Wal-Mart is trying to export its American-style standards and ethics to China’s manufacturing sector in terms of working hours, safety requirements, worker’s accommodations etc.

Wal-Mart strategy, according to this passage, is to____.

A．hire temps and part-timers to reduce its cost

B．outsource its contracts to lower price agencies at home and abroad

C．hold down its consumer price by controlling its labor costs

D．dismantle the career ladder and stop people's mobility upward

Wal-Mart strategy, according to this passage, is to ______.

A．hire temps and part-timers to reduce its cost

B．outsource its contracts to lower price agencies at home and abroad

C．hold down its consumer price by controlling its labor costs

D．dismantle the career ladder and stop people's mobility upward

According to Fortune, Wal-Mart ’s rise is mainly the result of ______.A．the decline of goods-producing industries B．the rise of the middle class C．a shift i n the demand pattern D．Sam Walton ’s hard work

One of the results of the frugal culture in Wal-Mart is that ______.

A．store managers only have to work half-day

B．employees don't get health insurance

C．hourly workers work overtime with pay

D．the headquarters building is modernized

A. Wal-Mart cuts sales forecast

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. cut its August sales forecast Monday, saying it expects sales at stores open at least a year to be flat to up 2 percent, citing weak back-to-school trends and hurricanes that forced it to close up to 75 stores. Wal-Mart had been forecasting that sales at stores open at least a year, known as same-store sales, would rise 2 to 4 percent for the month. Wal-Mart stock fell about 2 percent in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

B. El Paso sees $ 2. 7B drop in assets

El Paso Corp. on Monday disclosed the full damage from its drastic cut in reserves earlier this year, saying a long-awaited restatement will slash the value of its oil and gas assets by $ 2.7 billion. The Houston company, the largest U.S. natural gas pipeline operator, also said it expects to cut its debt by 9 percent from its current level to under $17 billion by year-end. El Paso, which earlier this year cut its proven natural gas reserves by 41 percent and said it would restate earnings back to 1999, had about $ 2. 7 billion in cash and credit revolvers as of July 31.

C. FedEx shares rise on outlook

FedEx Corp. raised its earnings forecast for the fiscal first quarter and frill year Monday, citing strong demand for its international express, ground and less-than-truckload services. Shares of FedEx rose as much as 3:7 percent in the first half of Monday's New York Stock Exchange trading. Chief Financial Officer Alan Graf said risks existed, such as prolonged high oil prices, that could hurt the world economy, but the company expects its business to remain strong.

D. IBM sees 30% gain in Web hosting

International Business Machines Corp. widened its lead last year in the U. S. market for Internet hosting services as it won a greater share of the medium-sized business market, according to data recently published by market research firm IDC. The Armonk, N. Y. - based company has identified Web hosting as a key to boosting overall revenue growth. As the hardware business that had been its mainstay has matured over the past several years, IBM has focused on services. According to the most recent report from IDC, published in late July, IBM's Web hosting market share in the United States rose to 24.8 percent in 2003 from 23.5 percent in 2002 and just 15 percent in 2000.

E. Viagra abuse may boost HIV risk

San Francisco has petitioned federal regulators to warn that use of anti-impotence drugs such as Viagra could increase the risk of sexually transmitted disease and HIV, officials said on Monday. The request to the Food and Drug Administration earlier this month is a response to the recreational use of Viagra among gay men, who use it to enhance promiscuous sex. "The predominant problem that we see in San Francisco is with widespread use among gay men with multiple partners," said Jeffrey Klausner, director of sexually transmitted disease prevention at the city's health department.

The company has decreased its expectation of turnover.

According to the text, which of the following statements is TRUE? （ ）

[A] Wal-Mart was forced to withdraw its investment from Germany.

[B] Wal-Mart operates very well in South Korea.

[C] Wal-Mart has wholly-owned operations in China and Canada.

[D] Wal-Mart made its new company logo known in 2009.

What has Walmart done to reconfigure its DNA as profit seeker?

A．It has followed the business model of undercutting its competitors.

B．It asks its suppliers to reduce packaging to be environment-friendly.

C．It has become the poster child of corporate ruthlessness.

D．It has given more shelf space and better placement to light bulbs.

Workers recently arrested in federal raids filed a racketeering lawsuit accusing Wal-Mart of conspiring with contractors in a criminal enterprise that violated the civil rights and wage protections of immigrants who cleaned its stores.

The federal court lawsuit seeks class-action status for perhaps thousands of immigrants, legal and illegal, hired by the contractors to clean the stores of the world's largest retailer, said a lawyer for the plaintiffs, James L. Linsey.

The scheme by Wal-Mart and the contractors violated the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO, by systematically depriving the workers of labor law protections over at least the last three years, according to the lawsuit.

"It's all designed to exploit the weakest, most vulnerable people in the world," Linsey said Tuesday, a day after the lawsuit was filed. He said the action replaces a lawsuit filed in state Superior Court last week by the same workers that sought more than $ 200,000 in back pay.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Mona Williams said the claims have no merit and the company will seek to have the lawsuit dismissed.

"The Wal-Mart culture is based on respect for other people. and we would never condone treating anyone poorly, legal or otherwise. We want to get to the bottom of this and are as eager as anyone to see whatever evidence federal officials might have," Williams said. She said some 700 of its 3,000 U.S. stores are now cleaned by outside contractors, down from 1,500 several years ago.

The company acknowledged last week that federal prosecutors gave notice it is the target of a criminal investigation into the hiring of illegal immigrants.

An employer can face civil and criminal penalties for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants or failing to comply with certain employee record-keeping regulations.

The nine workers, who cleaned stores in New Jersey, maintain they were denied overtime pay despite working at least 56 hours a week and that contractors failed to withhold taxes or make required workers' compensation contributions.

Also sued were four New Jersey contracting firms and their principals: Facility Solutions Inc., whose location was not immediately clear, and owner Kenneth Clancy; Ruth and Sons, no location given, and principal Giovanni Alabena; JWM Commercial Cleaning, of Dover, Morris County, and owner Felipe Soto; and RT Cleaning, of New Brunswick, and owner Raul Tijerino. None of the companies had listed phones.

Why did the workers file a suit against Wal-Mart?

A．Because they were illegally hired by Wal-Mart.

B．Because they were illegally hired by contractors connected with Wal-Mart.

C．Because they were not treated fairly in terms of civil rights and wages:

D．Because they were illegally brought to America by Wal-Mart and its contractors.

The 70,000 grocery workers on strike in Southern California are the front line in a battle to prevent middle-class service jobs from turning into poverty-level ones. The supermarkets say they are forced to lower their labor costs to compete with Wal-Mart, a nonunion, low- wage employer aggressively moving into the grocery business. Everyone should be concerned about this fight. It is, at bottom, about the ability of retail workers to earn wages that keep their families out of poverty.

Grocery stores in Southern California are bracing for the arrival, in February, of the first of 40 Wal-Mart grocery supercenters. Wal-Mart's prices are about 14 percent lower than other groceries’because the company is aggressive about squeezing costs, including labor costs. Its workers earn a third less than unionized grocery workers, and pay for much of their health insurance. Wal-Mart uses hardball tactics to ward off unions. Since 1995, the government has issued at least 60 complaints alleging illegal anti-union activities.

Southern California's supermarket chains have reacted by demanding a two-year freeze on current workers’salaries and lower pay for newly hired workers, and they want employees to pay more for health insurance. The union counters that if the supermarkets match Wal-Mart, their workers will be pushed out of the middle class. Those workers are already only a step-- or a second family income--from poverty, with wages of roughly $18,000 a year. Wal-Mart sales clerks make about $14,000 a year, below the $15,960 poverty line for a family of three.

Wal-Mart may also be driving down costs by using undocumented immigrants. Last month, federal agents raided Wal-Mart's in 21 states. Wal-Mart is facing a grand jury investigation, and a civil racketeering class-action filed by cleaners who say they were underpaid when working for contractors hired by Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart insists that it was unaware of its contractors’practices. But aware or not, it may have helped to deprive legally employable janitors of jobs and adequate pay.

This Wal-Martization of the work force, to which other low-cost, low-pay stores also contribute, threatens to push many Americans into poverty. The first step in countering it is to enforce the law. The government must act more vigorously, and more quickly, when Wal-Mart uses illegal tactics to block union organizing. And Wal-Mart must be made to pay if it exploits undocumented workers.

Unions understand that the quickest way to win this war is to organize Wal-Mart workers. And Wal-Mart's competitors have to strive for Wal-Mart’s efficiency without making workers bear the brunt. Consumers can also play a part. Wal-Mart likes to wrap itself in American values. It should be reminded that one of those is paying workers enough to give their families a decent life.

Wal-Mart is criticized most for ______.

A．moving into the grocery business

B．squeezing its labor costs

C．entering into anti-union activities

D．employing illegal workers