Reading. Read the following text and answer the questions that follow it

Read the following text and answer the questions that follow it.

Globalization is a word which has existed since the 1960s and it is on everyone’s lips these days from politicians to businessmen. The term “globalization” is used to describe certain processes in the world today. Globalization is defined as the process enabling financial and investment markets to operate internationally, largely as a result of deregulation and improved communication.

The accelerating pace of globalization is having a profound effect on life both in rich and in poor countries.

Of course, many governments and businesses see a lot of advantages in the process of globalization. They believe that increasing free trade between nations will offer prosperity and growth for all countries and businesses. Globalization, they state, has already brought many benefits: global food production has risen steadily over the last years and malnutrition rates have fallen accordingly; citizens in less-developed countries have access to health care which is often supplied by foreign businesses.

For companies globalization means increasing the number of countries of operation. For example, British Petroleum (BP) is probably the most global company in the world. It is interesting to see that in the USA its nationality has begun to disappear. Almost everybody in the US says BP, and not British Petroleum. It’s a local kind of company.

So, for its supporters, globalization offers an opportunity rather than a threat. The leaders of the world’s major economies and big businesses are committed to protecting and promoting global commerce and trade. They believe that the world is moving towards an era of global markets and global companies.

Together with this, anti-globalists emphasize that globalization threatens the environment as well as national cultures – they predict that it will make the rich nations richer and the developing countries poorer. Among other disadvantages of globalization there are such points as:

- It can lead to big employment problems.

- It lowers people’s living standards.

- It prevents governments from controlling their welfare systems.

- It creates cross-cultural problems between the East and the West.

As we can judge, nowadays globalization is a controversial issue for businesses and governments all over the world. But it goes without saying that it’s also an important issue for the 21^st century, which will continue to be the subject of debate among those who oppose, support or simply observe it.