(上海新东方学校口译教研组发布)

SECTION 1: LISTENING TEST (30 minutes)

Part A: Spot Dictation

Directions:In this part of the test, you will hear a passage and read the same passage with blanks in it. Fill in each of the blanks with the ward or words you have heard on the tape. Write your answer in the corresponding space in you ANSWER BOOKLET. Remember you will hear the passage only once.

Um…if I could take this opportunity to briefly summarize the company’s attitude to the question of providing information for our employees. Well… er…we know that

1 would like more opportunities to let the company know how they feel on things

2 . And certainly from the surveys that we’ve done, they seem

to emphasize the value of 3 … er… especially at a time of change and uncertainty 4 and in the outside world. Anyway, action has been 5

to increase face-to-face communication 6 and to improve the flow of upward communication.

Um… you also know how much we 7 and so we continue to provide training facilities to enable employees who are elected to consultative committees 8 in their new role.

Now, when it come to informing the workforce, um… well, employees, we believe, having a right to 9 about the company, whether or not the information make them 10 .

And…um… and “information programme” makes this possible. Well, let me just 11 . Er… supervisors, for instance, may need informing about 12 before they go into production.

And supervisors should also be given 13 and marketing objectives, and about its performance related to 14 . At the same time, of course, we are naturally aware of the problems of giving too much information on 15 . Well, er…the competition may get to 16 too soon!

But…um…but in the end we shouldn’t 17 that even if the management does not 18 , that they and even workers themselves will know a great deal about 19 , even, you know even if they haven’t been 20 .Part B: Listening Comprehension

Directions:In this part of the test there will be some short talks and conversation. After each one, you will be asked some questions. The talks, conversations and questions will be spoken only once. Now listen carefully and choose the right answer to each question you have heard and write the letter of the answer you have chosen in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET.

Questions 1-5 are based on the following conversation.

1. A. Faulty goods

B. Late deliveries

C. Inadequate after-sales services

D. Over-pricing

2. A. A union strike

B. Inconvenient transportation

C. Under-staffing

D. Excessive demand

3. A. Toy cars

B. Cassette recorders

C. Radio sets

D. Sports bicycles

4. A. Having a new factory equipped

B. Expanding the present factory

C. Making extra workers redundant

D. Adopting new technology

5. A. The buyers were not informed about the problem.

B. The company can’t solve the problem by getting extra workers.

C. The company is offering a 10%

D. The discount will mean a bigger profit for Mr. Olsen’s retailers.

Questions 6-10 are based on the following news.

6. A. The inflation rate has been rising in the past few months.

B. The inflation rate is expected to drop in May.

C. The inflation rate fell to 8.0% in April.

D. The inflation rate could rise to 8.7% in the next few months.

7. A. 3.9%

B. 4.2%

C. 4.3%

D. 4.5%8. A. Fewer than five

B. Around forty

C. At least 100

D. Over 1000

9. A. To prevent possible looting

B. To help the rescue work

C. To look for anything to salvage

D. To restrict electricity supply

10. A. Taking bribes

B. Offering bribes

C. Providing secret documents

D. Resigning for his post.

Questions 11-15 are based on the following interview

11. A. Lack of clear marketing strategy.

B. Failure to maintain quality control.

C. Loss of market share due to over-pricing.

D. No new products being pushed onto the market.

12. A. Aiming solely at the middle range of the market.

B. Competing with cheap foreign imports.

C. Concentrating on lower-priced good.

D. Selling products to the Japanese.

13. A. To promote sales

B. To increase production

C. To save on materials

D. To improve quality

14. A. About two years ago

B. Three years after he finished college

C. Last year

D. Six months ago

15. A. Heavy losses will be slightly reduced.

B. Share prices will rise sharply.

C. A dividend will be paid to shareholders.

D. Income from sales will equal costs.Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following talk.

16. A. People in different parts of North America speak English differently.

B. Canadians and Americans are mutually intelligible despite differences in

spoken English.

C. Of all three types of differences in spoken English, differences in accent are

most obvious.

D. Written English is the same everywhere in North America.

17. A. Bostonians

B. New Yorkers

C. The British

D. Canadians

18. A. There is less variation in vocabulary than in grammar.

B. Differences in grammar are more obvious than those in pronunciation.

C. People are more concerned with spoken grammar than with written grammar.

D. Some variation in spoken grammar is more acceptable in certain areas.

19. A. Economic class.

B. Social class

C. Geography

D. History

20. A. Written English

B. Educated English

C. English spoken by the social elite

D. English adopted by the governmentSECTION 2: READING TEST (30 minutes) Directions: In this section you will read several passages. Each one is followed by several questions about it. You are to choose ONE best answer, (A), (B), (C) or (D), to each question. Answer all the questions following each passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in that passage and write the letter of the answer you have chosen in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET.

Questions 1-5

Quipus are the mysterious bundles of colored and knotted threads that served as the Inca empire's means of recording information. The code of the quipus has long since been forgotten, and the only major advance in understanding them was the insight, made in 1923, that the knots were used to represent numbers. The quantity and positioning of the knots, at least in certain quipus, is agreed to represent a decimal system.

A new and possibly significant advance in deciphering the quipu system may now have been gained by two Harvard researchers, Gary Urton and Carrie J. Brezine. They believe they may have decoded the first word - a place name - to be found in a quipu (pronounced KWEE-poo), and have also identified what some of the many numbers in the quipu records may be referring to.

Though a single word would be just the first step in a very long road, it would open the possibility of discovering a whole new level of meaning in the quipus. It could also resolve a longstanding controversy by establishing that quipus included a writing system and were not just personal mnemonic devices understood only by the person who made them, as some scholars have maintained.

That in turn would help explain the "Inca paradox," that among states of large size and administrative complexity the Inca empire stands out as the only one that apparently did not invent writing. The paradox would be resolved if indeed the quipu

The Harvard researchers also have ideas about the nature of the item being so carefully tallied in the quipus under study: units of labor, like an ancient time log. The Inca empire, which lasted from about 1450 to 1532, depended on tribute levied in the form of a labor tax. Because of the importance of the tax for building the imperial roads and other public works, both the requisition and delivery of the labor days owed in tax were likely to have been carefully recorded by the Inca bureaucrats. Quipus were used both by high officials to issue instructions and by lower officials to reportwhat they had done. It is easy to imagine a diligent accountant wanting to compare the outgoing quipu, or a copy of it, with the incoming response quipu.

Since the quipu could represent instructions sent to the ruler of Puruchuco from the provincial governor, or accounting records sent from Puruchuco to the governor, it would have been useful for the records to carry a tag identifying the place they referred to. As it happens, all the quipu in the two top summarizing layers carry an initial set of knots designating three ones, as if 1-1-1 designated the place name for Puruchuco. The lowest level quipus do not carry this ZIP code, perhaps because they never left Puruchuco and so didn't need one. If this interpretation is accepted by other scholars, it would be the first meaning beyond the number system to be identified in quipus, Dr. Urton said.

Galen Brokaw, a quipu expert at the State University of New York at Buffalo, said it was plausible to suggest the numbers being tallied in many quipu referred to the labor tax. Dr. Urton's identification of 1-1-1 as a place name would, if confirmed, be "a substantive contribution to understanding how quipu worked," Dr. Brokaw said. The proposal is fascinating, he said, but hard to verify because the provenance of most quipu is unknown.

Only 700 or so quipus have been preserved, since the Spanish destroyed them as a matter of policy. About two-thirds are clearly numerical records, with knots placed in a series of levels, each corresponding to a power of 10. But scholars have been baffled by the nature of the remaining third, which embody some different meaning.

Those who believe the nonnumerical quipus were just personal mnemonic devices cite a 17th-century Jesuit chronicler who reported that each quipu maker could understand only his own quipu, not those of others. But the chronicler may have been misinformed, Dr. Urton wrote in his book "Signs of the Inka Khipu," because his report was made 70 years after the Spanish authorities in Lima had condemned quipu as idolatrous in a decree of 1583 and had ordered them burned.

Dr. Urton believes that the Puruchuco hierarchy of quipus would have been made by different people and hence show information passing between them via quipu. This would be a significant finding, if true, since it points to the quipu encoding generally understood signs, not a personal set of signs.

1．According to the passage, what is NOT the significance of the latest decoding of the quipu system by two Harvard researchers?

A) It casts light on the understanding of the whole quipu system.

B) It helps to settle a long-standing debate over the nature of the quipu system.

C) It is likely to prove that the Inca Empire did create its own writing system.

D) It shows that the “Inca paradox” only concerns the cultural development of the

ancient Empire .

2．Based on the latest discovery by Harvard researchers, quipus might be all the following, EXCEPT ______ .

A) an approach to exchange information between individuals

B) a system of numbers

C) accounting records of labor tax

D) a form of instructions or reports by bureaucrats

3．Galen Brokaw holds that ____________ .

A) Gary Urton and Carrie J. Brezine interpreted the quipu system convincingly

B) the latest advance in decoding quipus dose not reveal all the functions of quipus

C) the greatest obstacle to fully understanding quipus is their complexity

D) Urton's identification of 1-1-1 as a place name is still debatable

4．All of the following are true EXCEPT ______ .

A) researchers still have divergent views about the nature of quipus

B) Spanish invaders once devastated the civilization of the Inca Empire

C) about 400 years ago, some Christians did researches on quipus

D) the Puruchuco quipus unfold the hierarchy in the ancient Inca society

5．The most suitable title for this passage is probably____________ .

A) Recent Advance in the Quipus Research

B) Quipus, a Long Lost Numeric SystemC) The Ancient Inca Empire and the Mysterious Quipus

D) Verification of “Inca Paradox”

Questions 6—10

Even as pharmaceutical companies poured a record amount of money into drug development in 2005, the industry's research drought grew worse. According to newly released statistics from the Food and Drug Administration, it approved only 20 new drugs, down from 36 in 2004. Only once in last 10 years has the number of newly approved drugs been lower than last year's figure.

The dry spell in 2005 came even as spending on research by the industry reached a new high, passing $38 billion. And in a rarity, several major companies failed to win approval for a new drug invented in their own labs, including Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson.

The decline in drug development came as scientists in and outside the companies were making great strides in genomics and other sorts of basic research into the way diseases develop, opening many potential new targets for treatment. Yet such progress in the laboratory has not translated so far into many new drugs on the market.

Some analysts say that the drug industry is in a cyclical trough, and that the number of new drugs - not just new applications for drugs already on the market - will start rising within a few years as research investments begin to pay off. But the F.D.A. and the companies seem to agree that the process for testing and developing new drugs needs improvement.

"Our concern is that the development process itself is not keeping up at a fast enough pace to match the progress on the discovery end," said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the agency's deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs.

The F.D.A. is looking for ways to speed the approval of new treatments - like approving drugs based on "surrogate endpoints," whether, for example, a cancer drug causes tumors to shrink instead of whether it prolongs the life of patients. It was on such a basis that the F.D.A. last month approved Nexavar, a Bayer drug for treating kidney cancer.

But like finding new treatments, diagnosing the problem of drug development is easier than figuring out a solution. Even as the F.D.A. looks for ways to speed thetesting of new treatments, members of Congress and some consumer groups are calling for even more testing before drugs are approved.

The low output from research last year was even worse than the top-line figures might indicate. In 2004, important cancer treatments including Avastin, by Genentech, and Tarceva, through a partnership of Genentech and OSI Pharmaceuticals, were among the therapies that regulators allowed onto the market. The drugs that were approved were mostly for rare diseases like chronic iron overload, a condition for which the Novartis medicine Exjade received clearance.

In the meantime, the agency delayed approval of prominent new treatments like Pargluva, a diabetes drug from Bristol-Myers Squibb and Merck, and Exubera, a form of inhaled insulin from Pfizer.

The paucity of new products is a big reason that the stock prices of large drug makers have tended to fare poorly in recent years. Shares of Pfizer, the industry leader, for example, reached a peak of $49 in July 2000 and have trended downward since, closing yesterday at $24.44.

The drought in new drugs has led some industry executives to complain that the F.D.A. is denying approval to good new treatments because of the criticism the agency has faced from lawmakers over Vioxx. Merck stopped selling its arthritis painkiller Vioxx in 2004 after a clinical trial showed that it increased the risks of heart attacks and strokes in patients taking it for 18 months or longer. Some other studies found heart attack risks as early as 2000, and the F.D.A. has been criticized for not forcing Merck to withdraw the drug earlier or to warn doctors prominently of such risks.

Researching and developing a drug is a long and arduous process. Genentech's work leading to Avastin, for example, began in 19 - 15 years before the drug's approval. Scientists first identify the cellular process of disease within the body. They may search for proteins that cancerous tumors release in order to spread, or receptors on the surface of a cell that become the targets of viruses.

The drug company then searches for chemical compounds or proteins that are able to interact with the targets the scientists have found - without damaging cells in other parts of the body. If a treatment appears to have therapeutic effects in test-tube and animal trials, the companies then move on to Phase I human testing, when a handful of healthy volunteers are given the therapy to make sure that it is safe enough for wider testing. In Phase II testing, the drug is tried on a few dozen to a few hundredpatients for safety and effectiveness.

Finally, in Phase III development, the drug is tested in large-scale trials with as many as several thousand patients to demonstrate its effectiveness and to search for rarer side effects.

If the treatment is shown to be unsafe or ineffective at any stage, it fails development and is put aside.

According to a report in December from Merrill Lynch, the number of potential new drugs in Phase I and II testing has nearly doubled in the last decade, to 1,971 in 2004 from 1,010 in 1995. But that has not translated into success in Phase III development; the number of drugs in Phase III has been flat at fewer than 400.

"R&D statistics over the past decade have been disappointing," Merrill's analysts wrote in their report. Still, the analysts predicted that companies would continue to increase research spending and expand their pipelines of early-stage drugs.

6．According to the author, the possible reasons for the dry spell of pharmaceutical companies lie in all the following EXCEPT

A)the paucity of investment of the companies in research

B)the drug industry has trended downward and currently reaches its low point.

C)the development process does not match the paces of related researches

D)FDA postpones the approval of prominent new medications last year.

7. What do we know about “surrogate endpoints”, based on the 6th paragraph?

A) a principle favored by pharmaceutical companies

B) a criterion FDA adopts to accelerate the approval of new medicines

C)it champions the goal to lengthen cancer patients’ life rather than the effect on

cancer

D)it is a time-honored practice of FDA to carry out approval for treatments

8.The word “fare” in Para 10 most probably means__________

A)pay off

B)fork over

C)perform

D)plunge9. Which of the following is not mentioned in the passage?

A)Some analysts held different opinions from FDA and pharmaceutical companies

as to the research drought

B)Among the three phases of medicine development, the first one accounts most.

C)In 2004, the drugs that were approved by FDA were mainly for infrequent

diseases.

D)Only 1/5 drugs or less entered Phase III development in 2004 according to

Merrill Lynch

10. Which of the following best summarizes the main idea of the passage? A

A)the dry spell of the pharmaceutical industry in 2005

B)the problem of drug development: easier to diagnose, hard to find out a solution

C)Researching and developing a therapy is a time-consuming toil.

D)The aftermath of the drought in new medication last year.

Questions 11—15

The word for "The Da Vinci Code" is a rare invertible palindrome. Rotated 180 degrees on a horizontal axis so that it is upside down, it denotes the maternal essence that is sometimes linked to the sport of soccer. Read right side up, it concisely conveys the kind of extreme enthusiasm with which this riddle-filled, code-breaking, exhilaratingly brainy thriller can be recommended.

That word is wow.

The author is Dan Brown (a name you will want to remember). In this gleefully erudite suspense novel, Mr. Brown takes the format he has been developing through three earlier novels and fine-tunes it to blockbuster perfection. Not since the advent of Harry Potter has an author so flagrantly delighted in leading readers on a breathless chase and coaxing them through hoops.

Consider the new book's prologue, set in the Grand Gallery of the Louvre. (This is the kind of book that notices that this one gallery's length is three times that of the Washington Monument.) It embroils a Caravaggio, an albino monk and a curator in a fight to the death. That's a scene leaving little doubt that the author knows how to pique interest, as the curator, Jacques Sauniere, fights for his life.

Desperately seizing the painting in order to activate the museum's alarm system, Sauniere succeeds in buying some time. And he uses these stolen moments? Which are his last? To take off his clothes, draw a circle and arrange himself like the figurein Leonardo's most famous drawing, "The Vitruvian Man." And to leave behind an anagram and Fibonacci's famous numerical series as clues.

Whatever this is about, it is enough to summon Langdon, who by now, he blushes to recall, has been described in an adoring magazine article as "Harrison Ford in Harris tweed." Langdon's latest manuscript, which "proposed some very unconventional interpretations of established religious iconography which would certainly be controversial," is definitely germane.

Also soon on the scene is the cryptologist Sophie Neveu, a chip off the author's earlier prototypes: "Unlike the cookie-cutter blondes that adorned Harvard dorm room walls, this woman was healthy with an unembellished beauty and genuineness that radiated a striking personal confidence." Even if he had not contrived this entire story as a hunt for the Lost Sacred Feminine essence, women in particular would love Mr. Brown.

The book moves at a breakneck pace, with the author seeming thoroughly to enjoy his contrivances. Virtually every chapter ends with a cliffhanger: not easy, considering the amount of plain old talking that gets done. And Sophie and Langdon are sent on the run, the better to churn up a thriller atmosphere. To their credit, they evade their pursuers as ingeniously as they do most everything else.

When being followed via a global positioning system, for instance, it is smart to send the sensor flying out a 40-foot window and lead pursuers to think you have done the same. Somehow the book manages to reconcile such derring-do with remarks like, "And did you know that if you divide the number of female bees by the number of male bees in any beehive in the world, you always get the same number?"

"The Da Vinci Code" is breezy enough even to make fun of its characters' own cleverness. At one point Langdon is asked by his host whether he has hidden a sought-after treasure carefully enough. "Actually," Langdon says, unable to hide his grin, "that depends on how often you dust under your couch."

11.Why does the writer use the word “wow” to describe the novel The Da Vinci

Code ?

Because the word reads the same backwards

Because it is also linked to the sport of football

Because the novel is imbued with perplexing enigmas and smartly wrought Because the novel is a bestseller

12.According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?

A) Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code” has published so far four novels.

B) The Da Vinci Code begins with a mysterious murder case in the Gallery of Luvre.

C) In his earlier novels, Dan Brown has created characters like Sophie Neveu.

The Da Vinci Code wins the popularity among women because Dan Brown is a fervent feminist.

13.It can be inferred from the passage that Harry Potter is all the following

EXCEPT________.

A)It is also a bestseller around the world

B)It attracts readers with heart-throbbing suspense.

C)It is characterized by hoax and unreliable plots

D)It has achieved immense popularity with readers

14.The major factor that contributes to the success of The Da Vinci Code is

__________________ .

A)the engrossing prologue

B)the depiction of the female protagonist Sophie Neveu

C)the breakneck pace and a cliffhanger at the end of almost every chapter

D)the colorful description of the cleverness of the characters

15.The writer’s attitude towards “The Da Vinci Code” is ________ .

A)c ritical

B)indifferent

C)affirmative

D)s arcastic

Questions 16-20

There may be nothing more American than the home-mortgage deduction which came into being in 1913 - two years before the New York Yankees wore pinstripes. This deduction has helped make the American Dream affordable and has contributed to a run-up in the homeownership rate to 69%from 44% during World War II. In recent years, the mortgage deduction hasn’t just helped folks get into a house, it has given them the most valuable tool for managing their finances since the piggy bank:tax-deductible home-equity loans and lines of credit. Just try to find a rate on a credit card or construction loan that, after adjusting for taxes, comes to around 4%, as it does with home-equity borrowing. People have been tapping into this low-cost source of funds for college tuition, vacations and other spending that bailed us out of the last recession.

Now they want to take it away. A presidential panel last week suggested eliminating the interest deduction on all types of home-equity borrowing and replacing it with a 15% tax credit for a principal residence. Is this lunacy? From the homeowner’s perspective, it sure seems like it.

Lawmakers have toyed with curbing the mortgage deduction for 30 years, both for utilitarian reasons (to boost tax revenue) and philosophical ones (to make the tax code less favorable to the wealthy). Yet each time the idea has surfaced it has been swatted away amid public outrage and the battle cries of every real estate lobbyist not sunning at his second home on Fiji. This time the outrage may be even more shrill, given the fears of a real estate bubble about to burst. “We are raising the loudest possible alarms,” said Tom Stevens, president of the National Association of Realtor, which along with the Mortgage Bankers Association and other industry players concludes that losing the deduction would drive home prices as much as 15% lower, sap consumer confidence and imperil the economy. “You could not pick a worse time to bring this up,” says Edward Yingling, president of the American Bankers Association. “The housing market is already testy.”

Indeed, mortgage rates rose last week to 6.31% for the average 30-year, fixed-rate deal - the highest level in 16 months. With higher borrowing costs, mortgage applications have been falling and home prices have been leveling off in many markets. Taking away the mortgage deduction would further boost the cost of buying even proponents of scrapping the deduction concede that home prices would take a hit, though they say the brunt would be taken at the high end of the market-homes at

$1million and up.

Yet from a broader economic perspective, dropping mortgage interest deductions has a certain appeal. For starters, it’s only one part of a program that would reform the tax code without changing the burden on the average American. It would raise some taxes only as much as it cuts others. The real target is the alternative minimum tax (AMT), designed years ago to prevent millionaires from avoiding tax, but nowincreasingly encroaching upon the middle class. Next year the AMT will raise the burden of 21 million taxpayers earning as little as $75,000. But to replace the $12 trillion that the tax would bring in over the next 10 years, something sacred had to go, and that’s where mortgage deductions come in. Of course, not extending the recent tax cut due to expire by 2010 (capital gains, estate, child credit) would do the same trick, economists say. But under the President’s orders, that option was off-limits.

On some levels the mortgage deduction has outlived its usefulness, anyway. Homeownership in the U.S. is among the highest in the world. Deductible mortgage interest appears to be subsidizing vacation homes and McMansions now, not

entry-level housing. As a nation we are throwing so many resources at real estate that we may be under investing in other critical parts of the economy. While spending on homes in at a record 18% of GDP, our savings rate is nil and the stock market is going nowhere.

But don’t worry: the proposal won’t get past the blueprints soon.” We all realize the home mortgage deduction is near and dear to the taxpayer,” says James Poterba, an economist at M.I.T. who was on the panel.” But whenever we get to the moment of truth, Congress and the President are going to have to look at it. We believe we’ve provided important guidelines.” In fact, the debate may have another, hidden benefit. If it stirs concern,maybe we’ll start to rethink our move-up plans, put our money someplace more productive - and gently let air out of the housing bubble before it’s too late.

16.According to the 1st paragraph, the following are the benefits of home-mortgage deduction EXCEPT_____________.

A)helping average Americans get their own houses

B)hiking the homeownership rate for the past half century

C)promoting tax-deductible home loans and lines of credit

D)relieving the repercussion of the last recession

17.Which of the following is NOT the reasons realtors are strongly against curbing the mortgage deduction?

A)It might lead to the real estate bubble burst

B)Housing prices may dip and consumers would be encouraged

C)The real estate market currently cannot afford such big changeD)It would be a heavy blow to the market after the recent ascent of mortgage rates

18.Which of the following is TRUE according to 5th paragraph?

A) Mortgage deduction is somehow appealing in a broader economic sense.

B) The effect of AMT now was in line with the original purpose of its designers.

C) Since AMT is about to be eliminated, the loss in tax has to be redeemed from

home-mortgage deduction.

D) The President’s order rules out the possibility of extending recent home-mortgage

deduction

19.The reasons why the writer believes that the mortgage deduction is somehow not

functioning are the following EXCEPT________

A) It is not mainly used for the entry-level housing of Americans.

B) The value of real estate market is somehow overestimated.

C) The slump in stock market and the tiny savings rate can be attributed to the

overheating real estate market.

D) Vacation homes and McMansions are purchased by millionaires.

20.Who among the following are against the presidential panel’s proposal to drop the

interest deduction on home-equity?

A) Congress and President

B) Tom Stevens

C) the author

D) New York YankeesSECTION 3: TRANSLATION TEST (30 minutes)

Directions: Translate the following passage into Chinese and write your version in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET.

On his 10-day trip to Asia this week, President George W. Bush is likely to get a polite reception for his ambitious agenda. He wants to rally allies to the war on terror, the confrontation with North Korea and the expansion of transpacific trade. He’ll be asking Japan and China to allow their currencies to get stronger, so they will find it cheaper to buy more goods form struggling U.S. manufacturers. Neither the Japanese nor the Chinese will say no outright, but they won’t say yes, either. Below the polite ambiguities, something disturbing is happening, at least from an American viewpoint.

For all its military power, political clout and economic might, America could be losing its influence in what is arguably the most dynamic region of the world. Big changes are happening in Asia, for which America’s policies are increasingly out of step. Washington’s preoccupations--- the mess in Iraq, the jobless recovery and the escalating fiscal deficit at home--- are not Asia’s preoccupations. When Bush looks into the future, he sees an American Century with a troubled story line dominated by the fight against terror. When Asians look into the future, they see an Asian Century dominated by rising Prosperity and the emergence of China, with terror a minor subplot.下载本文