［C］ should hardly lose venture capital and bank loans.
［D］ might become tired ideas that cannot be implemented.

38. In the current century, financial companies will
［Ａ］ take great pains to counter any other rival business firms.
［B］ repel deregulation and globalization of financial service.
［C］ employ information technology to make more profits.
［D］ provide money for IT industry to create advanced software.

39. The startling growth of bank mergers indicates that
［Ａ］ scale is of vital importance to the survival of financial systems.
［B］ financial-service companies need to turn out more creative products.
［C］ demand for investment of capital is becoming greater and greater.
［D］ big companies want to risk their money on more than one result.

40. Companies or families may lose their rivalry in financing if they
［Ａ］ defy unfair deals with customers.
［B］ make bargains profitable.
［C］ cause innovation to be timely.
［D］ put all their eggs in one basket.

Part B

Directions:
In the following article, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41—45, choose the most suitable one from the list A—G to fit into each of the numbered blank. There are two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the gaps. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1.(10 points)

    A great many articles and books discussing environmental and resource problems begin with the proposition that there is an environmental and resource crisis. If this means that the situation of humanity is worse now than in the past, then the idea of a crisis—and all that follows from it—is dead wrong. In almost every respect important to humanity, the trends have been improving, not deteriorating.

    Our world now supports 5.6 billion people. In the nineteenth century, the earth could sustain only 1 billion. And 10,000 years ago, only 1 million people could keep themselves alive. People are now living more healthily than ever before.

    One would expect lovers of humanity—people who hate war and worry about famine in Africa—to jump with joy at this extraordinary triumph of the human mind and human organization over the raw forces of nature.41).___

    It is amazing but true that a resource shortage resulting from population or income growth usually leaves us better off than if the shortage had never arisen.42).__

    The prices of food, metals, and other raw materials have been declining by every measure since the beginning of the nineteenth century, and as far back as we know; that is, raw materials have been getting less scarce throughout history, defying the common sense notion that if one begins with an inventory of a resource and uses some up, there will be less left. This is despite, and indirectly because of, increasing population.43).__

    Also, we do not say that a better future happens automatically or without effort.44).__
We are confident that the nature of the physical world permits continued improvement in humankind’s economic lot in the long run, indefinitely. Of course, there are always newly arising local problems, shortages, and pollution, resulting from climate or increased population and income and new technologies. Sometimes temporary large-scale problems arise. 45).__ That is the great lesson to be learned from human history.