PART TWO · Read the following text. · Choose the
best sentence from A--H to fill in each of the gaps. · For each gap
9--14, mark one letter A--H. · Do not use any letter more than
once.
Chinese banks have started offering car loans to help boost the Chinese
economy and allow domestic banks to prepare for competition after China’s
entrance to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Banks nationwide have only
issued some 10,000 such loans since the policy came into play in the second half
of 1998, Xinmin Evening News said. (9) that
the short term allowed, five years at maximum, make monthly payments an
unacceptably heavy burden, the newspaper said. (10)
, the average employed person would have to spend every penny they
earned for nearly 16 years to pay the 187,000 yuan price of the cheapest sedan
from Shanghai Volkswagen. Making matters worse, the country’s distribution of
wealth limits the helpfulness of car buyer financing. Few consumers are in the
income bracket where an auto purchase is only slightly out of reach, said
Michael Dunne, the president of Automotive Resource Asia, an industry
consultancy. Unlike the "bell curve" seen in the US economy, (11)
, the Chinese market is "a camel model", he said. Demand is either
from the wealthy dim who can afford luxury cars or the masse-- (12)
. "There isn’t much in-between," he said. According to a recent
analysis by the Shanghai Financial News daily, only about 7--8 percent of
households in Shanghai could realistically consider financing a car
purchase. Xu Zhengye, an official at the Shanghai car-loan center of the
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, said (13)
. "There are between 1,000 and 2,000 yuan in non-loan monthly
costs," he said, referring to parking, insurance, road-user taxes, petrol and
maintenance. "It would be cheaper to take a taxi everyday," he said. Local
governments further depress demand by limiting distribution of license plates
and charging exorbitant fees for their issue, according to an official at the
Shanghai Auto Industry Sales General Co. (14)
, but must bid at auctions held by the Public Security Bureau to get
one for any other model. The latter licenses, issued only occasionally in
small batches, regularly go for 100,000 yuan, the official said. "Of course
no producer wants to see such high license fees," he said, adding that the city
government uses them to prevent traffic congestion and control air
pollution. A. business was also poor because extraneous monthly car ownership
costs deterred applicants B. consumers in the city can freely obtain licenses
for cars built in Shanghai for 20,000 yuan C. car prices are so high D.
people who could only afford a car at vastly lower price E. people are not
all rich in China F. even in Shanghai where incomes are the highest in
China G. where the majority of potential buyers are in the middle-income
range H. although banks are willing to lend money