-7, choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D ). For questions 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.
The East India Company
The concept of corporations was first established under ancient Roman law. But it wasn't until England emerged from the Middle Ages that it created what we recognize as the modern corporate structure. It all began on Dec. 31,1600, when Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter to the British East India Corporation, naming the corporation" The Governor and Company of Merchants of London, trading with the East Indies". The corporation conducted business in the East Indies (land that we now consider India and the Middle East) at the order of the queen.
The East India Company established a few major precedents for modern corporations. But it also shaped the world in countless other ways. With both the financial and military support of the Crown, the EIC served as an instrument of imperialism (帝国主义) for England. The company had its own private army and raised soldiers in the areas it conquered. Its expansionism spurred several wars that produced at least two sovereign nations. Among its many claims to fame (and notoriety), the EIC indirectly built Yale University, helped create two nations and was the world's 1o~rgest drug-dealing operation in the 18th century.
The company was ruthless (无情的)in its quest for profits. Parliament even called the EIC tyrannical(残暴的). However, without the EIC, England may have never developed into the nation it is today.
The Creation of the East India Company
When the British East India Company (EIC) was formed in 1600, there were already other East India Companies operating on behalf of France, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal. Thanks to the naval route that explorer Vasco da Gama discovered, riches from the Orient were pouring into Europe. With other nations importing fortunes in goods and plunder, Queen Elizabeth decided England should get some, too. So she granted the charter for the East India Company.
The charter she issued created the first official joint-stock corporation. A joint-stock corporation is composed of investors who are granted shares in a company. In return for their initial Investments, shareholders are given dividends, or percentages, of the company's profits based on the number of shares the investor holds.
Shares and dividends were not new Concepts in. England. Twenty years prior to the EIC' s charter, Queen Elizabeth was already a major stakeholder In Sir Francis Drake's ship, the Golden Hind. Although it's not certain how much she made from Drake's voyages to the New World, the captain himself made a 5 000 percent return on his initial investment.
So a joint-stock corporation like the one Queen Elizabeth formed in the East India Company wasn't much of a financial leap. But it was the first of its kind, and following the establishment of the EIC,its Dutch, French and other competitors followed suit. But granting charter to the EIC wasn't the only part of the prototype for modern corporations that Queen Elizabeth devised.
Under the support of her royal authority, Elizabeth also limited the liability of the EIC' s investors-including hers. This made the company the world's first limited liability corporation (abbreviated as LLC in the United States and Ltd. in the United Kingdom). Under an LLC, the investors in a corporation are granted protection from losing any more money than their initial investments in the venture. If the company goes under, the investors only lose the amo
A.from early seventeenth century
B.from the Middle Ages
C.under ancient Roman law
D.from the ending of the industrial revolution