07年考研英语专业考前基础水平模考测试卷二（2）

Passage 4

Having said all of this, I should, perhaps, locate myself. I teach and write about a loose and baggy territory called las Americas, the Americas, and most often about the part of that category referred to as Latin America. This latter space includes nations, of course,but the demarcation is far more flexible because of its plural referent. The writers who inhabit this territory possess dual citizenship, for they are self-avowed "Latin American" writers at the same time that they are also Mexican, Argentine, Peruvian, or Cuban. In fact, they arc often engaged deeply in describing their own national cultures and are far from ready to throw out the baby with the globalizing bathwater. Mexico is a particularly interesting case of the use of nation as a defense against the leveling pressures of globalization — a nationalism of resistance, in Wallerstein's terms, rather than a nationalism of domination. For example, the much debated NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement —or the TLC, Tratado de Libre Comercio —opened Mexico's borders to American commercial onslaughts in the early 1990s, but in cultural matters, the treaty encodes a very different attitude. The Free Trade Agreement contains an Annex that provides special protection to Mexico's cultural industries. Some of its provisions are as follows: 1) The use of the Spanish language is required for the broadcast, cable or multipoint distribution system of radio and television, except when the Secretaria de Gobemacion authorizes the use of another language; 2) A majority of the time of each day's live broadcast programs must feature Mexican nationals; 3) The use of die Spanish language or Spanish subtitles is required for advertising that is broadcast or otherwise distributed in the territory of Mexico; and 4) Thirty percent of screen time of every theatre, assessed on an annual basis, may be reserved for films produced by Mexican persons either within or outside the territory of Mexico. I should also like to mention that it was Canada that insisted on cultural industry protection clauses in the North American Free Trade Agreement originally and the Canadian government achieved partial success, at best. In comparison, protections of cultural industries are common throughout the European Union: France passed recently legislation requiring that French radio stations devote forty percent of airtime to French music, and Spain also passed a law requiring that one-fourth to one-third of all movies shown in Spanish theaters to be of Spanish origin, England has long protected its movie industry: the great film director Michael Powell got his start, as did other British directors during the 1930s, making what were called quota quickies. So, even as I suggest that comparatists may want to review our nationalist institutional and disciplinary structures in the light of global mobilities, nations continue to protect their cultures against those same forces.

Questions:

59. The phrase "plural referent" in line 4 refers to .

A. the nations B. the writers C. the Americas D. the cultures

60. The phrase " throwing out the baby with the bathwater" probably means .

A. embracing the globalizing force

B. discarding whatever is contaminated by globalization

C. taking advantage of globalization to foster national cultures

D. no discrimination should be made between national and international cultures

61. It can be inferred from the passage mat Mexico is a country that .

A. rejects foreign cultures B. is afraid of foreign culture

C. protects national culture D. protects national commerce

62. Cultural industries include .

A. radio and televison B. newspapers and magazines

C. movies and music D. all of them

63. The provisions contained in the Annex to the Free Trade Agreement seem to focus on

A. language B. territory C. culture D. citizenship

64. Which of me following statements is not true?

A. Latin American countries protect their national industries.

B. North American countries protect their national industries.

C. European countries protect their national industries.

D. Western superpowers are not afraid of being globalized.