BEC中级阅读强化训练题（1）

Questions 1 – 5 are based on this passage, mark one letter (A, B or C) on your answer sheet.

Banks

Banks are as likely as any other business to suffer the consequences of an economic recession. Their business customers will suffer from falling sales and losses which will reflect in a surge of bad debts as business loans fail to be required. Their private customers are unlikely to fare better. For them the problem becomes redundancy and meeting the normal household bills.

The problem is compounded because banking is becoming increasingly international. The customers are not confined to their banks’ national boundaries, but spread across the world. Even the resources of a giant banking group like Midland or National Westminster are not enough to finance oil exploration or the development of satellite communication systems and this explains the growth of banking consortia. Banks from all the developed countries of the world join forces to supply the capital required for some of the most ambitious (and risky) projects. Unless these international ventures are successful the banks are faced with the problem of collecting debts from customers in countries which are often politically unstable. As if this were not enough, the banks in the UK are also confronted with foreign banks which are beginning to look covetously towards our domestic market for financial services.

Another problem for the banks is the increasing competition between our various financial institutions. At one time there was a clear-cut distinction between the banks and the building societies. The building societies collected savings from ordinary members of the public and lent that money to people who wanted to buy their own homes. In the past banks were not interested in such long term loans, but in recent years they have shifted their ground. They are now increasingly prepared to grant loans to house purchasers and in response the building societies are offering cheque facilities to their own depositors. The result is that the dividing line between banks and building societies is becoming blurred as the competition warms up. The public at large are the beneficiaries.

Technology provides both opportunities and threats to the banking community. Credit cards have made it easier for the public to buy goods and services and in doing so to run up debts which, when converted into formal borrowings, are very profitable from the banks’ point of view. Similarly, the cash dispensing units which give customers greater access to their funds are likely to be popular, particularly among “down-market” customers. However, cash dispensing units are cheaper than cashiers and, while this may increase the profitability of banks, it is also putting pressure on the Staff Departments to review their recruitment policies.

The major clearing banks report that half the cash withdrawn from branches is taken out of cash dispensing machines – dumb bankers as they are called. Ten years ago, for every National Westminster transactions through a cash dispenser, 15 were conducted over the counter. Now the two systems are level-pegging. The banks and building societies are both affected, but hope they will be able to use the staff freed to sell and service more sophisticated products.

1. The best title for this passage may be ____________

2. Banking consortia grow because ___________.

3. The building societies usually _____________

4. A cash dispensing machine is a(n) ________________

5. The dumb bankers here refer to ____________

A	the silent bank staff
B	the cash dispensers
C	the reticent accountants

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