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On trade,President Donald Trump has launched lots of investigations,withdrawn from one deal and started the renegotiation of another.But this week is the first time he has put up a big new barrier On January 22nd he approved broad and punitive duties,of up to 30%on imports of solar panels and up to 50%on imports of washing machines.His backers say that the measure,which affects aroundS 10bn of imports,will protect American workers.His critics cling to the hope that the damage will be mild.Both are wrong.Start with the claims made by the administration.Workers are also consumers,and Mr Trump's actions will whack them.Tariffs raise prices and dull competition.Whirlpool Corporation,the washing machine maker which asked for the duties,knows as much.When,n 2006,it merged with maytag,arival,it quelled concerns about its high market share by pointing to competition from abroad.One study found that clothes-dryer prices rose by 14%after the merger.For washing machines,where import competition was fiercer,prices were unchanged The solar industry is a clearer case.It has about 260,000 workers,a mere 2,000 of whom were making solar cells and panels at the end of 2016.The government reckons that the fastest-growing occupation over the next ten years will be that of solar installer.The Solar Energy Industries Association,a body that is enraged by the new tariffs,reckons that the industry will support up to 23,000 fewer jobs because of them.Meanwhile,as if to underline the irony,the two companies that asked for protection are unlikely to be saved And do not forget that the tariffs may harm American industry more broadly.Restricting markets for imports tends to spark retaliation that restricts markets for exports-especially when,as with these latest tariffs,they affect everyone.China,supposedly the focus of American ire,produces 60%of the world,solar cells and is responsible for 21%of America's imports.But South Korea will also be hit,and its government is poised to dispute America's action at the World Trade Organisation.Other casualties include Mexico,Canada and the European Union That Mr Trump has stayed within the rules is small comfort:they give him enormous scope to poison world trade.And it would be wrong to skate over the differences between his administration and its predecessors.The last time this particular safeguard was applied was in 2002.It is especially belligerent.Past presidents remained wary of hurting American consumers,and mindful of international repercussions.Mr.Trump,by contrast,seems to hold a steadfast belief that protectionism works.His rhetoric-and now his actions-invite aggrieved petitioners to apply for help.The logic of his stance on trade is to use tariffs not sparingly,but repeatedly and aggressively.Mr Trump is now open for business,just not the healthy sort
The case of Whirlpool Corporation mentioned in Paragraph 2 intends to
A.explain how and why workers suffer from Trump's policy
B.prove the benefits of raising tariffs to American public
C.highlight the importance of merges among corporations
D.illustrate the tactics used against the foreign competitors
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People are,on the whole,poor at considering background information when making individual decisions.At first glance this might seem like a strength that 1 the ability to make judgments which are unbiased by 2 factors.But Dr.Uri Simonsohn speculated that an inability to consider the big 3 was leading decision-makers to be biased by the daily samples of information they were working with.4,he theorised that a judge 5 of appearing too soft 6 crime might be more likely to send someone to prison 7 he had already sentenced five or six other defendants only to probation on that day.To 8 this idea,he turned to the university-admissions process.In theory,the 9 of an applicant should not depend on the few others 10 randomly for interview during the same day,but Dr Simonsohn suspected the truth was 11.He studied the results of 9,323 MBA interviews,12 by 31 admissions officers.The interviewers had 13 applicants on a scale of one to five.This scale 14 numerous factors into consideration.The scores were 15 used in conjunction with an applicant's score on the Graduate Management Admission Test,or GMAT,a standardised exam which is 16 out of 800 points,to make a decision on whether to accept him or her.Dr Simonsohn found if the score of the previous candidate in a daily series of interviewees was 0.75 points or more higher than that of the one 17 that,then the score for the next applicant would 18 by an average of 0.075 points.This might sound small,but to 19 the effects of such a decrease a candidate would need 30 more GMAT points than would otherwise have been 20.
A.fond
B.fearful
C.capable
D.thoughtless
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“There is one and only one social responsibility of business,”wrote Milton Friedman,a Nobel prize-winning economist“That is,to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits.”But even if you accept Fiedman’s premise and regard corporate social responsibility（CSR）policies as a waste of shareholders money,things may not be absolutely clear-cut.New research suggests that CSR may create monetary value for companies–at least when they are prosecuted for corruption.The largest firms is America and Britain together spend more than$15 billion a year on CSR,according to an estimate by EPG,a consulting firm,This could add value to their businesses in three ways.First,consumers may take CSR spending as a“signal”that a company’s products are of high quality.Second,customers may be willing to buy a company’s products as an indirect way to donate to the good causes is helps.And third,through a more diffuse“halo effect,”whereby its good deeds earn it greater consideration from consumers and others.Previous studies on CSR have had trouble differentiating these effects because consumers can be affected by all three.A recent study attempts to separate them by looking at bribery prosecutions under America’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act（FCPA）.It argues that since prosecutors do not consume a company's products as part of their investigations,they could be influenced only by the halo effect.The study found that,among prosecuted firms,those with the most comprehensiveCSR programmes tendedto getmore lenient penalties.Their analysis ruled out the possibility that it was firms'political influence,rather than their CSR stand,that accounted for the leniency:Companies that contributed more to political campaigns did not receive lower fines.In all,the study concludes that whereas prosecutors should only evaluate a case based on its merits,they do seen to influenced by a company’s record in CSR."We estimate that either eliminating a substantial labour-rights concern,such as child labour,or increasing corporate giving by about 20%results in fines that generally are 40%lower than the typical punishment for bribing foreign officials,"says one researcher.Researchers admit that their study does not answer the question of how much businesses ought to spend on CSR.Nor does it reveal how much companies are banking on the halo effect,rather than the other possible benefits,when they decide their do-gooding policies.But at least have demonstrated that whencompanies get into trouble with the law,evidence of good character can win In all,the study concludes that whereas prosecutors should only evaluate a case based on its merits,they do seen to influenced by a company’s record in CSR."We estimate that either eliminating a substantial labour-rights concern,such as child labour,or increasing corporate giving by about 20%results in fines that generally are 40%lower than the typical punishment for bribing foreign officials,"says one researcher.Researchers admit that their study does not answer the question of how much businesses ought to spend on CSR.Nor does it reveal how much companies are banking on the halo effect,rather than the other possible benefits,when they decide their do-gooding policies.But at least have demonstrated that whencompanies get into trouble with the law,evidence of good character can win them a less costly punishment.
Theexpression"more lenient"（Line 2,Para.4）is closestin meaning to.
A.more effective.
B.less controversial.
C.less severe.
D.more lasting.
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Growing bodies need movement and（ ）,but not just in ways that emphasize competition.
A.care
B.nutrition
C.exercise
D.leisure
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To become wealthier,a country needs strong growth in productivity-the output of goods or services from given inputs of labor and capital.For most people,In theory at least,higher productivity means the expectation of rising wages and abundant job opportunities Productivity growth in most of the worlds rich countries has been dismal since around 2004.Espe-cially vexing is the sluggish pace of what economists call total factor productivity--the part hat accounts for the contributions of innovation and technology.In a time of facebook smartphones,self-driving cars,and computers that can beat a person at just about any board game,how can the key economic measure of technological progress be so pathetic?Economists have tagged this the productivity paradox Some argue that because today's technologies are not nearly as impressive as we think.The leading proponent of that view,Northwestern University economist Robert Gordon,contends that compared with breakthroughs like indoor plumbing and the electric motor,today's advances are small and of limited economic benefit.Others think productivity is in fact increasing but we simply don't know how to measure things like the value delivered by Google and Facebook,particularly when many of the benefits are‘free.Both views probably misconstrue what is actually going on.It's likely that many new technologies are used to simply replace workers and not to create new tasks and occupations.What's more,the technologies that could have the most impact are not widely used Driverless vehicles,for instance,are still not on most roads.Robots are rather dumb and remain rare outside manufacturing.And AI is mysterious for most companies.What's happening now may be a replay of the late 80s,says Erik Brynjolfsson,another MIT economist.Breakthroughs in machine learning and image recognition are"eye-popping";the delay in implementing them only reflects how much change that will entail."It means swapping in AI and thinking your business,and it might mean whole new business models he says.In this view,AI is what economic historians consider a"general-purpose technology.These are inventions like the steam engine,electricity,and the internal-combustion engine.Eventually they transformed how we lived and worked.Illustrating the potential of AI as a general-purpose technology,Scott Stern of MITs Sloan School of Management describes it as a"method for a new method of invention But he also warns against expecting such a change to show up in macroeconomic measurements anytime soon."If I tell you we're having an innovation explosion,check back with me in 2050 and I'll show you the impacts,Scott Stern says.General-purpose technologies,he adds,"take a lifetime to reorganize around
According to Paragraph 1,productivity refers to
A.the criteria to measure a powerful country
B.the impetus for people to work harder
C.the capacity to produce goods and services
D.the prerequisite for innovation and high-tech
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