Asia's dueling financial hubs invest a lot of capital——real and emotional——in what's often cast as a zero-sum contest for the affection of foreign companies.

主体句式：Asia's financial hubs invest in…

结构分析：该句结构并不复杂，但是其中修饰成分较多，容易引起混淆。两个破折号中间的“real and emotional”用来补充修饰前面提到的“capital”。此外，invest in这个短语后面通常跟的都是sth.，而句中的sth. 就是what引导的主语从句。

句子译文：这两个竞争激烈的亚洲金融枢纽为了赢得外国公司的青睐，都在所谓的零和竞争（零和竞争原意指一种技术的应用带来的市场份额上的增加，必然会导致另一种技术在市场份额上的减少，双方加起来的总变化量为零）上投入了大量资金——不论是实际的还是情感上的。





题目分析


1. D 细节题。文章第一段提到的香港那些富裕的移民们开始冒汗是一种比喻的说法，意指他们开始变得紧张，后面指出问题所在是由于房价现在高得离谱，使得他们现在的生活开始变得不像以前那么轻松舒适。可见，令他们紧张的是上涨的房价。

2. A 推理题。文章第二段第一句话中的“dueling”含有“决斗、竞争”的意思，说明了两座城市都视对方为竞争者。B选项的错误原因在于文章并没有指出因为土地的限制，两座城市应该限制外国人的进入。C选项的错误在于所谓的“瓶颈”并不在于其城市基础设施建设没能赢得外国公司的偏爱，而是两座城市已经赢得了外国公司的偏爱，但是由于租金过高迫使他们不得不离开。D错误的原因是这里的态度既不是悲观，也不是乐观，只是客观地指出了问题所在。

3. B 细节题。根据文章第三段，随着外来人口的增多，两座城市的本地人口住得越来越拥挤，可见本地人的居住环境正在变差。A和C选项的错误原因在于文章并没有指出本地人不欢迎外地人或者对政府不满意。D选项错误是因为文章第三段第一句话指出就业几乎已经饱和，但并不是完全饱和。

4. A 细节题。第四段第四句指出“不断刷新纪录的贸易顺差、中国的不断扩张，以及无数新上市的股票，所有这些都使得这个地区充斥着各种资金”，答案显而易见。而A选项中的“注册新公司效率高”的直接效果应该是促进本地商业与贸易的繁荣，资金的增加只是一个间接的效果。

5. A 推理题。根据文章最后一段，两座城市的政治家们都希望进一步扩大本地的人口规模，以促进经济的发展。考虑到前文指出两地目前的人口和土地之间已经产生了尖锐的矛盾，可以推出未来随着人口的增长，这一冲突将会更加严重。B选项的错误在于文章的结论并没有指出两座城市的人口增长计划无法实现，相反，其领导人对于人口增加显得相当有信心。C选项与文中意思相左，不是本地人拒绝进入跨国公司，而是现在大部分外国人都倾向于到中小型公司工作。D选项陈述也与文意不符，因为文章并不认为外国人会破坏当地经济。





参考译文


那些居住在亚洲金融中心的富有移民们普遍过着非常轻松的生活。但是今年夏天，连中国香港和新加坡的富人们也开始焦虑了。问题在哪里呢？过热的房地产市场甚至令银行家们都感到惊讶，许多国际学校更是拥挤得像高峰时段的东京地铁。香港大部分豪华高楼中的一居室房租现高达每月5000美元。新加坡的写字楼房租在过去的一年中更是上涨了105个百分点——这是世界上最快的升值率。对于那些有孩子的雇员来说，情况尤为窘迫。香港的国际学校中那些新来的学生们现在无法直接被分到班级中，而必须要在长长的等待列表中排队——除非他们的父母插队来购买售价高达12万美元的债券。

这两个竞争激烈的亚洲金融枢纽为了赢得外国公司的青睐，都在所谓的“零和竞争”上投入了大量资金——不论是实际的还是情感上的。两座城市在吸引外国公司上都做得非常成功，但是现在对于他们来说，最大的威胁不是来自于对方，而是来自一个共同的问题，即为外国人进行基础设施建设的瓶颈。高档住房的花费正在突破1997~1998年亚洲金融危机前的纪录，以至于新加坡国父李光耀感慨道：“我们必须要控制房租的高涨，否则我们会失去竞争力。”

这两个经济体几乎都已经实现了充分就业，因此寻找人才也变得更加困难。写字楼的房租高到连最有钱的投资银行都开始在市中心以外的地方寻找更加便宜的办公室。在接下来的10年中，这两座城市都通过吸引成千上万的移民来增加其人口规模，以至于本地人的居住环境越来越拥挤。新加坡议会的国家发展委员会主席查尔斯·宋警告道：“如果新加坡人觉得因为外国人的到来使得价格变得如此高昂，那么这就有了一个政治成本。”

从某种意义上来说，这两座城市都是自身成功的受害者。它们都是这个星球上注册新公司最高效的地方。它们以拥有世界级的金融、会计和法律服务为豪，并充分尊重合同和商业法规，这在亚洲的其他地方是见不到的。不断刷新纪录的贸易顺差、中国的不断扩张，以及无数新上市的股票，所有这些都使得这两座城市充斥着各种资金，从而推动着它们以令人难以置信的速度发展，去年香港和新加坡的GDP分别增长了6.8个和7.9个百分点。

由于当地的出生率不断降低，这两个金融枢纽都希望继续通过吸引移民来推动增长。新加坡的国家发展部长马宝山希望这个城市国家的人口到2027年能够达到650万，即比现在增加200万人——这意味着在接下来的20年中，新加坡每年要输入10万外国人。香港行政长官曾荫权曾经表示，他希望这座城市的人口能够最终突破1000万——即比现在的人口总数增长30%——且人口增长将包括“来自各个国家的新鲜血液”。随着两座城市更加接受外来人口，一些新的因素保证了将会有更大规模的移民迁入。过去，人们认为全球化仅限于那些大规模的跨国公司，但现在大部分移民却都是在为小型和中型的公司工作。这些移民也不再是主要来自于欧洲和北美；很多的国家都在向国外输出专业人才，其中包括中国、印度和韩国。





Unit 9


Whatever else, Airbus cannot be accused of failing to put on a brave face at this week's Paris Air Show, held every two years. Louis Gallois is the troubled European airframe-maker's third chief executive within 12 months. But still he declared: “I can tell you with full confidence that Airbus is back and fully back.”Supporting his confident public message was an extraordinary flow of orders and commitments for over 600 aircraft accumulated in time for the show by the firm's super-salesman, John Leahy.

Although it is heading for a second successive loss——last year it plunged €572m ($718m) into the red——Airbus is undoubtedly in better shape than it was 12 months ago when wiring problems delayed the A380 and the weak dollar exposed the firm's bloated cost base. It has begun the “Power8”recovery plan, intended to save €2 billion annually by cutting 10,000 jobs and auctioning off six factories to partners. And the giant A380 will begin commercial service with Singapore Airlines in the autumn, although being two years late.

In the contest between the twin-engined wide-body Boeing 787 and the A350 XWB, Mr Gallois struggles to be as positive. The 787 is already a sales phenomenon, with over 630 firm orders even before the plane's roll-out next month. The airlines are excited by its revolutionary use of a composite material called carbon-reinforced plastic (CRP）. Five years behind the 787, which will enter service next year, the A350 contains a similar share of composite material, but is based on a less advanced structural design that involves hanging CRP panels on a titanium frame. Boeing acknowledges that the A350 may be as light as the 787, but argues that it will be a less pleasant plane to fly in and a more difficult one to maintain.

Mr Gallois admits that following Boeing's approach would have been too expensive and risky for Airbus. At the same time Mr Gallois bemoaned the advantage his rival has in government-supported research and development. Boeing, he claims, receives about $800m a year——ten times as much as Airbus. Earlier in the week, during meetings with ministers representing the four Airbus partners (France, Germany, Britain and Spain), he asked them to fund half the company's planned 600m-a-year investment in research and technology. He is not hopeful.

But for the moment what matters most for Airbus is that the market stays strong and that it gets to grips with its costs. This may require going further in imitating Boeing's risk-sharing partner (RSP) model than Airbus seems willing to contemplate. According to some estimates, about 80% of the work on the 787 is outsourced to RSPs, saving Boeing both precious development time and working capital.

What this week has shown is that for all the success of the 787 and the mistakes of Airbus, the competitive duopoly of the past decade is still firmly in place. But will things stay that way? That depends partly on whether Airbus really has learnt its lessons and partly on who else wants to get into the game. Boeing reckons that in 20 years, 36% of the market will be in the Asia-Pacific region. For the time being, the Chinese, the Indians and others are happy to be partners and customers. But that could change.

注（1）：本文选自Economist；

注（2）：本文习题命题模仿对象为2004年真题Text 3。

1. How can Louis Gallois be confident that Airbus is “fully back”?

A) Because under his leadership there is a sign that the company will soon stop losing money.

B) Because Airbus put on a good show in Paris in which it received a large number of orders.

C) Because Airbus launches its recovery plan that would surely bring a great amount of profit.

D) Because the company is in better situation as it succeeded in slowing down the annual loss.

2. How does Boeing feel about the coming A350 by Airbus?

A) Critical.

B) Indifferent.

C) Optimistic.

D) Supportive.

3. According to Mr Gallois, how can Airbus catch up with Boeing?

A) By mastering advanced technology that can compete with or excel Boeing.

B) By receiving more financial and other kinds of support from the partner governments.

C) By adopting the RSP model so as to cut costs and improve the efficiency of its working process.

D) By reducing cost through its recovery plan and relevant policies.

4. What is Boeing's strategy of cutting cost?