Passage Four

　　Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.

　　In order to go ahead, large companies need a way to reach the savings of the public at large. The same problem, on a smaller scale, faces practically every company trying to develop new products and create new jobs. There can be little prospect of raising the sort of sums needed from friends and people we know, and while banks may agree to provide short-term finance, they are generally unwilling to provide money on a permanent basis for long term projects. So companies turn to the public, inviting people to lend them money, or take a share in the business in exchange for a share in future profits. This they do by issuing stocks and shares in the business through the Stock Exchange. By doing so，they can put into circulation the savings of individuals and institutions, both at home and overseas.

　　When the saver needs his money back, he does not have to go to the company with whom he originally placed it. Instead, he sells his shares through a stockbroker to some other saver who is seeking to invest his money.

　　Many of the services needed both by industry and by each of us are provided by the Government or by local authorities. Without hospitals, roads, electricity, telephones, railways, this country could not function. All these require continuous spending on new equipment and new development if they are to serve us properly, requiring more money than is raised though taxes alone. The Government, local authorities, and nationalized industries therefore frequently need to borrow money to finance major capital spending, and they, too, come to the Stock Exchange.

　　There is hardly a man or woman in this country whose job or whose standard of living does not depend on the ability of his or her employers to raise money to finance new development. In one way or another, this new money must come from the savings of the country. The Stock Exchange exists to provide a channel through which these savings can reach those who need finance.

　　26. Almost all companies involved in new production must ______.

　　A) rely on their own financial resources

　　B) persuade the banks to provide long-term loan

　　C) borrow large sums of money from friends and people they know

　　D) depend on the population as a whole for finance

　　27. The money which enables these companies to go ahead with their projects is ______.

　　A) invested in different companies on the Stock Exchange

　　B) exchanged for part ownership in the Stock Exchange

　　C) raised by the selling of shares in the companies

　　D) repaid to its original owners as soon as possible

　　28. When the savers want their money back, they ______.

　　A) put their shares in the company back on the market

　　B) ask another company to obtain their money for them

　　C) look for other people to borrow money from

　　D) transfer their money to a more successful company

　　29. All the essential services on which we depend are ______.

　　A) run by the Government or our local authorities

　　B) in constant need of financial support

　　C) financed wholly by rates and taxes

　　D) unable to provide for the needs of the population

　　30. The Stock Exchange makes it possible for the government, local authorities and nationalized industries ______.

　　A) to make everybody lend money to them

　　B) to borrow as much money as they wish

　　C) to make certain everybody saves money

　　D) to raise money to finance new developments