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  3. 共用题干 第二篇The American IndustryA history of long and effortless success can be...

共用题干 第二篇The American IndustryA history of long and effortless success can be...

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问题 共用题干
第二篇

The American Industry

A history of long and effortless success can be a dreadful handicap,but if properly handled,it may become a driving force.When the United States entered just such a glowing period after the end of the Second World War,it had a market eight times larger than any competitor,giving its industries unparalleled economies of scale.Its scientists were the world's best,its workers the most skilled.America and Americans were prosperous beyond the dreams of the Europeans and Asians whose economies the war had destroyed.
It was inevitable that this primacy should have narrowed as other countries grew richer. Just as inevitably,the retreat from predominance proved painful.By the mid-1980s Americans had found themselves at a loss over their fading industrial competitiveness.Some huge American industries, such as consumer electronics,had shrunk or vanished in the face of foreign competition.By 1987 there was only one American television maker left,Zenith.(Now there is none:Zenith was bought by South Korea's LG Electronics in July.)Foreign-made cars and textiles were sweeping into the domestic market. America's machine-tool industry was on the ropes.For a while it looked as though the making of semiconductors,which America had which sat at the heart of the new computer age, was going to be the next casualty.
All of this caused a crisis of confidence.Americans stopped taking prosperity for granted.They began to believe that their way of doing business was failing,and that their incomes would therefore shortly begin to fall as well. The mid-1980s brought one inquiry after another into the causes of America's industrial decline.Their sometimes sensational findings were filled with warnings about the growing competition from overseas.
How things have changed!In 1995 the United States can look back on five years of solid growth while Japan has been struggling. Few Americans attribute this solely to such obvious causes as a devalued dollar or the turning of the business cycle.Self-doubt has yielded to blind pride."American industry has changed its structure,has gone on a diet,has learnt to be more quick-witted,"according to Richard Cavanagh,executive dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government,"It makes me proud to be an American just to see how our businesses are improving their productivity,"says Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute,a think-tank in Washington,DC.And William Sahlman of the Harvard Business School believes that people will look back on this period as"a golden age of business management in the United States."
选项 What can be inferred from the passage?
A:It is human nature to shift between self-doubt and blind pride.
B:Intense competition may contribute to economic progress.
C:The revival of the economy depends on international cooperation.
D:A long history of success may pave the way for further development.
答案B
解析第一段指出，“第二次世界大战后，美国就进入了这样的一个辉煌的历史时期。它拥有比任何竞争者大八倍的市场，这使其工业经济规模前所未有。它的科学家是世上最优秀的，它的工人是技术最好的。美国及其民众的富庶是那些经济遭到战争破坏的欧洲人和亚洲人连做梦也不敢想的”。因此利用排除法，确定答案是C。
A选项错误，因为第二段中说“到1987年，美国只剩下Zenith这一家电视生产商（现在这一家也没有了：Zenith于7月被韩国LG电子公司收购）。”说明它连国内市场也保不住了。B选项错误，文中第二段最后一句提到，“有一段时间，下一个栖牲品看起来似乎该轮到美国的半导体制造业了……”，可是事实上没有。C选项中谈到的机床业已经自取灭亡的说法错误，因为文中提到机床制造业“岌岌可危”(on the ropes)，但是还没有灭亡。D选项是合适的，因为第二段第六句提到，“进口车和纺织品横扫国内市场”。
第三段提到，“所有这一切导致了信心危机。美国人不再视繁荣为理所当然之事。他们开始怀疑自己的商业经营方式出了问题，也怀疑不久他们的收入就会下降。20 世纪80年代中期人们对美国工业衰退的原因作了一次又一次的调查。那些有时耸人听闻的结果充斥着海外竞争加剧的预警”。第四段提到了90年代的经济复苏。其中的含义是：在竞争的压力下，美国人在80年代调整产业结构，美国的工业已经改变了结构，消除了滞胀，变得更机智，因此带来了90年代的经济复苏。因此，可以得出推论：激烈的竞争会导致经济的发展。另外三个选项都不合适。
在第四段，作者指出，"1995年，美国可以对过去五年的稳步发展作一回顾，而日本还在奋力挣扎。很少有美国人将这一巨变单纯归因于美元贬值或商业周期循环这些显而易见的原因。如今，对自身的怀疑已被盲目乐观所取代”。这里作者实际上对当前美国人的盲目乐观情绪进行了批评，认为20世纪90年代的增长是由美元贬值或经济周期的转机等因素造成的。选项B是“Richard Cavanagh”的看法。选项C是“Stephen Moore”的看法。选项D文中没有提及。
本题考查的是细节部分理解能力。原文是指美国工业在20世界90年代通过消除机构臃肿得到发展。选项A明显不正确。选项B是最接近原文意思的，指“美国工厂裁减多余的员工，精简机构”。选项C指“美国工业衰减”，不符合题意。选项D只是概括地说“美国工业效率提高”，并没有具体指出原因。因此本题选B。
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