Text 4
    
    Bankers have been blaming themselves for their troubles in public. Behind the scenes, they have been taking aim at someone else: the accounting standard-setters. Their rules, moan the banks, have forced them to report enormous losses, and it’s just not fair. These rules say they must value some assets at the price a third party would pay, not the price managers and regulators would like them to fetch.
    
    Unfortunately, banks’ lobbying now seems to be working. The details may be unknowable, but the independence of standard-setters, essential to the proper functioning of capital markets, is being compromised. And, unless banks carry toxic assets at prices that attract buyers, reviving the banking system will be difficult.
    
    After a bruising encounter with Congress, America’s Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) rushed through rule changes. These gave banks more freedom to use models to value illiquid assets and more flexibility in recognizing losses on long-term assets in their income statement. Bob Herz, the FASB’s chairman, cried out against those who “question our motives.” Yet bank shares rose and the changes enhance what one lobby group politely calls “the use of judgment by management.”
    
    European ministers instantly demanded that the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) do likewise. The IASB says it does not want to act without overall planning, but the pressure to fold when it completes its reconstruction of rules later this year is strong. Charlie McCreevy, a European commissioner, warned the IASB that it did “not live in a political vacuum” but “in the real world” and that Europe could yet develop different rules.
    
    It was banks that were on the wrong planet, with accounts that vastly overvalued assets. Today they argue that market prices overstate losses, because they largely reflect the temporary illiquidity of markets, not the likely extent of bad debts. The truth will not be known for years. But bank’s shares trade below their book value, suggesting that investors are skeptical. And dead markets partly reflect the paralysis of banks which will not sell assets for fear of booking losses, yet are reluctant to buy all those supposed bargains.
    
    To get the system working again, losses must be recognized and dealt with. America’s new plan to buy up toxic assets will not work unless banks mark assets to levels which buyers find attractive. Successful markets require independent and even combative standard-setters. The FASB and IASB have been exactly that, cleaning up rules on stock options and pensions, for example, against hostility from special interests. But by giving in to critics now they are inviting pressure to make more concessions.
    
    36. Bankers complained that they were forced to
    
    [A] follow unfavorable asset evaluation rules
    
    [B]collect payments from third parties
    
    [C]cooperate with the price managers
    
    [D]reevaluate some of their assets.
    
    选A. 细节题。定位在文章首段后两句话。
    
    37.According to the author , the rule changes of the FASB may result in
    
    [A]the diminishing role of management
    
    [B]the revival of the banking system
    
    [C]the banks’ long-term asset losses
    
    [D]the weakening of its independence
    
    选A. 推理题。解题线索为第三段，句首提到，FASB经过努力使国会通过了一些变革，这些变革赋予了银行更多的权利，因此A“管理作用逐渐消失”符合题意。
    
    38.According to Paragraph 4, McCreevy objects to the IASB’s attempt to
    
    [A]keep away from political influences.
    
    [B]evade the pressure from their peers.
    
    [C]act on their own in rule-setting.
    
    [D]take gradual measures in reform.
    
    选 D. 细节题。解题线索在文章第五段，段首表示“欧洲部长们都希望IASB也进行改革”，同时在段位，“The IASB says it does not want to act without overall planning”，表示IASB不希望草率行事，但是在段位McCreevy表示“Europe could yet develop different rules”，因此McCreevy反对的应该是IASB缓慢的改革步伐，因此D符合文意。
    
    39.The author thinks the banks were “on the wrong planet ”in that they
    
    [A]misinterpreted market price indicators
    
    [B]exaggerated the real value of their assets
    
    [C]neglected the likely existence of bad debts.
    
    [D]denied booking losses in their sale of assets.
    
    选C. 细节题。解题线索第五段，忽视了“the likely extent of bad debts”。
    
    40.The author’s attitude towards standard-setters is one of
    
    [A]satisfaction.
    
    [B]skepticism.
    
    [C]objectiveness
    
    [D]sympathy
    
    选D. 情感态度题。通篇文章都是立足于银行对“standard-setters”的敌意行为，因此表明了其对“standard-setters”的同情。
    
    Part B
    
    Directions:
    
    For Questions 41-45, choose the most suitable paragraphs from the first A-G and fill them into the numbered boxes to from a coherent text. Paragraph E has been correctly placed. There is one paragraph which dose not fit in with the text. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET1. (10 points)
    
    [A]The first and more important is the consumer’s growing preference for eating out; the consumption of food and drink in places other than homes has risen from about 32 percent of total consumption in 1995 to 35 percent in 2000 and is expected to approach 38 percent by 2005. This development is boosting wholesale demand from the food service segment by 4 to 5 percent a year across Europe, compared with growth in retail demand of 1 to 2 percent. Meanwhile, as the recession is looming large, people are getting anxious. They tend to keep a tighter hold on their purse and consider eating at home a realistic alternative.
    
    [B]Retail sales of food and drink in Europe’s largest markets are at a standstill, leaving European grocery retailers hungry for opportunities to grow. Most leading retailers have already tried e-commerce, with limited success, and expansion abroad. But almost all have ignored the big, profitable opportunity in their own backyard: the wholesale food and drink trade, which appears to be just the kind of market retailers need.
    
    [C]Will such variations bring about a change in the overall structure of the food and drink market? Definitely not. The functioning of the market is based on flexible trends dominated by potential buyers. In other words, it is up to the buyer, rather than the seller, to decide what to buy .At any rate, this change will ultimately be acclaimed by an ever-growing number of both domestic and international consumers, regardless of how long the current consumer pattern will take hold.
    
    [D]All in all, this clearly seems to be a market in which big retailers that master the intricacies of wholesaling in Europe may well expect to rake in substantial profits there by. At least, that is how it looks as a whole. Closer inspection reveals import differences among the biggest national markets, especially in their customer segments and wholesale structures, as well as the competitive dynamics of individual food and drink categories. Big retailers must understand these differences before they can identify the segments of European wholesaling in which particular abilities might unseat smaller but entrenched competitors. New skills and unfamiliar business models are needed too.
    
    [E]Despite variations in detail, wholesale markets in the countries that have been closely examined—France, Germany, Italy, and Spain—are made out of same building blocks. Demand comes mainly from two sources: independent morn-and-pop grocery stores which, unlike large retail chains, are two small to buy straight from producers, and food service operators range from snack machines to large institutional catering ventures, but most of these businesses are known in the trade as “horeca”: hotels, restaurants, and cafes. Overall, Europe’s retail wholesale markets, but the figures, when added together, mask two opposing trends.
    
    [F]For example, wholesale food and drink sales come to $268 billion in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom in 2000- more than 40 percent of retail sales. Moreover, average overall margins are higher in wholesale than in retail; wholesale demand from the food service sector is growing quickly as more Europeans eat out more often; and changes in the competitive dynamics of this fragmented industry are at last making it feasible for wholesalers to consolidate.
    
    [G]However, none of these requirements should deter large retails and even some large good producers and existing wholesalers from trying their hand, for those that master the intricacies of wholesaling in Europe stand to reap considerable gains.
    
    41 →42→43→44→E→45
    
    41．选B. 排除法。选项A“The first and more important is”得出不能为首句，C、D、F、G的首句都是带有总结、转折等的意思，均不能成为首句。B选项首句提出欧洲食品零售所面临的问题，符合首段提出问题，即文章主旨的写作原则。
    
    42．选F. 首段最后一句话表示“食品零售商忽视了一个潜在的市场，即他们身边的食品批发市场”，而在选项F的首句，即举例说明若干国家食品批发规模比食品零售要大40%。因此可以断定该句是对首段的例证。
    
    43．选D. 第二段是对食品批发优势的介绍，D选项则是对上文的内容进行总结。
    
    44．选G. 根据上文的“particular abilities”及“new skills and unfamiliar business models are needed”，找到G选项中对应的“these requirements”。
    
    45．选A. 结合E选项的最后一句话以及A选项的第一句话，得出正确答案为A。

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