Passage 1
The International Monetary Fund recently forecast that East Asia is set to continue its economic boom for the next few years. Yet Sony announced that it will no longer export television sets from Japan because it cannot price them competitively.
Listen to Sony. Even in a growing market such as Asia, costs count. And for many businesses, Asia is beginning to cost too much.
East Asia’s economic miracle is best summed up as the biggest price undercut in history. The region grew because it was the cheapest source for the low-technology consumer goods that the West craved. Hong Kong and South Korea did not invent new or more efficient manufacturing techniques; they simply bought market share with low wages.
But the same market force that led buyers from America and Europe to Taiwan and Japan 30 years ago is now working against Asian nations as they try to upgrade their industries. Years ago, an Asian factory turning out shirts was competing against huge, unionized factories in North Carolina and Manchester. Today, a shirt-maker in south China has to compete with 100 other guys in his own country, 20 factories in India, 5 in the Philippines and reinvigorated and highly efficient new plants in the U.S and Europe.
Sony, Hewlett-Packard and Ford need a competitive business environment that is based on more than cheap pairs of hands. In much of East Asia, inadequate roads, seaports and airports, telecommunications and other infrastructure, high rents, shortage of managers and skilled technicians, corruption and, above all, government interference are now the deciding factors when multinational corporations choose to keep production in North America or Europe rather than switch it to Asia.
Every day, I see costs placing Asian nations at a disadvantage compared with their “cheaper” Western competitors. In shipping, for instance, terminal expenses in Japan and Hong Kong are two or three times higher than those of the U.S.A.’s busiest West coast ports. To truck a container 100 miles down from southern China to Hong Kong costs more than to ship the same container from the United States or Europe to Hong Kong.
42.The author suggests that businesses should pay more attention to Sony’s decision for the simple reason that Sony’s idea actually represents that of the Japanese manufacturers.
A、True
B、False
【正确答案】：B
【名师解析】:题目中提到，索尼公司宣布不再从日本出口电视机，因为它无法以竞争性的价格定价。文章进一步指出，即使在亚洲这样的增长市场中，成本也是一个重要因素。然后，作者通过提到亚洲的经济奇迹，强调了低成本劳动力在亚洲地区增长中的作用，但同时也指出，随着亚洲国家试图升级其产业，市场力量正在对他们产生不利影响。文章还提到了基础设施不足、高租金、管理人员和技术人员短缺、腐败和政府干预等问题，这些都是影响跨国公司选择在北美或欧洲而不是亚洲生产的因素。
选项A声称作者建议企业应该更多地关注索尼的决定，因为索尼的想法实际上代表了日本制造商的想法。然而，根据文章内容，作者并没有明确表示索尼的想法代表了所有日本制造商的想法，而是用索尼的例子来说明成本问题对企业决策的影响。因此，选项A的陈述是错误的，正确答案是B。
