The world as man knows it today is

The world as man knows it today is getting smaller and smaller because of technology such as the Internet and high speed modems. In fact, on March 3, 2005, a man flew entirely around the globe without refueling or stopping in a one-person jet. The world is changing the world, and as the 21st century continues, the global economy will play a larger and larger role. As Thomas Friedman so eloquently put it in Lexus and the Olive Tree, globalization is "the inexorable integration of markets, nation-states, and technologies to a degree never witnessed before."
A With today's technology it is possible for people to solicit business from the far side of the globe. B A company like Dell Computers can order parts from several different countries, take shipment in North Carolina where the new computers will be assembled, and then ship them to all regions of the globe . C An American oil firm can do a satellite survey in Siberia for oil deposits and then contract with a Russian oil firm to drill the actual well, while the petroleum engineer, acting as the project supervisor, remains in the US and runs the project by using a computer, a high speed Internet connection, and a cellular telephone for quick questions. D
A global economy poses some serious problems. If a company doesn't act fast enough, it can lose, and if the company loses heavily, what will happen to the employees working for the company, and then in turn what will happen to the stores that depend on those employees buying their goods? As can be seen, there is a definite trickle-down effect. How is the child who is about to graduate from high school supposed to decide on what career field to enter? A career field that is here today might be gone long before the child can graduate from college, so not only does it become vital that a person gain the needed knowledge to enter a given career field, but the person also needs to learn how to learn. Learning how to learn may prove to be even more necessary than the knowledge needed to enter a given career field. A person who is good at learning how to learn can quickly adapt to changes in the global economy by quickly preparing to enter other career fields if his job is here today, but gone in the morning.
If the world turns into a global economy, a person will need to be able to get along and work with people from different cultural backgrounds. However, unless a person has spent time living in different parts of the world, this might be hard to do. While many students from foreign countries, especially the Asian countries, come to the US to earn a graduate degree, how many students from the US spend even a semester abroad studying in another country? The answer to this question is of course a very small percentage.
While individuals from some of foreign countries and some individuals from the US and the US economy will adjust to globalization, will the rest of the world? Mass media are more than willing to continue to stir the pot of controversy as they not only have to learn how to report the positive news, but also dole out a continuous stream of negative news. When a person in a developing country sees all the cars on the streets of Beijing, of course that person wants a car so he can show his neighbor how wealthy he is, and all this does is promote unneeded consumption. Why does the person who has nowhere to go and no money to spend for travel want to own a car? The simple answer is because the media paint owning a car as a symbol of wealth and it is human nature to want to become wealthy or at least to appear wealthy.

On the positive side, as prices rise due to increased demands on scarce resources, there will be an incentive to find affordable alternatives. For example, as the price of oil rises and along with it the price of a gallon of gasoline, a point will be reached at which people are no longer willing to purchase gasoline so they can drive their cars, and they will demand both alternative transportation methods and cars which use another source of energy. A current online survey says $2.50 per gallon of gasoline is the point at which the people in the US will start making demands on the auto manufacturer, which will open up new career fields in a few countries that have the technology needed to meet the demands; however, people around the globe will work together on it.
1. The word “inexorable” in the passage is closest in meaning to
A. upward B. recent C. inevitable D. preposterous
2. The word “solicit” in the passage is closest in meaning to
A. lure B. sell C. help D. ask for
3. According to par.2, what can be inferred about the role of a project supervisor?
A. To make sure the project is finished correctly and on time
B. To hand-check each of the steps in a project
C. To assign each of the items that needs to be done in a project
D. To talk to everyone on a daily basis
4. According to the passage, people need to learn how to learn, otherwise
A. they will not move from the first grade to the second grade in elementary school
B. they will not be able to work in the same job throughout college
C. they will not be able to switch from one career to another as the global economy changes
D. they will not be able to graduate from college and become a member of the global economy
5. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the underlined sentence in
the passage?
A. The mass media are like a witch stirring her cauldron.
B.The mass media always report the truth since this keeps the ratings up and brings in the most
advertising revenue.
C.The mass media will report half-truths if it will keep their ratings up so they can sell advertising
D.The mass media report every angle of a story since reports are apolitical and never present
only one viewpoint.
6. In paragraph 5, what can be inferred from the description of the media about owning a car?
A. A car needs to be painted certain colors if it is going to show others a person is wealthy.
B. The media are so biased that they will provide paint if a person needs to paint his car so as to
project the car as a symbol of wealth.
C. The media slant the stories, so it will appear to viewers that only wealthy people own a car.
D. The members of the media don't own cars, so they are jealous of those wealthy people who do
own cars
7. Look at the four squares [■]in par.2that indicate where the following sentence could be added to
the passage.