Car Culture Captivates China— Sales Boom Along with Potential Problems Words to Know 1.captivate v.迷住;迷惑 2.traction n.吸引力;魅力 3.stagnation n.停滞 4.haven n.港口;避难所 5.over-exuberant a.过多的 6.underlie v.位于......之下,成为......的基础 7.refashion v.再做;重制 8.proliferation n.增殖;扩散 9.spike n.长钉;钉鞋;女高跟鞋;道钉 10.populous a.人口多的;人口稠密的 11.outstrip v.超过 12.drain n.排水沟;消耗;排水 13.ravenous a.贪婪的;渴望的 14.dispatch v.分派;派遣 15.confluence n.汇合 16.wean v.使断奶;使丢弃;使断念 17.demise n.死亡;衰落 18.entrant n.进入者;新到者 19.saturate v.使饱和;浸透;使充满 Time Limit: 13' 1 From foreign luxury cars to the Chinese-made Geely,which retails for about$ 4, 000,the automobile has captivated China,gaining traction among people of increasingly wide incomes and backgrounds,with global implications for industry,the environment and energy. 2 More than 2 million passenger cars were sold in China in 2005,an increase of more than 80 percent from the year before, according to the State Information Center.China is now the single fastest-growing auto market in the world,and the second largest in Asia after Japan. 3 For the world’ s major carmakers,now suffering something close to stagnation from North America to Europe to Japan,China is the rare haven of swift growth and fat profit.Longer term, however, worries are deepening that over-exuberant investment is building too many car factories,pushing prices down so far that the good times will eventually yield to a more familiar China story—too much supply chasing too little demand,with low-cost,domestic producers capturing much of the market. 4 The rise of the auto also threatens to add another major source of greenhouse gas emissions,those believed to underlie the problem of global warming,to a world already struggling to limit the threat.China is now the second-largest source of such pollution after the United States.Over the next three decades,China’ s increase in gas emissions is expected to nearly equal the total of all industrial countries,according to the International Energy Agency. 5 The spread of the car in the rest of the world has proven to be a revolutionary force,remaking geography and social reality.So it goes here.Cars are refashioning China’ s cities,now choked with traffic.Bicycles are being gradually banned from Shanghai’ s larger streets to make way for the automobile,and old houses torn down to make space for wider roads and parking lots.Cars are changing how people shop,enabling the proliferation of big-box retail stores while expanding the confines of an enduring real estate boom.They are making life more dangerous,generating an alarming spike in fatal traffic accidents. 6 Above all,the car is intensifying China’ s search for new sources of energy at a time when the needs of the world’ s most populous country are outstripping supply.Industry remains the single largest drain on China’ s energy supply.But the ravenous appetite of the automobile is one reason why Beijing has dispatched engineers and dealmakers from Siberia to Angola to Indonesia in search of new oil. 7 A decade ago,gasoline for cars made up about 10 percent of China’ s demand for oil, according to State Statistics.Today, the number is closer to one-third.By the end of this decade, when private car ownership in China is expected to swell to nearly 28 million,gasoline is to make up more than two-fifths of China’ s total oil demand,according to the Development Research Center for China’ s State Council, the equivalent of the cabinet. 8 Concerned by this growth in consumption,China’ s government is now drafting new fuel economy standards,according to industry officials who spoke on condition they should not be named.While the new rules will initially have only a minor impact on China’ s auto fleet when they take effect next year,they are expected to force the production of more fuel-efficient cars when the second stage applies in 2008,the officials said. 9 The growth of cars and demand for the gasoline needed to fuel them is the product of a confluence of economic policies.Local governments,keen for new jobs in a country struggling with the demise of state industry,have encouraged the development of the auto making industry.They have handed out cheap land for factories,while facilitating investment loans from state banks.Over the last three years,state banks have funneled more than $ 6 billion into automaking,and there now are factories in 27 of China’ s 31 provinces,according to Rui Mingjie,Chairman of the Industrial Economics Department at Fudan University School of Management in Shanghai. 10 Financial regulators,intent on weaning state banks from lending to bankrupt state companies,have encouraged a boom in auto loans. 11 The biggest foreign automakers,from General Motors to Toyota Motor Corp.,have poured billions of dollars into building factories in China,chasing the vision of carving up a market with 1.3 billion people.Volkswagen now sells more cars in China than in the United States. 12 At the other end of the spectrum,Chinese companies are now saturating the market with cars that sell for between $ 4, 000 and $ 7, 000.Prices are dropping lower still as new entrants expand the supply—particularly deep-pocketed electronics companies—widening the potential ranks of car-ownership. 13 The QQ,which is the lowest-priced model from domestic automaker Chery,goes for about $ 6, 000 at the dealership in Shanghai’ s Gubei area.They sell about six of the cars each day, to customers who typically earn less than $ 8, 000 per year,according to Liu Jianhua,chief of sales. 14 China’ s embrace of the private automobile parallels the country’ s shift from its planned economy past toward a market-defined future.Once,the state provided the daily goods of life such as housing and transport.Now,people are left to fend for themselves while freed to pursue their own path. 15 Before China began its economic transition in the early 1980s,the sole buyer of vehicles was the state.Other than government officials,whose vehicles were provided through their jobs,virtually no one owned a car.By 1998,less than a third of car purchases were made by private individuals and families, according to the State Information Center.Last year,the number jumped to 65 percent.The latest development has families go back to the dealer for a second vehicle. (938 words) Comprehension Exercises: Multiple Choice Directions: For each of the following questions or incomplete statements,decide on the best choice.