《考研英語閱讀理解100篇 高分版》 Unit 16 - TEXT TWO

From its birth in 1981 with just two employees, the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation has become one of the world's largest sovereign funds, managing more than $100 billion in assets, with 900 employees in eight offices around the world. It is larger even than Temasek Holdings, the government's better-known fund. Temasek gained attention with its $1.9 billion purchase of a controlling stake in Thailand's dominant telecommunications company from the family of the country's prime minister. That helped stir street protests that led to a coup d'etat there last year.
The stake was part of a broader expansion started in mid-2002 by the company's executive director, Ho Ching, formerly head of government-owned Singapore Technologies and wife of Singapore's prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong. Aimed at reviving Temasek's financial performance in the wake of a recession, Temasek has since taken large stakes in banks as distant as India, China and the Standard Chartered Bank of Britain. Temasek says its investments are purely for financial purposes despite its ownership by the government. Nonetheless, it has run into political headwinds in the region. An Indonesian court recently ruled that it would have to sell one of the controlling stakes it holds, one directly and the other through a subsidiary, in the country's two dominant cellular telephone companies.
Over the last few years, Singapore has embarked on an aggressive effort to court private banks and their clients as a way of diversifying the economy as manufacturing jobs were shifting to China and Vietnam, turning the country into an Asian asset base. There are already at least 40 private banks with offices in Singapore, managing assets worth at least $150 billion. With many wealthy Europeans shifting assets to Singapore from Switzerland to take advantage of rapid Asian growth and avoid new withholding taxes in Europe, the European authorities have stepped up criticism of Singapore's banking system, saying that Singapore needed to tighten controls against money laundering.
Singaporean financial authorities say they do not condone money laundering and recently stepped up fines against banks found to be involved in illicit financial activity. The Government Investment Corporation, known as G.I.C., is controlled by the state, and Singapore's founding prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, is its chairman. His son, the current prime minister, is deputy chairman. Tony Tan, its executive director, is a former deputy prime minister.
Both Temasek and G.I.C. have aggressively recruited top international financial talent, and G.I.C. in particular has a reputation among bankers and analysts as a shrewd and powerful investor. More than 40 percent of its employees are not Singaporean. Its investment panel includes Charles Ellis, chairman of the Yale University Investment Committee, and Robert Litterman, a managing director of Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Despite managing public funds, G.I.C. does not publicize its holdings or returns. Last year on its 25th anniversary, Lee Kuan Yew offered the company's first financial disclosure, reporting that G.I.C. had averaged a 9.5 percent annual return in United States dollar terms over its lifetime.
1. The passage mainly discusses about _____.
[A] Singapore's financial strategy in recent years
[B] conditions about the two large government funds in Singapore
[C] the transformation or evolution of Singapore's banking system
[D] the close relation between Singapore's financial system and the government
2. From the first paragraph, it can be inferred that _____.
[A] Singaporeans are against the purchase of controlling stake in Thailand's telecommunica-tions company
[B] Singaporeans think that Temasek's purchase is indeed a political deal
[C] Singaporeans think that Temasek's purchase will make them have a loss
[D] Thais are reluctant to let Temasek to control their telecommunications company
3. Which one of the following statements is TRUE of Temasek Holdings?
[A] Temasek Holdings seems to be quite reluctant to interfere within the political issue of the countries it invests into.
[B] Temasek Holdings will sell one of the controlling stakes in Indonesian mobile telephone companies directly and through a subsidiary.
[C] Temasek Holdings conducts such expansion in order to change its depression.
[D] Temasek Holdings has not only subtle relations with Singapore's political elite, but also those of neighboring countries.
4. Many Europeans shift assets to Singapore due to the following reasons except that _____.
[A] they want to invest into Asia so as to gain more profits
[B] they want to conduct money laundering by tactically avoiding taxes
[C] they want to carry out illegal financial activity in Asia
[D] they think the investment environment in Europe is not attracting
5. The word “condone” (Line 1, Paragraph 4) most probably means _____.
[A] encourage
[B] allow
[C] remit
[D] permit