Federal efforts to aid minority businesses began in the 1960’s when the Small Business Administration (SBA) began making federal

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问题     Federal efforts to aid minority businesses began in the 1960’s when the Small Business Administration (SBA) began making federally guaranteed loans and government-sponsored management and technical assistance available to minority business enterprises. While this program enabled many minority entrepreneurs to form new businesses, the results were disappointing, since managerial inexperience, unfavorable locations, and capital shortages led to high failure rates. Even years after the program was implemented, minority business receipts were not quite two percent of the national economy’s total receipts.
    Recently federal policymakers have adopted an approach intended to accelerate development of the minority business sector by moving away from directly aiding small minority enterprises and toward supporting larger, growth-oriented minority firms through intermediary companies. In this approach, large corporations participate in the development of successful and stable minority businesses by making use of government-sponsored venture capital. The capital is used by a participating company to establish a Minority Enterprise Small Business Investment Company or MESBIC. The MESBIC then provides capital and guidance to minority businesses that have potential to become future suppliers or customers of the sponsoring company.
    MESBIC’s are the result of the belief that providing established firms with easier access to relevant management techniques and more job-specific experience, as well as substantial amounts of capital, gives those firms a greater opportunity to develop sound business foundations than does simply making general management experience and small amounts of capital available. Further, since potential markets for the minority businesses already exist through the sponsoring companies, the minority businesses face considerably less risk in terms of location and market fluctuation. Following early financial and operating problems, sponsoring corporations began to capitalize MESBIC’s far above the legal minimum of $500,000 in order to generate sufficient income and to sustain the quality of management needed. MESBIC’s are now emerging as increasingly important financing sources for minority enterprises.
    Ironically, MESBIC staffs, which usually consist of Hispanic and Black professionals, tend to approach investments in minority firms more pragmatically than do many MESBIC directors, who are usually senior managers from sponsoring corporations. The latter often still think mainly in terms of the "social responsibility approach" and thus seem to prefer deals that are riskier and less attractive than normal investment criteria would warrant. Such differences in viewpoint have produced uneasiness among many minority staff members, who feel that minority entrepreneurs and businesses should be judged by established business considerations. These staff members believe their point of view is closer to the original philosophy of MESBIC’s and they are concerned that, unless a more prudent course is followed, MESBIC directors may revert to policies likely to re-create the disappointing results of the original SBA approach.
Which of the following best states the central idea of the passage?

选项 A、The use of MESBIC’s for aiding minority entrepreneurs seems to have greater potential for success than does the original SBA approach.
B、There is a crucial difference in point of view between the staff and directors of some MESBIC’s.
C、After initial problems with management and marketing, minority businesses have begun to expand at a steady rate.
D、Minority entrepreneurs wishing to form new businesses now have several equally successful federal programs on which to rely.

答案A

解析 主旨大意题。文章第一段介绍了美国中小企业管理局援助少数民族企业的努力,并指出结果令人失望。第二段介绍了联邦政府近期采取了一种新的方式,即成立中介公司——少数民族企业投资公司,支持少数民族企业发展。第三段从三个方面具体说明这种中介公司的优点。第四段主要讨论少数民族企业投资公司的员工与董事对小企业的投资理念有分歧。综上,本文旨在说明成立少数民族企业投资公司比中小企业管理局原来的援助措施更具成功潜力,A项表述符合文义,故为答案。员工与董事之间有分歧仅是第四段的讨论内容,B项表述以偏概全,故排除。文中未提及少数民族企业已经开始稳步扩张,故排除C项;本文未提及小企业是否已有可靠的项目,故排除D项。
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