2013年公共英语考试pets4阅读指导材料（1）

Some of the world’s most accommodating businessmen specialize in getting you what you what you want at a fair market price. But they are businessmen with a difference-they are strugglers who deal only in what is illegal.
A smuggling operation is complex, so it has to be business like. It has managers who plan trips, make deals, and arrange for purchases and pickups. It has travelers who deliver the goods, and specialists who recruit and train them. In fact, smugglers frequently have legitimate businesses on the side. A travel agency is helpful because the modern smuggler is a world traveler. When a gold smuggler was arrested recently, he had airline tickets from Geneva to Bangkok by way of Frankfurt, Istanbul, Beirut, Vancouver, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Manila, and Jakarta.
The best places for smuggling operations are border cities and seaports. In one such city, annual sales at local stores amounted to $6,900 for every person in town. But the average person only made $3,575 per year. A tiny seaport is the world’s third largest importer of Swiss watchers-every year, it buys 50 watches to every person in the city. obviously, the people in these cities are not buying all this merchandises-it is being bought by smugglers.
As one exporter wrote,” the ingenuity of the smuggler’s mind is virtually limitless.” In addition to carrying goods, there are other types of smuggling equipment. A diplomat was arrested in London with 298 watched sewn into his coat lining. British officials discovered a car with a special gas tank containing 2,581 illegal watched. But some smugglers don’t need special equipment. A good diamond smuggler can hide two to three small diamonds in his mouth and still carry on a normal conversation.
What makes people smuggle? profit is definitely a motive. over $1.5 billion in illegal gold alone is smuggled every year, not to mention a multimillion dollar art smuggling trade and a thriving business in illegal diamonds. But many smugglers love excitement as much as profit. As one said,” you don’t feel happy unless you have a line open and somebody making a run for you.”