First Listening
Please listen to a short passage carefully and prepare to answer some questions.
Many developing countries are planning to invest vast sums of money in their telecommunications networks to allow them to compete, in respect of the transfer of information, with developed countries. They believe this will promote foreign and domestic investment. China plans to spend $100 billion dollars on the basic facilities to allow it to become an important part of the information superhighway. Shanghai plans to be as electronically advanced as the City of New York to help realize its dream of becoming a major financial center. Some experts fear, however, that some developing countries are trying to do too much too soon. Vietnam, in particular, while being extremely underdeveloped and lacking enough telephones of any type, is determined to invest in the most expensive and newest technology. (126 words)
Second Listening
Listen to the tape again. Then answer the following questions with your own experiences.
1. Why are developing countries investing great sums of money in telecommunications networks?
2. What does China hope to achieve? And what does Shanghai hope to achieve?
3. What do some people fear?
