ID：9121-11833 A transformation is occurring that should greatly __1__ living standards in the developing world. Places that __2__ recently were deaf and dumb are rapidly acquiring __3__ telecommunications. Many developing countries are planning to invest vast sums of money __4__ their telecommunications networks to allow them to __5__ with developed countries. They believe this will __6__ foreign and domestic investment. However, how fast these nations should push __7__ is a matter of debate. And some developing countries __8__ experience in weighing costs and choosing between technologies. Vietnam, __9__ particular, though desperate for any phones, requires that all mobile phones be expensive digital models. Still, there is __10__ dispute that communications will be a key factor __11__ the winners from the losers. Over the next decade, China plans to pour some $100 billion into telecommunications equipment. Telecommunications is also a key __12__ Shanghai’s ambition of becoming a top financial center. Shanghai plans to be as electronically advanced __13__ New York. __14__, some other developing countries and areas such as Hungary, Latin America, and Thailand are all hoping to jump into the modern world __15__ means of telecommunication revolution. For countries that have lagged __16__ for so long, the temptation to move ahead in one jump is hard to __17__. And __18__ the mistakes they’ll make, they’ll persist ―__19__ day they can cruise alongside Americans and Western Europeans __20__ the information superhighway. 5 A compete B argue C fight D talk
ID：9121-12973 Passage 1 Cyberspace，data superhighways, mullet media-for those who have seen the future, the linking of computers, television and telephones will change our lives for ever, Yet for all the talk of a forthcoming technological utopia little attention has been given to the implications of these developments for the poor. As with all new high technology, while the West concerns itself with the “how,” the question of “for whom” is put aside once again. Economists are only now realizing the full extent to which the communications revolution has affected the world economy. Information technology allows the extension of trade across geographical and industrial boundaries, and transitional corporations take full advantage of it. Terms of trade, exchange and interest rates and money movements are more important than the production of goods. The electronic economy made possible by information technology allows the haves to increase their control on global markets-with destructive impact on the have-nots. For them the result is instability. Developing countries which rely on the production of a small range of goods for export are made to feel like small parts in the international economic machine. As “futures” are traded on computer screens, developing countries simply have less and less control of their destinies. So what are the options for regaining control? One alternative is for developing countries to buy in the latest computers and telecommunications themselves-so-called “development communications” modernization. Yet this leads to long-term dependency and perhaps permanent constraints on developing countries’ economies. Communications technology is generally exported from the U.S., Europe or Japan; the patents, skills and ability to manufacture remain in the hands of a few industrialized countries, It is also expensive, and imported products and services must therefore be bought on credit-credit usually provided by the very countries whose companies stand to gain. Furthermore, when new technology is introduced there is often too low a level of expertise to exploit it for native development. This means that while local elites, foreign communities and subsidiaries of transitional corporations may benefit, those lives depend on access to the information are denied it.
