Surprisingly, since modern PR was largely an American invention, America's relations is being threatened by PR efforts in other countries. Ten years ago, for example, the world’s top five public relations agencies were American-owned. In 1991, only one was. The British in particular are becoming more sophisticated and creative. A recent survey found that more than half of all British companies include PR as part of their corporate (公司的) planning activities, compared to about one-third of U.S. companies. It may not be long before London replaces New York as the capital of PR.
Why is America lagging behind in the global PR race? First, Americans as a whole tend to be fairly provincial and take more of an interest in local affairs. Knowledge of world geography, for example, has never been strong in this country. Secondly, Americans lag behind their European and Asian counterparts (相對應的人) in knowing a second language. Less than 5 percent of Burson—Marshall’s U.S. employees know two languages. Ogilvy and Mather has about the same percentage. Conversely, some European firms have half or more of their employees fluent in a second language. Finally, people involved in PR abroad tend to keep a closereye on international affairs. In the financial PR area, for instance, most Americans read the Wall Street Journal. Overseas, their counterparts read the Journal as well as the Financial Times of London and The Economist, publications not often read in this country.
Perhaps the PR industry might take a lesson from Ted Turner of CNN (Cable News Network). Turner recently announced that the word “foreign”would no longer be used on CNN news broadcasts. According to Turner, global communications have made the nations of the world so interdependent that there is no longer any such things as foreign.
練習題：
Choose correct answers to the question:
1. According to the passage, America's relations is being threatened because of ________.
A. an unparalleled increase in the number of public relations companies
B. shrinking cultural differences and new communications technologies
C. the decreasing number of multinational corporations in the U.S.
D. increased efforts of other countries in public relations
2. London could soon replace New York as the center of PR because ________.
A. British companies are more ambitious than U.S. companies
B. British companies place more importance on PR than U.S. companies
C. British companies are heavily involved in planning activities
D. four of the world’s top public relations agencies are British-owned
3. The word “provincial” (Line 2, Para. 3) means “________”.
A. limited in outlook
B. like people from the provinces
C. rigid in thinking
D. interested in world financial affairs
4. We learn from the third paragraph that employees in the American PR industry ________.
A. speak at least one foreign language fluently
B. are ignorant about world geography
C. are not as sophisticated as their European counterparts
D. enjoy reading a great variety of English business publications
5. What PR industry take from Ted Turner of CNN?
A. American PR companies should be more internationally-minded.
B. The American PR industry should develop global communications technologies.
C. People working in PR should be more fluent in foreign languages.
D. People involved in PR should avoid using the word “foreign”.
1.[D] 事實細節(jié)題。由第2段第1句美國在公關方面威脅是來自其他國家在這方面的努力，故得知D為正確答案。
2.[B] 事實細節(jié)題。第2段最后兩句提到，最近的研究調查發(fā)現(xiàn)，英國有超過一半的公司將PR作為其公司的計劃活動的一部分,而美國只有三分之一的公司這樣做，不久倫敦將取代紐約成為PR的中心。因此B為正確答案。
3.[A] 詞義理解題。provincial是province“省;區(qū)域;范圍”的派生詞，可見它與“區(qū)域性的、一定范圍的”的意思有關。文中提到美國人相當provincial，更關心的是本地的事情，因此provincial的意思與A最為接近。
4.[C] 推理判斷題。第3段提到了美國在全球公共競賽中與其歐洲對手相比落后的三個主要原因：美國人視野較窄，只關心本地的事物，關于世界地理的知識了解不多(但并不是一無所知，因此B不正確);外語流利的人很少(可見A是不正確的);閱讀面很窄，只讀《華爾街日報》(可見D也不正確)。由此可推斷出美國人與其歐洲對手相比，沒有那么老練，因此C為正確答案。
5.[A] 事實細節(jié)題。文章最后兩句提到，特納宣稱在CNN的新聞廣播中“foreign”一詞將不再被使用，全球化的通訊已經(jīng)使得世界各國相互依靠，從而不再需要“foreign”這類東西，也就是說所有人都應當具有國際觀念，因此A為正確答案。
