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  3. The American Industry A history of long and effortless success can be a dreadful handicap, but, if properly handled, it may

The American Industry A history of long and effortless success can be a dreadful handicap, but, if properly handled, it may

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问题                           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. "  
What can be inferred from the passage?
选项 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先兆”。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年代产业结构调整，美国的工业已经改变了结构，消除了滞胀，学会了急智，因此带来了90年代的经济复苏”。因此可以得出激烈的竞争会导致经济的发展。另外三个选项都不合适。
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