Passage Three
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage．
The World Trade Organization (WTO), founded on January 1, 1995, aims to
encourage international trade to flow as freely as possible, making sure that
trade agreements are respected and that any disputes can be settled．
In the five years since its founding, the WTO has become well known as one
of the world’s most powerful economic organizations, taking its place alongside
the World Bank and International Monetary Fund ( 國(guó)際貨幣基金組織 )．
The system of global rules for international trade, however, dates back half
a century to 1948 when the General Agreement on Tariffs ( 關(guān)稅 ) and Trade (GATT)
was formed after World War II．
As time went by, it became clear that the GATT had two major drawbacks—the
limited areas of trade it covered, and the lack of an effective system to settle
disputes．
After seven years of trade talks ending in 1994, the so-called Uruguay Round
( 烏拉圭回合談判 ) finally gave birth to the WTO, complete with an effective
system to settle disputes and to form new rules covering trade in services and
intellectual property．
Even after seven years of talks and with 22,500 pages of agreements reached
problems remained, especially in the difficult-to-deal-with areas of agriculture
and services．
31．What is the purpose of the WTO?
A．To encourage international trade to flow freely．
B．To make sure that trade agreements are respected．
C．To settle any disputes．
D．All of the above