[A] shoppers are usually strident, frustrated and impatient

　　[B] shoppers often take businesses to court to settle them

　　[C] businesses use new technology instead of employees

　　[D] businesses are keen on keeping customers, not getting them

　　23. What has changed at Vancouver Better Service Bureau in the past five years？

　　[A] More effective.

　　[B] Less bureaucracy.

　　[C]More business.

　　[D] Better staff.

　　24. Young clerks often lack interpersonal skills chiefly because they_______________ .

　　[A] are skilled in dealing with machines not people

　　[B] are not trained in simple manners at home

　　[C] fall victims to generational change

　　[D] take retailing to be a temporary job

　　25. The author's attitude towards businesses and bad service is_______________ them.

　　[A] attacking [B] understanding

　　[C] regretting [D]warning

　　Text 2

　　The United States is the United Nations' biggest deadbeat. Conservatives in Congress, led by Senator Jessie Helms, stopped Washington from paying its dues until the UN reduced its as??sessment and made other changes. Now, thanks to the hard work Richard Holbrook, America’s UN representative, and for peacekeeping. Mr. Helms, who has praised the deal, should release the dues he has been holding hostage—$ 582 million of the $1.3 billion the UN says it is owed.

　　The new formula would reduce the US contribution to the general UN budget to 22 percent from the current level of 25 percent—a symbolic difference of only $ 34 million a year. Washing??ton, which has been paying just over 30 percent of the peacekeeping budget, would now pay 27 percent—a difference of $ 80 million to $ 120 million a year—and that percentage will drop fur??ther. While poor countries would not pay more, the dues of other wealthy nations would rise un??der the new system.

　　The agreement would probably not have been reached without the intervention of the media magnate Ted Turner, who is already contributing $ 1 billion to UN programs over 10 years. Mr. Turner gave $ 34 million to cover the one-year gap during which other nations prepare to raise their contributions. His offer should embarrass Congress, which forced diplomats to waste their influence at the UN in months of negotiations to save a sum that is modest by federal budget stan??dards.

　　US debts reduced the UN's ability to reimburse nations that contributed peacekeepers to UN missions worldwide. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Jordan and other poor countries essentially made up for the absence of US financial support. Since Washington benefits from peacekeepers, which damp down conflicts without US troops, It should not be discouraging nations from sending them.

　　Washington's natural allies at the UN were concerned that the US wanted influence without meeting its treaty obligations. Some of them withheld support for US proposals. Mr. Helms should also end his hold on an additional $244 million in back dues, whose release he has conditioned on a reduction in US dues for specialized UN agencies such as UNICEF and the UN refugee organization. These agencies need full support. Switch by Mr. Helms would

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