[A] Convincing evidence: US is losing its appeal in the eyes of multinationals [B] Biggest hindrance: US divided political syst

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问题 [A] Convincing evidence: US is losing its appeal in the eyes of multinationals
[B] Biggest hindrance: US divided political system
[C] American future; stuck in the middle
[D] Overstated statement: US overall competitiveness is declining
[E] Voice of experts: pessimism pervades academic world
[F] Economic outlook: bad but not desperate
[G] Undisputed fact; US is losing its economic edge
41. ______
Is America fading? America has been gripped by worries about decline before, notably in the 1970s, only to roar back. But this time it may be serious. There is Utile doubt that other countries are catching up. Between 1999 and 2009 America’s share of world exports fell in almost every industry: by 36 percentage points in aerospace, nine in information technology, eight in communications equipment and three in cars. Private-sector job growth has slowed dramatically, and come to a halt in industries that are exposed to global competition. Median annual income grew by an anemic 2% between 1990 and 2010.
42. ______
The March issue of the Harvard Business Review is devoted to "American competitiveness". The Review reports that declinism is prevalent among HBS alumni: in a survey, 71% said that American competitiveness would decline in the coming years.
43. ______
America is losing out in the race to attract good jobs. Matthew Slaughter of Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business points out that multinational firms increased employment in America by 24% in the 1990s. But since then they have been cutting back on jobs in America. They have moved dull repetitive tasks abroad, and even some sophisticated ones, too. The proportion of the employees of American multinationals who work for subsidiaries abroad rose from 21.4% in 1989 to 32.3% in 2009. The share of research-and-development spending going to foreign subsidiaries rose from 9% in 1989 to 15.6% in 2009; that of capital investment rose from 21.8% in 1999 to 29.6% in 2009.
44. ______
America’s political system comes in for particularly harsh criticism: 60% of HBS alumni said that it was worse than those in other advanced countries. David Moss of HBS argues that such complaints are nothing new: American politicians have been arguing about the role of government ever since Thomas Jefferson butted heads with Alexander Hamilton. But in the past this often led to fruitful compromises. But such compromises are rarer these days. Republicans and Democrats are more ideologically divided, and less inclined to make pragmatic concessions.
45. ______
For all this gloom, the Review’s gurus argue that, as Bill Clinton said in his first inaugural address, there is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America. The country has huge strengths, from its world-beating universities to its tolerance of risk-taking. It has a highly diverse market: firms that seek cheap labour can move to Mississippi, where wages are a third lower than those in Massachusetts. Rosabeth Moss Kanter of HBS points to the extraordinary amount of innovation that is going on not just in Silicon Valley but across the country.
Yet it is difficult to read this collection of essays without a sense of foreboding. The one thing that worries the HBS alumni more than anything else—the state of American politics—is the most difficult to fix. The politicalsituation swings unpredictably, making it hard to plan for the future. Should companies assume that they will have to abide by Mr. Obama’s health-care law when it comes into effect in 2014, or will the Republicans have repealed it by then? No one knows.

选项

答案F

解析 虽然文中提到了70%多的《哈佛商业评论》的同僚在接受问卷调查时,都认为美国陷入了衰退,但是在他们具体分析了衰退的迹象之后,作者在第五段提到了另外一个观点。那就是《哈佛商业评论》的这些经济领袖虽然普遍悲观,但是仍然相信there is nothing wrong with America,that cannot be cured by what is right with America,没有什么问题是在美国现行制度下不能够解决的。并且列举了几个方面的复苏迹象,例如:美国的学术竞争力仍然很强,美国的市场多样化等。因此,第五段主要就是在展望美国的经济未来,[C]American future:stuck in the middle和[F]Economic outlook:bad but not desperate都是在讲美国的未来,[F]更符合中心大意。
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