Three makes a trend. The Washington Post Co. Friday announced that it would look to sell its headquarters building in downtown W

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问题     Three makes a trend. The Washington Post Co. Friday announced that it would look to sell its headquarters building in downtown Washington, D. C. In January, the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News announced they would put up for sale their headquarters. The same month, Frank Gannett said it will sell the building that houses the Rochester, N.Y., Democrat & Chronicle. The building was the place where Gannett started and built his vast newspaper empire.
    It’s no secret that newspapers are in crisis. Advertising revenues have fallen by half in the past decade and are back to where they were in 1983; circulation revenues are back to where they were in 1996. The digital numbers are rising, but not fast enough. Print media is hampered by high fixed costs incurred in the pre-digital era—pensions and union contracts, equipment like printing presses, large numbers of employees, and big office buildings.
    Virtually every newspaper company has engaged in drastic measures—laying off experienced employees, eliminating sections, cutting back printing from daily to a few days per week. Those efforts are all meant to lower day-to-day operating costs. But we’ve also seen newspaper companies seek onetime injections of cash by selling off non-core assets. Increasingly, the headquarters building—typically located right in the middle of town—is falling into the non-core asset category.
    Traditionalists may find these sales and the continued shrinking of newspapers’ real-estate footprints to be depressing. But it’s actually a positive development. Call it creative destruction, or adaptive reuse. In cities around the country, investors are finding better uses for properties. In lower Manhattan, Class B office buildings that used to house financial firms have been converted into expensive separate apartments. "It’s a great thing, because it drives more tax revenue to the cities. And it gives the suburbs a run for the money," said Jonathan Miller, president of appraisal company MillerSamuel.
    In D. C, the Washington Post will likely fetch an excellent price for its headquarters because Washington is a boomtown. Throughout D. C, investors are plowing cash into housing, office, and retail developments. The building that housed the organization that exposed the Watergate scandal may become the next Watergate complex.
    Of course, progress inevitably displaces the prior tenants. It’s likely the new homes that will be occupied by newspapermen and newspaperwomen in Washington, Rochester, and Detroit will be less grand, less central, and less historic than their current homes. And the sale of these properties alone won’t solve the newspapers’ financial problems. But it will buy them a very valuable commodity: time.
The author’s attitude toward the building-sales is ________.

选项 A、negative
B、positive
C、neutral
D、indifferent

答案B

解析 本题考查作者对出售办公楼的态度。一般来说,作者会在字里行间透露自己的想法,并在一些关键显眼处重申或加强自己的观点,尤其是结尾处。全文最后一句很明显是作者的想法,他认为售楼至少能为报业争取到宝贵的时间,由此选B项。同时,在文章第四段作者的观点也得到鲜明表达——他认为可以将此称作“创造性的破坏”或是“适应性再利用”,从这些词汇中所含有的积极语义也能判断出作者持肯定的态度。第四段第二三句“这实际上却是一种可以称得上‘创造性破坏’或‘适应性再利用’的积极发展”,以及第六段第四句“但至少,他们买来了一样极有价值的商品:时间”,都是正面的、肯定的评价,故排除A项和C项。作者对于出售总部大厦的举措进行了大篇幅的分析,说明对此很关心,因此也可排除D项。
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