首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
•Read the article below about manufacturing in the USA. •Choose the best sentence from the opposite page to fill each of the gap
•Read the article below about manufacturing in the USA. •Choose the best sentence from the opposite page to fill each of the gap
admin
2010-01-28
39
问题
•Read the article below about manufacturing in the USA.
•Choose the best sentence from the opposite page to fill each of the gaps.
•For each gap 9-14, mark one letter (A-H) on your Answer Sheet.
•Do not use any letter more than once.
Making It in the USA
When it comes to US manufacturing, conventional wisdom says the prognosis is bad. Just read the headlines: During the past three years, the nation has lost 2.7 million factory jobs -- many of them permanently. Manufacturing now employs just 11 percent of the US workforce, compared with 30 percent in the 1950s.
But LeRoy Nosbaum, chief executive at Itron Corp., a $285 million builder of utility meter readers in Spokane, Wash., sees things differently. "If you can’t manufacture in the US efficiently and economically, you don’t know how to manufacture," he says. Yes, making stuff in the United States requires merciless, day-by-day cost cutting. (9) "Jumping on the low-cost bandwagon is a quick fix," says Bill Hanson, co-director of MIT’s Leaders for Manufacturing program. "But it can hurt you in the long run."
Job-loss statistics may overstate the fall in US manufacturing competitiveness (10) Sure, there are fewer factory workers, but thanks to increased automation and a shift to higher-value work, the value of US manufactured goods has grown by 50 percent since 1990.
Jim Womack of the Lean Enterprise Institute, a nonprofit training center, adds that cheaper labor doesn’t necessarily give offshore manufacturers an insurmountable advantage. (11) Whatever cost advantages do exist can vanish quickly if competitors follow suit and set up shop nearby.
But the most compelling reason to build here isn’t easily measured in dollars. (12) "The US is good at innovation," he says, "and the only way to become an innovation machine is to closely couple manufacturing with engineering and design." Nosbaum’s Itron is an example: a homegrown success that enjoys a 50 percent market in the face of stiff import competition. (13) With input from line workers, Itron has cut labor expenses in half since 1999 to just 8 percent of overall product cost- a rate so low that the wage gap with countries like China has become irrelevant.
The Itron case aside, it does make sense for labor-intensive industries like apparels or furniture making to build in low-wage countries. (14) In those fields, the potential of factory-level innovation far outweighs the benefits of lower wages. In the end, that is where American workers will find lasting opportunity.
A That is not the case in R&D-dependent industries such as biotech, pharmaceuticals, and aerospace, however.
B Productivity gains account for a big chunk of the job shrinkage.
C They can face additional costs from time- to-market delays, airfreight charges, employee travel, and local corruption.
D The company’s quality and test engineers roam its factory floor in Waseca, Minn., constantly searching for ways to improve product designs and production efficiency.
E But offshore manufacturing carries hidden costs of its own-in particular, the opportunities you forgo by cutting off access to the wellspring of innovation on your factory floor.
F But it doesn’t work in high-tech industries.
G Manufacturing now employs just 11 percent of the US workforce, compared with 30 percent in the 1950s.
H Distance severs what Hanson calls the "tight linkages" between engineers and production workers that spur innovation.
选项
答案
H
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/kcKd777K
本试题收录于:
BEC高级阅读题库BEC商务英语分类
0
BEC高级阅读
BEC商务英语
相关试题推荐
Whatkindofbusinessisbeingadvertised?
Whattypeofbusinessdoesthespeakerhave?
TaskSheetforCandidateATaskSheet1A:Marketingresearch:theimportanceofresearchtothecompanybeforetakingaction
Inthispartofthetest,youareaskedtogiveashorttalkonabusinesstopic.Youhavetochooseoneofthetopicsfromthe
Inthispartofthetest,youareaskedtogiveashorttalkonabusinesstopic.Youhavetochooseoneofthetopicsfromthe
Marketing:theimportancetoacompanyofresearchingconsumertastesandtrends
Theinterlocutorasksyouquestionsonanumberofwork-relatedandnonwork-relatedsubjects.
HowtoapproachListeningTestPartOne•InthispartoftheListeningTestyoulistentoamonologue,e.g.apresentation.•B
HowtoapproachListeningTestPartOne•InthispartoftheListeningTestyoulistentoamonologue,e.g.apresentation.•B
Youwillheararadioprogrammeonthesubjectofinnovation,researchanddevelopmentinbusiness.Foreachquestion(23-30)
随机试题
下列模型中,可以反映两个实力相当厂商的寡头垄断模式的是()。
分子病:
建设单位应当将施工图设计文件报()审查。
下图是哪一位画家的作品?()
每一条河流都是一曲古老的赞歌,唱出了远古文明的______,从未看过巨浪翻滚的人,难以想象万马奔腾、______的壮丽景象。让我们迈开脚步,打开心扉,投入大自然的怀抱。填入横线部分最恰当的一项是:
夸美纽斯的直观原则不包括()。
企业主题数据库的确定是战略数据规划的重要内容之一,指出以下论述中的错误
Whomightthespeakerbe?
YouwillhearoneoftheongoingseriesofinterviewswithaninfluentialexecutiveintheembeddedLinuxindustry—JimReady.
Choosethecorrectletter,A,BorC.TheFlowerHotelislocatedin
最新回复
(
0
)