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DELIVERING THE GOODS
The vast expansion in international trade owes much to a revolution in the business of moving freight
A International trade is growing at a startling pace. While the global economy has been expanding at a bit over 3% a year, the volume of trade has been rising at a compound annual rate of about twice that. Foreign products, from meat to machinery, play a more important role in almost every economy in the world, and foreign markets now tempt businesses that never much worried about sales beyond their nation’s borders.
B What lies behind this explosion in international commerce? The general worldwide decline in trade barriers, such as customs duties and import quotas, is surely one explanation. The economic opening of countries that have traditionally been minor players is another. But one force behind the import-export boom has passed all but unnoticed: the rapidly falling cost of getting goods to market. Theoretically, in the world of trade, shipping costs do not matter. Goods, once they have been made, are assumed to move instantly and at no cost from place to place. The real world, however, is full of frictions. Cheap labour may make Chinese clothing competitive in America, but if delays in shipment tie up working capital and cause winter coats to arrive in spring, trade may lose its advantages.
C At the turn of the 20th century, agriculture and manufacturing were the two most important sectors almost everywhere, accounting for about 70% of total output in Germany, Italy and France, and 40-50% in America, Britain and Japan. International commerce was therefore dominated by raw materials, such as wheat, wood and iron ore, or processed commodities, such as meat and steel. But these sorts of products are heavy and bulky and the cost of transporting them relatively high.
D Countries still trade disproportionately with their geographic neighbours. Over time, however, world output has shifted into goods whose worth is unrelated to their size and weight. Today, it is finished manufactured products that dominate the flow of trade, and, thanks to technological advances such as lightweight components, manufactured goods themselves have tended to become lighter and less bulky. As a result, less transportation is required for every dollar’s worth of imports or exports.
E To see how this influences trade, consider the business of making disk drives for computers. Most of the world’s disk-drive manufacturing is concentrated in South-east Asia. This is possible only because disk drives, while valuable, are small and light and so cost little to ship. Computer manufacturers in Japan or Texas will not face hugely bigger freight bills if they import drives from Singapore rather than purchasing them on the domestic market. Distance therefore poses no obstacle to the globalisation of the disk-drive industry.
F This is even more true of the fast-growing information industries. Films and compact discs cost little to transport, even by aeroplane. Computer software can be ‘exported’ without ever loading it onto a ship, simply by transmitting it over telephone lines from one country to another, so freight rates and cargo-handling schedules become insignificant factors in deciding where to make the product. Businesses can locate based on other considerations, such as the availability of labour, while worrying less about the cost of delivering their output.
G In many countries deregulation has helped to drive the process along. But, behind the scenes, a series of technological innovations known broadly as containerisation and inter-modal transportation has led to swift productivity improvements in cargo-handling. Forty years ago, the process of exporting or importing involved a great many stages of handling, which risked portions of the shipment being damaged or stolen along the way. The invention of the container crane made it possible to load and unload containers without capsizing the ship and the adoption of standard container sizes allowed almost any box to be transported on any ship. By 1967, dual-purpose ships, carrying loose cargo in the hold* and containers on the deck, were giving way to all-container vessels that moved thousands of boxes at a time.
H The shipping container transformed ocean shipping into a highly efficient, intensely competitive business. But getting the cargo to and from the dock was a different story. National governments, by and large, kept a much firmer hand on truck and railroad tariffs than on charges for ocean freight. This started changing, however, in the mid-1970s, when America began to deregulate its transportation industry. First airlines, then road hauliers and railways, were freed from restrictions on what they could carry, where they could haul it and what price they could charge. Big productivity gains resulted. Between 1985 and 1996, for example, America’s freight railways dramatically reduced their employment, trackage, and their fleets of locomotives — while increasing the amount of cargo they hauled. Europe’s railways have also shown marked, albeit smaller, productivity improvements.
I In America the period of huge productivity gains in transportation may be almost over, but in most countries the process still has far to go. State ownership of railways and airlines, regulation of freight rates and toleration of anti-competitive practices, such as cargo-handling monopolies, all keep the cost of shipping unnecessarily high and deter international trade. Bringing these barriers down would help the world’s economies grow even closer.
hold: ship’s storage area below beck
Questions 14-17
Reading Passage 2 has nine paragraphs, A-I.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet.
14 a suggestion for improving trade in the future
15 the effects of the introduction of electronic delivery
16 the similar cost involved in transporting a product from abroad or from a local supplier
17 the weakening relationship between the value of goods and the cost of their delivery
Questions 18-22
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?
In boxes 18-22 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
18 International trade is increasing at a greater rate than the world economy.
19 Cheap labour guarantees effective trade conditions.
20 Japan imports more meat and steel than France.
21 Most countries continue to prefer to trade with nearby nations.
22 Small computer components are manufactured in Germany.
Questions 23-26
Complete the summary using the list of words, A-K, below.
Write the correct letter, A-K, in boxes 23-26 on your answer sheet.
THE TRANSPORT REVOLUTION
Modern Cargo-handing methods have had a significant effect on 23............ as the business of moving freight around the world becomes increasingly streamlined.
Manufacturers of computers, for instance, are able to import 24............ from overseas, rather than having to rely on a local supplier. The introduction of 25............ has meant that bulk cargo can be safely and efficiently moved over long distances. While international shipping is now efficient, there is still a need for governments to reduce 26............: in order to free up the domestic cargo sector.
A tariffs B components C container ships
D output E employees F insurance costs
G trade H freight I fares
J software K international standards
以下是该篇阅读文章的答案解析:
Question 14
答案：I
关键词：suggestion, in the future /would help
定位原文: I 段最后1句“Bringing these barriers down would help…”
解题思路: 首先看到题干中有明确的时间词“在未来”。根据段意，可以判定应该是文章的最后一段。之后看题干中的定位词suggestion表示建议，在文章结尾部分的最后一句话，可以清楚地找到它是作者对于提高贸易的一个建议，完全对应。
Question 15
答案： F
关键词：electronic delivery/transmitting...over telephone
定位原文: F段第3句“...simply by transmitting…”
解题思路: 题干中提到电子式的传递，很容易跟文章关于信息产业的F段挂钩，之后再细读本段第二句话就可以找到与题干相对应的 transmitting...over telephone。因此，答案是F段。
Question 16
答案： E
关键词：similar cost Abroad, local/ Singapore, domestic
定位原文: E段倒数第2句“… manufacturers in Japan or Texas…”
解题思路: 题干是说“无论是国际还是国内的，在运输货物环节的相近成本。”也就是说国内的运输和国际的运输成本基本相同，间接表明国际运输成本比较低。而文章中此句话的意思是“即使从新加坡进口磁盘驱动器而不是在国内市场购买，日本或美国得克萨斯州的计算机制造商们也不会面对花费高出很多的运费账单”。可以看出制造商们不用花费很高的运费，正好跟题干相应。
Question 17
答案：D
关键词：Weakening relationship, value of goods, cost of delivery/unrelated to
定位原文: D段第2句“...world output has shifted into goods…”
解题思路: 题干的weakening relationship(弱化的关系)，跟文章unrelated to (不相关的)属于同义表达，描述的问题是商品价值和运输成本的关系。
Question 18
答案： TRUE
关键词：international trade, world economy
定位原文: A段第2句“... global economy has been expanding…”
解题思路: 非常明显，twice是题眼，表示trade是global economy的两倍，所以看出国际贸易要比世界经济增长快很多，正好对应上定位词和题干。
Question 19
答案： FALSE
关键词：cheap labour
定位原文: B段最后1句“Cheap labour may make Chinese…”
解题思路: 此题找到对应段落，正好cheap labour用词一样。之后文章尽管说廉价劳动力使得中国纺织品在美国具有竞争力，但要注意转折词‘but’，它使意思发生转变。后面的句子可以看出，如果没有好的、及时的运输，那么贸易也就失去了优势(lose advantages)。因此正好是驳斥了题干中关于廉价劳动力对于贸易的保证关系，因此题干与文章的意思不相符。
Question 20
答案: NOT GIVEN
关键词：Japan，France
定位原文: C段第1句“...agriculture and manufacturing…”
解题思路: 文章中C段正好有对应的法国和日本。但文章原义是“农业和制造业几乎曾是各地最重要的两大行业，其比重占德 国、意大利和法国总产量的约70%，以及美国、英国和日本总产量的40%~50%。”提到法 国比日本多的是农业和制造业的总产量，可文中并没有提及关于肉类和钢铁的进口问题。此题是典型的题不对文，因此应该选择NOT GIVEN。
Question 21
答案：TRUE
关键词：trade with nearby nations
定位原文: D段第1句“Countries still trade disproportionately…”
解题思路: 定位句译文是“各国仍然将重点放在与邻国的贸易往来上”。其中geographic neighbours与nearby nations对应，still和continue也对应。句子意思也跟题干意思完全吻合，因此此题应该选择TRUE。
Question 22
答案： NOT GIVEN
关键词： small computer components
定位原文: E段第2句“Most of the world’s disk-drive…”
解题思路: 首先确定小的电脑零件只能在E和F段来找，而根据E段提供的信息，大部分的电脑配件之一——硬盘都在东南亚生产。而并没有提到电脑零件在德国生产，因此文章中没有提及，既不肯定也不否定在德国生产小的电脑零件。因此答案应该是NOT GIVEN。
Question 23
答案：G
关键词：significant effect on, business of moving freight, increasingly streamlined
定位原文: E段第1句“To see how this influences trade…”
解题思路: 找到E段开头句‘To see how this influences trade’，可以知道是承接上一段货物类型转变与运输关系的。因此跟 business of moving freight becomes increasingly streamlined对应，而且两个词语effect和influence表达相同意义，因此可以选择influences后面的trade(贸易)作为答案。而题干词库中正好有trade一词，可以直接选择答案G。
Question 24
答案：B
关键词：computers, for instance, / overseas, rather than, local
定位原文: E段倒数第2句: “.. in Japan or Texas will not face hugely bigger...”
解题思路: 根据语法，此处要求填写一个名词。而题干附近有一个很明显的关键词‘for instance’，典型的举例题，而且根据之前的computers就可以定位在E段，因为E段核心是一个例子。之后就很容易地可以填出应该是电脑的硬盘及divers。但是答案选项里面却没有，只能选择相关的髙一级的词汇components。
Question 25
答案：C
关键词：introduction
定位原文: G段第2句“But, behind the…”
解题思路: 根据空格前面的introduction可以推出需要填写的是一种方法或者科研成果。而根据上下文和题目关系以及定位词找到在G段第二句话中，有 cargo-handling与之对应。之后看到斜体字中即为两种方法，集装箱运输和多式联运，那么可以判断innovations和introduction相对应。而且答案应该跟container有关，答案应该填写C。
Question 26
答案：A
关键词： governments
定位原文: H段第3句的“National governments…”
解题思路: 用government可以快速定位在H段，而且根据题干中所涉及的domestic cargo sector可以和 truck and railroad对应，因此答案就在这句话中，通过分析，题目的空格应该是填写“降低”的宾语。而国家应该降低原文句中的tariffs(关税)。因此答案选择A。
希望以上雅思阅读文章及答案解析，能够对大家进行雅思阅读练习有帮助。