PASSAGE 39 Look After Your Voice Often speakers at a meeting experience dry mouths and ask for a glass of water. You can solve the problem by activating the saliva in you mouth. First gently bite the edges of your tongue with your teeth. Or, press your entire tongue to the bottom of your mouth and hold it there until the saliva flow. Or you can imagine that you are slicing a big juicy lemon and sucking the juice. Before you begin your talk, be kind to your voice, Avoid milk or creamy drinks which coat your throat. Keen your throat wet by drinking a little sweetened warm tea or diluted fruit juice. If you sense that you are losing your voice, stop talking completely. Save your voice for your speech. You may feel foolish using paper to write notes, but the best thing you can do is to rest your voice. If you need to see a doctor, perhaps you can get some advice from a professional singer. In the meantime, do not even talk in a low voice. What about drinking alcohol to wet your throat? I advice you not to touch alcohol before speaking. The problem with alcohol is that one drink gives you a little confidence. The second drink gives you even more confidence. Finally you will feel all-powerful and you will feel you can do everything, but in fact your brain and your mouth do not work together properly. Save the alcohol until after you finish speaking. Perhaps you want to accept the advice, but you may wonder if you can ever change the habits of a lifetime. Of course you can. Goethe, who lived before indoor skating rinks or swimming pools, said, "We learn to skate in the summer and swim in the winter". Take this message to heart and give yourself time to develop your new habits. If you are wiling to change, you will soon be able to say that you will never forget these techniques because they became a part of your body. EXERCISE: 1. All the following are mentioned in the passage about how to solve the problem of dry mouths EXCEPT A) to bite the edges of your tongue. B) To ask for a glass of water. C) To imagine you are having a sour fruit. D) To take cool milk. 2. What does the writer suggest when you feel you are losing your voice? A) Rest your voice. B) Drink some alcohol. C) Ask a singer to teach you how to protect your voice. D) Never go to sea a doctor. 3. What is the writer s advice about alcohol before you give a speech? A) Drink a little of it to feel all-powerful. B) Don t drink it. C) Dilute it with water. D) Drink it two hours before you make a speech. 4. What did Goethe say about skating and swimming? A) He said people could learn to skate when it was hot and swim when it was cold. B) He said people could learn to skate and swim when it was hot. C) He said people could learn to skate and swim when it was cold. D) He said people could learn to skate when it was cold and swim when it was hot. 5. Why does the writer cite Goethe s advice? A) To encourage one to go in for sports. B) To tell that Goethe had a strong willpower. C) To prove one can change one s habits. D) To demonstrate was creative. KEY: D A B A C PASSAGE 40 Buick in China The first Buick model off the line was just the beginning of General Motors long march into the Chinese market. A total of 23,000 cars rolled out of the factory in 1999. This year, Shanghai GM Buick aims to produce 50,000 cars. It is interesting to review the long negotiations with the Chinese government to set up Shanghai GM Buick. The biggest issue was who would supply the car parts and how the parts would get from the factory to the Buick plant. A car is made up of more than 30,000 parts. Parts manufacturers in China don t have the technological know-how to make all the necessary parts. Therefore, at the beginning, about half the necessary parts will be shipped to Shanghai from North America. These parts are made at GM s Tillsonburg. Ontario facility. The trains carry the parts over 3,000 miles to the Port of Vancouver. From Vancouver, the parts are shipped to Shanghai. All told, the door-to-door delivery time is 17 days. But there may be a 42-day delay between steel plates leaving the steel works in America and arriving in Shanghai. To prevent the long-distance shipping and delay, Shanghai GM Buick has asked Shanghai Baoshan steelworks to produce plates of similar quality. "Imported car parts are our biggest headache," says Jay Hunt, "local suppliers are very responsive." To our surprise, however, the cost of localized production is much higher than buying from overseas. The reason is that although labor costs are low in China, wages comprise only 20% of the cost of producing car parts. Small-scale production in China makes production costs very high. The deputy general manager, Laurence Zahner said, "Only if the price of domestic parts 0drops 30% shall we be able to qualify for the international market." Thankfully, a solution has appeared. Foreign car parts makers are coming to the Yangtse River Delta to set up joint ventures. Shanghai GM Buick will depend on those parts makers for car parts. Perhaps the Buick plant will not worry about the agreement with the Chinese partner any longer. The agreement says that in the first year of production, the Buick plant must have 42% of locally made parts, and in the second year, the locally made parts rise to 60%, and in the third year, 80%. 1. What was the biggest issue in the negotiation between the Chinese government and General Motors? A) Annual production of cars. B) The location of Shanghai GM Buick. C) Car parts and their shipment. D) The price of domestic car parts. 2. How many car parts is a car made up of? A) 23,000 B) 30,000 C) 50,000 D) 62,000 3. Who was the first supplier of the car parts to Shanghai GM Buick? A) Baosteel steelworks. B) Joint ventures in China. C) GM s Tillsonburg. D) The Buick plant in the Yangtse River Delta. 4. How does Shanghai GM Buick feel about the agreement on localization with Chinese partner? A) Disappointed. B) Hesitated. C) Unhappy. D) Confident.