•Pre-reading questions:
　　•Have you or your family invested money in The Stock Market?
　　•What is the function of The Stock Market do you think?
　　•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 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 public, inviting people to lend them money, or take a share in the business through The Stock Exchange.
　　•…By doing so they can put into circulation the savings of individuals and institution, 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 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 through taxes alone.
　　•…The government, local authorities, and nationalized industries therefore frequently needed 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.

•According to the passage, almost all companies involved in new production and development must ___. （D）
•A. rely in their own financial resources
•B. persuade the banks to provide long-term finance
•C. borrow large sums of money from friends and people we know
•D. depend on the population as a whole for finance

•The money which enables these companies to go ahead with their projects is ___. （B）
•A. repaid to its original owner as soon as possible
•B. raises by the selling of shares in the companies
•C. exchanged for part ownership in The Stock Exchange
•D. invested in different companies on The Stock Exchange

•When the savers want their money back they ___. （C）
•A. ask another company to obtain their money for them
•B. look for other people to borrow money from
•C. put their shares in the company back on the market
•D. Transfer their money to a more successful company