《考研英語閱讀理解100篇 高分版》 Unit 12 - TEXT ONE

The idea that mobile phones bring economic benefits is now widely accepted. In places with bad roads, few trains and parlous land lines, they substitute for travel, allow price data to be distributed more quickly and easily, enable traders to reach wider markets and generally ease the business of doing business. Leonard Waverman of the London Business School has estimated that an extra ten mobile phones per 100 people in a typical developing country leads to an extra half a percentage point of growth in GDP per person. To realise the economic benefits of mobile phones, governments in such countries need to do away with state monopolies, issue new licences to allow rival operators to enter the market and slash taxes on handsets. With few exceptions (hallo, Ethiopia), they have done so, and mobile phones are now spreading fast, even in the poorest parts of the world.
As mobile phones have spread, a new economic benefit is coming into view: using them for banking, and so improving access to financial services, not just telecoms networks. Pioneering m-banking projects in the Philippines, Kenya and South Africa show the way. These “branchless” schemes typically allow customers to deposit and withdraw cash through a mobile operator's airtime-resale agents, and send money to other people via text messages that can be exchanged for cash by visiting an agent. Workers can then be paid by phone; taxi drivers and delivery drivers can accept payments without carrying cash around; money can be easily sent to friends and family. A popular use is to deposit money before making a long journey and then withdraw it at the other end, which is safer than carrying lots of cash.
There is no need to set up a national network of branches or cash machines. M-banking schemes can be combined with microfinance loans, extending access to credit and enabling users to establish a credit history. Some schemes issue customers with debit cards linked to their m-banking accounts. All this has the potential to give the “unbanked” masses access to financial services, and bring them into the formal economy.
What can governments do to foster m-banking? As with the spread of mobile phones themselves, a lot depends on putting the right regulations in place. They need to be tight enough to protect users and discourage money laundering, but open enough to allow new services to emerge. The existing banking model is both over- and under-protective, says Tim Lyman of the World Bank, because “it did not foresee the convergence of telecommunications and financial services”.
In many countries only licensed banks are allowed to collect deposits. Even if a mobile operator forms a partnership with a bank, its agents may have to comply with banking rules covering everything from the height of the counter to the installation of alarms. Financial institutions may have to provide detailed statements to the central bank every week, which is tricky for organisations with agents in remote areas. Some countries have rigid rules on the documents demanded of anybody opening an account, which excludes many.
1. The following are advantages of economic services through mobile phones except that _____.
[A] price data can be distributed quicky and easily
[B] traders can extend their market
[C] doing business is more convenient
[D] the growth of GDP per person can be greatly promoted
2. Which one of the following statements is TRUE of the m-banking schemes?
[A] They can provide safer services than the traditional banking.
[B] They can provide the customers with credit services.
[C] They have been experimented in some developing countries.
[D] They can encourage people to use financial services.
3. The word “convergence” (Line 4, Paragraph 4) most probably means _____.
[A] conversation
[B] combination
[C] similarity
[D] exchange
4. Towards m-banking, the governments' attitudes can be said to be _____.
[A] supportive
[B] opposing
[C] indifferent
[D] unclear
5. The best title of this passage can be _____.
[A] Economic Benefits Brought by Mobile Phone
[B] M-banking—Marriage of Mobile Phone and Banking
[C] Mobile Phone Used for Banking
[D] The Pioneering M-banking Schemes