2. 外语
  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

admin2011-01-01  56
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. "  
The author seems to believe the revival of the U.S. economy in the 1990s can be attributed to the ______.
选项 A、turning of the business cycle
B、restructuring of industry
C、improved business management
D、success in education
答案A
解析 在第四段，作者指出，“1995年，美国可以对过去5年的稳步发展作一回顾，而日本还在奋力挣扎。很少有关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。B是“Richard Cavanaugh”的看法。C是“Stephen Moore”的看法。D选项文中没有提及
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/I0Fd777K
本试题收录于： 职称英语综合类B级题库职称英语分类
0

职称英语综合类B级

职称英语

相关试题推荐
随机试题
最新回复(0)