It's been over a year since I _____ from the countryside.

We can learn from the passage that ______.

A．Mr. McNamara has been President of the World Bank over the last ten years

B．hard loans account for only a small percentage of the $ 7 billion loans per year

C．hard loans and soft loans charge the same rate of interest

D．the World Bank has changed the emphasis of its lending policies in the last decade

ange of household and electronic goods for some years. One year ago, it began using new suppliers from the country of Slabak, where labour is very cheap, for many of its household goods. In 20X4, Jungle Co also became a major provider of ‘cloud computing’ services, investing heavily in cloud technology. These services provide customers with a way of storing and accessing data and programs over the internet rather than on their computers’ hard drives.

All Jungle Co customers have the option to sign up for the company’s ‘Gold’ membership service, which provides next day delivery on all orders, in return for an annual service fee of $40. In September 20X5, Jungle Co formed its own logistics company and took over the delivery of all of its parcels, instead of using the services of international delivery companies.

Over the last year, there has been worldwide growth in the electronic goods market of 20%. Average growth rates and gross profit margins for cloud computing service providers have been 50% and 80% respectively in the last year. Jungle Co’s prices have remained stable year on year for all sectors of its business, with price competitiveness being crucial to its continuing success as the leading global electronic retailer.

The following information is available for Jungle Co for the last two financial years:

3. Administration expenses

Included in these costs are the costs of running the customer service department ($860,000 in 20X5; $1,900,000 in 20X6.) This department deals with customer complaints.

4. Non-financial data

Required:

Discuss the financial and non-financial performance of Jungle Co for the year ending 31 August 20X6.

Note: There are 7 marks available for calculations and 13 marks available for discussion.

circle could fail to. For four decades he has been lawyer, adviser and friend to many prominent companies and investors. Some consider him the most powerful person in Silicon Valley. Companies beg for his law firm to represent them. The 65-year-old chairman of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (WSG&R) has suddenly been thrust into the spotlight: first, for counselling many of the technology firms now under scrutiny for backdating stock options (and in some cases, serving on their boards); and more recently, as outside counsel to Hewlett-Packard (HP), for initially defending the board's dubious investigative practices.

WSG&R boasts 600 lawyers and represents around half of Silicon Valley's public companies, including Apple？ Sun Microsystems and Google. Last year it ranked first in private-equity and venture-capital deals, with nearly twice as many as its closest rival. Over the past five years WSG&R has worked on over 1,000 mergers and acquisitions, collectively worth over $260 billion.

The recent troubles cast a shadow over WSG&R's reputation. Although Mr. Sonsini is not accused of wrongdoing himself, many of his firm's clients are on the ropes. Former executives at Brocade Communications suffered criminal charges in July, Mr. Sonsini Served on Brocade's board until last year and his firm was its outside counsel. He also was on the boards of Pixar, Echelon, Lattice Semiconductor, LSI Logic and Novell all firms at which the issuing of stock options is being called into question.

WSG&R dismisses the idea that Mr. Sonsini faced a conflict of interest by acting as both director and legal adviser to so many firms and says he did not advise HP in its investigation of board members. Mr. Sonsini initially said it was "well done and within legal limits". It now seems it was neither.

At the beginning of the text, the author stresses ______.

A．the public ignorance of Larry Sonsini

B．the popularity of Larry Sonsini

C．the failure of California's technology

D．the public recognition of California's technology

听力原文： A significant effort will be waged this year to bring more state-owned land used for non-agricultural purposes into paid land-use contract which will boost land available for agriculture. These lease or contracts agreements will regulate land use while bringing the State income that went uncollected previously.

To avert the misuse or loss of State land during the transformation, the State Land Administration (SLA) and its local agencies will appraise land use rights before contracting leases, share purchases or other usage agreements. This effort will not only add to the State revenue and improve the management of the land, but will ensure the best use of land resources and control its redistribution.

Over the past year, some 714,000 hectares of cultivated land have been taken over by industrial and residential development, 14% more than in the previous year. The figure matched the 1992 total, the worst year of China's farmland shrinkage in the last five years.

(23)

A．How to increase farm land.

B．What is the biggest problem in agriculture.

C．How to satisfy the needs of the farmers.

D．A solution to problems in land use.

Clarinet Co (Clarinet) is a computer hardware specialist and has been trading for over five years. The company is funded partly through overdrafts and loans and also by several large shareholders; the year end is 30 April 2014.

Clarinet has experienced significant growth in previous years; however, in the current year a new competitor, Drums Design Co (Drums), has entered the market and through competitive pricing has gained considerable market share from Clarinet. One of Clarinet’s larger customers has stopped trading with them and has moved its business to Drums. In addition, a number of Clarinet’s specialist developers have left the company and joined Drums. Clarinet has found it difficult to replace these employees due to the level of their skills and knowledge. Clarinet has just received notification that its main supplier who provides the company with specialist electrical equipment has ceased to trade.

Clarinet is looking to develop new products to differentiate itself from the rest of its competitors. It has approached its shareholders to finance this development; however, they declined to invest further in Clarinet. Clarinet’s loan is long term and it has met all repayments on time. The overdraft has increased significantly over the year and the directors have informed you that the overdraft facility is due for renewal next month, and they are confident it will be renewed.

The directors have produced a cash flow forecast which shows a significantly worsening position over the coming 12 months. They are confident with the new products being developed, and in light of their trading history of significant growth, believe it is unnecessary to make any disclosures in the financial statements regarding going concern.

At the year end, Clarinet received notification from one of its customers that the hardware installed by Clarinet for the customers’ online ordering system has not been operating correctly. As a result, the customer has lost significant revenue and has informed Clarinet that they intend to take legal action against them for loss of earnings. Clarinet has investigated the problem post year end and discovered that other work-in-progress is similarly affected and inventory should be written down. The finance director believes that as this misstatement was identified after the year end, it can be amended in the 2015 financial statements.

Required:

(a) Describe the procedures the auditors of Clarinet Co should undertake in relation to the uncorrected inventory misstatement identified above. (4 marks)

(b) Explain SIX potential indicators that Clarinet Co is not a going concern. (6 marks)

(c) Describe the audit procedures which you should perform. in assessing whether or not Clarinet Co is a going concern. (6 marks)

(d) The auditors have been informed that Clarinet’s bankers will not make a decision on the overdraft facility until after the audit report is completed. The directors have now agreed to include some going concern disclosures.

Required:

Describe the impact on the audit report of Clarinet Co if the auditor believes the company is a going concern but that this is subject to a material uncertainty. (4 marks)

ances and cookware. But over the past month the quality of many of the goods on offer has improved. In part this is because scandals over toxic paint have brought closer scrutiny from inspectors and hence less corner-cutting. But it is also partly because of falling demand for its goods from other countries, which has given its manufacturers and local government a big incentive to work around the country's exportpromotion policies and to sell at home.

Its manufacturers are well aware that they operate in one of the few large markets that is still showing a pulse. Retail sales in October were up by 22% compared with the same month in 2007 -- a slight drop from 23.2% in September, but an impressive figure nonetheless. That certainly exaggerates the country's economic vigor, but it would be a stretch to believe that the country is in recession.

As domestic consumption increases, its export-oriented manufacturers are under siege (围攻). Figures announced on December 10th showed that exports fell by a startling 2.2% in November, compared with a year earlier. Analysts had expected an increase of around 15%; it was the first fall in exports for seven years. The news followed a government survey, released on December 1st, that showed a sharp decline in the fortunes of export manufacturers, confirming lots of anecdotal evidence. Diverting goods intended for export to the domestic market makes sense for factory owners, who want their firms to survive, and for local officials, who wish to maintain order.

As a result of pressure from its trading partners, these tax rebates (折扣) on exports had been contracting. But in November a new stimulus plan was announced that increased the rebates on more than 3,000 items. Evidently its officials hope the country can once again export its way to higher growth, despite the financial troubles in its main markets.

One solution is to route goods to the domestic market via a port city, so that they qualify as exports, but this takes time and money and strikes many operators as a huge waste of both. The sudden appearance of higher-quality goods suggests that officials are being less eager than usual in enforcing the export rules.

Its consumers, for their part, must surely be pleased that they can buy better products at low prices. A year ago, the boom(繁荣) was expected to be the means of breaking down the divide between its domestic and export-led economies. But perhaps a bust is what was required.

What has happened to the shelves of the country's shop over the past month？

A．All the goods were classified into different categories.

B．Toxic paint was forcibly taken out of shelves.

C．The quality of goods has been greatly improved.

D．There are fewer brands from the foreign countries.

A GROWING RESTAURANT CHAIN

Simon Dale, the chairman and founder of the Dalehouse restaurant chain, yesterday announced plans to open a further 20 restaurants and create 600 new jobs in the next four years. The group hopes to open 4 of the new restaurants by the end of this year, creating up to 120 jobs. The programme will result in a chain of over 100 Dalehouse restaurants in towns and cities all over the United Kingdom by the end of the four-year period.

The company also has a limited programme of expansion in other countries. There are plans for the company to open its third restaurant abroad towards the middle of next year as planning permission was recently received for a restaurant in the south of Spain. At the moment there is a Dalehouse restaurant in Germany and another in Denmark. Negotiations are already taking place about opening two more restaurants in Germany and three more in Spain.

Mr Dale said yesterday: 'Our plans are ambitious and there is no doubt that in some ways they are quite frightening. But we've been in business for twenty years and a lot of our staff have been with us for most of that time and, as a result, have experience of things growing at a fast rate.'

The Dalehouse chain currently has 82 restaurants, all in town centre locations. The group is planning now to expand further in residential areas. The company intends to continue its tradition of having most of its restaurants open from midday until midnight seven days a week. It will also continue to open restaurants in buildings which were originally designed for a different purpose.

Certain financial journalists wonder whether the company will be able to find enough cash to finance its plans. Mr Dale, however, remains positive. 'It is true,' he says, 'that we will not be able to finance the plans without some support from the banks, and we are in the process of arranging this at the moment. Most of the money, however, will come from the amount we have kept back from 'our profits for future investment in the business. We opened 4 restaurants last year so an expansion programme of 5 this year and 6 next would not be outside the normal rate of growth. We have had hardly any problems financing our expansion in the past and expect this to continue in the future.

After four years there will be

A．a total of 600 people employed by Dalehouse restaurants.

B．a Dalehouse restaurant in over 120 UK towns and cities.

C．20 more Dalehouse restaurants than there are at present.

unts drop by over 40 percent. Over this same period, the price of Eagle Trust stock has increased by more than 80 percent. This phenomenon has perplexed certain investors, who believe that a bank's stock should drop if its number of customer accounts drops. Which of the following, if true over the last five years, best accounts for the observed movement in the price of Eagle Trust stock？

A．Two years ago Eagle Trust was investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for accounting irregularities, but last year the company was cleared of all charges.

B．Eagle Trust recently implemented a highly publicized program for no-fee home mortgages.

C．Eagle Trust is in the process of switching its customer base from retail customers to commercial customers, which now account for over 75 percent of the bank's revenues.

D．There have been many aggressive new entrants into the retail customer banking business over the last five years.

E．Eagle Trust is known for offering one of the best employee benefits packages in the industry.

The following statements have been made about life cycle costing:

(i) It focuses on the short-term by identifying costs at the beginning of a product’s life cycle

(ii) It identifies all costs which arise in relation to the product each year and then calculates the product’s profitability on an annual basis

(iii) It accumulates a product’s costs over its whole life time and works out the overall profitability of a product

(iv) It allocates costs to each stage of a product’s life cycle and writes them off at the end of each stage

Which of the above statements is/are correct？

A.(i) and (iii)

B.(iii) only

C.(i) and (iv)

D.(ii) only

Lesting Regional Authority (LRA) is responsible for the provision of a wide range of services in the Lesting region, which is based in the south of the country ‘Alaia’. These services include, amongst other things, responsibility for residents’ welfare, schools, housing, hospitals, roads and waste management.

Over recent months the Lesting region experienced the hottest temperatures on record, resulting in several forest fires, which caused damage to several schools and some local roads. Unfortunately, these hot temperatures were then followed by flooding, which left a number of residents without homes and saw higher than usual numbers of admissions to hospitals due to the outbreak of disease. These hospitals were full and some patients were treated in tents. Residents have been complaining for some years that a new hospital is needed in the area.

Prior to these events, the LRA was proudly leading the way in a new approach to waste management, with the introduction of its new ‘Waste Recycling Scheme.’ Two years ago, it began phase 1 of the scheme and half of its residents were issued with different coloured waste bins for different types of waste. The final phase was due to begin in one month’s time. The cost of providing the new waste bins is significant but LRA’s focus has always been on the long-term savings both to the environment and in terms of reduced waste disposal costs.

The LRA is about to begin preparing its budget for the coming financial year, which starts in one month’s time. Over recent years, zero-based budgeting (ZBB) has been introduced at a number of regional authorities in Alaia and, given the demand on resources which LRA faces this year, it is considering whether now would be a good time to introduce it.

Required:

(a) Describe the main steps involved in preparing a zero-based budget. (3 marks)

(b) Discuss the problems which the Lesting Regional Authority (LRA) may encounter if it decides to introduce and use ZBB to prepare its budget for the coming financial year. (9 marks)

(c) Outline THREE potential benefits of introducing zero-based budgeting at the LRA. (3 marks)