English Intensive Reading 吉林大学远程教育学院
Introduction Text Language Points
				Lesson 5 Text  ( Page 4)
			The leaders of multinational corporations see patriotism as old-fashioned, ?the nation-state obsolete, and war in pursuit of national glory downright foolish. They believe that the multinational corporation is "a modern concept evolved to meet the requirements of the modern age",(12) while the nation-state is "still ?rooted in archaic concepts unsympathetic to the need of our complex world.” (13)They therefore characterize themselves as hard-headed people who are helping to bring about (14) a more co-operative system of world order by breaking down national geographical, political, economic and ideological barriers. "I think," an official of General Electric once said," getting General Electric into China and the Soviet Union is the biggest thing we can do for world peace."          These proponents of the multinational corporations come by and large from ?the business world. There are however, many critics among academic students of multinational corporations who regard them as a sinister force. (15) They have produced detailed studies to prove that the benefits of multinational corporations are mostly illusory. To the claim that multinational corporations Provide jobs, they point out that this is at the cost of (16) jobs in other countries.