Reading task 7
Reading task: gapped text 7
Read the article and choose from the paragraphs A-G the one which fits each gap (1-6). There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.
The next time you get dressed, cast your mind eastwards towards Oiaotou. For no matter whether you are wearing bell-bottomed jeans, a pencil skirt or tailored trousers, the chances are that the button or zip comes from this dusty, dirty town. Located in the middle of nowhere, this is the sort of place you might drive through without noticing. It is too small to be marked on most western maps of China, too insignificant to merit a mention in newspapers, and barely known outside the local area. But in just twenty-five years, this humble community has destroyed most of its international rivals to become the undisputed global capital of buttons and zips.
1.
The commercial revolution here is on a scale and at a pace that exceeds anything experienced before. The first small workshop was established in 1980 by three brothers who picked their first buttons off the street. Now the town's 700 family-run factories churn out 15 billion buttons and 200 million metres of zips a year. The low-investment, labour-intensive industry was ideal for this remote community. And it could not have timed its rise better. Oiaotou began popping buttons just as China started dressing up. Out went the Mao suits, and in came chic western clothes. So this is the place to head for if you're looking for a button of exactly the right shape, size and material, to adorn those new fashions hanging in your wardrobe.
2.
Such mind-boggling export statistics, until recently, were used as evidence of the Chinese miracle. Now, however, the global domination of manufacturing towns such as this is increasingly being discussed in very different terms: as a sign of a threat to other manufacturing countries. After the Cultural Revolution, the world cheered on the market-oriented reforms. Growth of more than 9% a year for more than two decades has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty. Consumers across the globe have benefited from the cheap goods made by factory workers in Oiaotou and elsewhere.
3.
But Chinese businessmen are unfazed by this action. 'Even if we lose a few customers in the short term, they will have to come back,’ says the president of the Great Wall Zipper group. 'There is almost nowhere else in the world that makes zips.’
4.
Take, for instance, Yiwu. If China is the workshop of the world, Yiwu is its showroom. Selling
everything from engine parts to hair clips and costume jewellery, this town's market has grown from a few dozen street stalls ten years ago to become the world's biggest commodity trading centre.
5.
And it is hard to imagine that this worldwide monopoly will end any time soon; Lanswe, the biggest sock manufacturer in the world, spins out two million socks a day. Within two years the company plans to triple its workforce to 15,000 and increase output to five million socks a day. Textile quotas or no textile quotas, half of them are destined for export.
6.
The view from China is that foreign countries say they want China to develop, but when it does,
they become nervous. China is changing. The countryside is changing and change is a cause for hope. But China needs to be given time to make sure its miracle does not sour.
A
And buyers do indeed come here from all over the world. Attracted by prices of less than a penny a zip and the decent quality, international retail outlets and fashion houses are increasingly purchasing from Qiaotou. The local chamber of commerce estimates that three out of every five buttons in the world are made in the town, which boasts 1,300 button shops selling 1,400 varieties of buttons. It ships more than two million zips a day, making it the biggest winner of China’s 80% share of the international zip market.
B
Talk of unfair currency manipulation and the need for trade quotas is nothing new. The domination of the world markets for cars and electronics in the 1980s led to a fierce trade dispute and pressure for appreciation of the yen. When this eventually did happen, the flood of money into the country inflated an enormous speculative bubble in the early 90s.
C
And what was once a modest farming village is now a manufacturing powerhouse - a microcosm of what has happened to the entire Chinese economy in the last few decades. It is a familiar story: paddy fields have been cleared for factories and peasants have become industrialists. The river, which used to be a clean source for irrigation, is now a heavily polluted outlet for brightly coloured plastic waste.
D
The same confidence prevails throughout the south coastal provinces. With endless streets of giant factories and company dormitories, the most developed areas are modern-day equivalents of Western cities at the peak of the Industrial Revolution. The many small towns, some not even on maps, have become world-beaters by focusing on labour-intensive niches.
E
The company's president says he can understand why countries want to restrict this growth and impose certain limits, even though it might hurt his business. 'Even if the yuan gets stronger, rich countries will still import socks because they cannot make them cheaply enough themselves.' He believes that, in the long run, change must come through market forces rather than export quotas and currency manipulation. 'If rich nations really want to compete with China, they need to make us richer. That's the best way to make prices rise here.'
F
After a decade of towns like this one growing almost unnoticed, the world has suddenly realised just how powerful they have become. Thanks to globalisation, the clothes of the world are being zipped and buttoned up by deft-fingered migrant workers, our teeth are being brushed with bristles from Huang Zi, and our toes are being kept warm by the products of Yiwu.
G
But recently, the rejoicing has been replaced by warnings. A flood of Chinese goods has swept into European and American markets, threatening jobs and alarming governments. One administration responded by setting a limit on shipments of jackets, trousers and shirts. Others have taken a less aggressive line, by setting quotas to protect their clothing industries from the competition in China.
1.
The commercial revolution here is on a scale and at a pace that exceeds anything experienced before. The first small workshop was established in 1980 by three brothers who picked their first buttons off the street. Now the town's 700 family-run factories churn out 15 billion buttons and 200 million metres of zips a year. The low-investment, labour-intensive industry was ideal for this remote community. And it could not have timed its rise better. Oiaotou began popping buttons just as China started dressing up. Out went the Mao suits, and in came chic western clothes. So this is the place to head for if you're looking for a button of exactly the right shape, size and material, to adorn those new fashions hanging in your wardrobe.
2.
Such mind-boggling export statistics, until recently, were used as evidence of the Chinese miracle. Now, however, the global domination of manufacturing towns such as this is increasingly being discussed in very different terms: as a sign of a threat to other manufacturing countries. After the Cultural Revolution, the world cheered on the market-oriented reforms. Growth of more than 9% a year for more than two decades has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty. Consumers across the globe have benefited from the cheap goods made by factory workers in Oiaotou and elsewhere.
3.
But Chinese businessmen are unfazed by this action. 'Even if we lose a few customers in the short term, they will have to come back,’ says the president of the Great Wall Zipper group. 'There is almost nowhere else in the world that makes zips.’
4.
Take, for instance, Yiwu. If China is the workshop of the world, Yiwu is its showroom. Selling
everything from engine parts to hair clips and costume jewellery, this town's market has grown from a few dozen street stalls ten years ago to become the world's biggest commodity trading centre.
5.
And it is hard to imagine that this worldwide monopoly will end any time soon; Lanswe, the biggest sock manufacturer in the world, spins out two million socks a day. Within two years the company plans to triple its workforce to 15,000 and increase output to five million socks a day. Textile quotas or no textile quotas, half of them are destined for export.
6.
The view from China is that foreign countries say they want China to develop, but when it does,
they become nervous. China is changing. The countryside is changing and change is a cause for hope. But China needs to be given time to make sure its miracle does not sour.
A
And buyers do indeed come here from all over the world. Attracted by prices of less than a penny a zip and the decent quality, international retail outlets and fashion houses are increasingly purchasing from Qiaotou. The local chamber of commerce estimates that three out of every five buttons in the world are made in the town, which boasts 1,300 button shops selling 1,400 varieties of buttons. It ships more than two million zips a day, making it the biggest winner of China’s 80% share of the international zip market.
B
Talk of unfair currency manipulation and the need for trade quotas is nothing new. The domination of the world markets for cars and electronics in the 1980s led to a fierce trade dispute and pressure for appreciation of the yen. When this eventually did happen, the flood of money into the country inflated an enormous speculative bubble in the early 90s.
C
And what was once a modest farming village is now a manufacturing powerhouse - a microcosm of what has happened to the entire Chinese economy in the last few decades. It is a familiar story: paddy fields have been cleared for factories and peasants have become industrialists. The river, which used to be a clean source for irrigation, is now a heavily polluted outlet for brightly coloured plastic waste.
D
The same confidence prevails throughout the south coastal provinces. With endless streets of giant factories and company dormitories, the most developed areas are modern-day equivalents of Western cities at the peak of the Industrial Revolution. The many small towns, some not even on maps, have become world-beaters by focusing on labour-intensive niches.
E
The company's president says he can understand why countries want to restrict this growth and impose certain limits, even though it might hurt his business. 'Even if the yuan gets stronger, rich countries will still import socks because they cannot make them cheaply enough themselves.' He believes that, in the long run, change must come through market forces rather than export quotas and currency manipulation. 'If rich nations really want to compete with China, they need to make us richer. That's the best way to make prices rise here.'
F
After a decade of towns like this one growing almost unnoticed, the world has suddenly realised just how powerful they have become. Thanks to globalisation, the clothes of the world are being zipped and buttoned up by deft-fingered migrant workers, our teeth are being brushed with bristles from Huang Zi, and our toes are being kept warm by the products of Yiwu.
G
But recently, the rejoicing has been replaced by warnings. A flood of Chinese goods has swept into European and American markets, threatening jobs and alarming governments. One administration responded by setting a limit on shipments of jackets, trousers and shirts. Others have taken a less aggressive line, by setting quotas to protect their clothing industries from the competition in China.