. . . China is such a powerhouse of low-cost manufacturing that even though the NAFTA accord has given Mexico a leg up with the United States, and even though Mexico is right next door to us, China in 2003 replaced Mexico as the number two exporter to the United States. (Canada remains number one.) Though Mexico still has a strong position in big-ticket exports that are costly to ship, such as cars, auto parts, and refrigerators, China is coming on strong and has already displaced Mexico in areas such as computer parts, electrical components, toys, textiles, sporting goods, and tennis shoes. But what’s even worse for Mexico is that China is displacing some Mexican companies in Mexico, where Chinese-made clothing and toys are now showing up on store shelves everywhere. No wonder a Mexican journalist told me about the day he interviewed a Chinese central bank official, who told him something about China’s relationship with America that really rattled him: “First we were afraid of the wolf, then we wanted to dance with the wolf, and now we want to be the wolf.”. . .

In the quotation “First we were afraid of the wolf, then we wanted to dance with the wolf, and now we want to be the wolf,” what does the “wolf” symbolize?

What is a major reason for the trend illustrated by the graph?

What was one effect of the trend illustrated by the graph?

Based on the information in this chart, which country has the highest life expectancy?

Which generalization can best be supported using the data in this chart?

Based on this map, which level of per capita income did most countries that were colonized in the 1800s and early 1900s have in 1998?

Based on this late 20th-century map, which conclusion is accurate?

An economist would find this document most useful for determining

. . . One of the most important effects on the environment is indirect, and therefore less obvious: Industrial meat production is a key factor behind deforestation of the Amazon and other tropical rain forests. They’re being cleared to create fields to grow the feed needed for all those cows, especially corn and soy, which the cows eat instead of the grass they’d munch on if they were grazing in fields as they used to do. In fact, most of the corn and soy grown today goes to feed cattle, pigs, and chickens, not people. And all that grain requires vast quantities of chemical fertilizer, which in turn takes vast quantities of oil—1.2 gallons to create the fertilizer for every bushel. Finally, cutting down rainforests, which are full of carbon-absorbing trees, further exacerbates [worsens] climate change by reducing the planet’s ability to soak up carbon. . . .

Which issue is most closely associated with the concerns raised in this passage?

. . . One of the most important effects on the environment is indirect, and therefore less obvious: Industrial meat production is a key factor behind deforestation of the Amazon and other tropical rain forests. They’re being cleared to create fields to grow the feed needed for all those cows, especially corn and soy, which the cows eat instead of the grass they’d munch on if they were grazing in fields as they used to do. In fact, most of the corn and soy grown today goes to feed cattle, pigs, and chickens, not people. And all that grain requires vast quantities of chemical fertilizer, which in turn takes vast quantities of oil—1.2 gallons to create the fertilizer for every bushel. Finally, cutting down rainforests, which are full of carbon-absorbing trees, further exacerbates [worsens] climate change by reducing the planet’s ability to soak up carbon. . . .

In which way have many countries joined together to address the problems described in this passage?

....Yet in recent months something has changed. Kim Jong Il, whose regime was responsible for the first test and who died in 2011, had only a rudimentary [basic] nuclear device, useful mainly for blackmail. Under his son, Kim Jung Un, the programme has rapidly gathered pace, with two nuclear tests this year alone. The North has also conducted 21 missile tests this year, including one from a submarine — a first. The ability to miniaturize a tactical nuclear weapon on a working missile could be just two or three years away, with an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting California possible in five years’ time. Chung Yung-woo, a South Korean former national security adviser, talks of “growing outrage...after five tests, a change of mood, a sense of urgency.”

Once, it was possible to hope that the North’s isolated regime would implode [fail] under its own contradictions before it gained a proper nuclear capability. But the spread of informal markets and, for some North Koreans, a measure of prosperity may have strengthened the regime’s chances of survival. A consensus in Seoul is forming that Mr. Kim now aims to dictate events on the peninsula— including the ability to demand that the Americans leave. One senior foreign diplomat in Seoul says that for the first time he hears people wondering openly whether there will be a major conflict on the peninsula in their lifetime….

The tensions between North Korea and South Korea described in this passage began over