As one of a rare group of economists who believe that "manufacturing matters" for the health of the American economy, I was hear

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问题     As one of a rare group of economists who believe that "manufacturing matters" for the health of the American economy, I was heartened to hear President Obama emphasize manufacturing in his State of the Union address. During the last two years, the manufacturing sector has led the economic recovery, expanding by about 10 percent and adding more than 300,000 jobs. Though there are economists who do not share my view, I believe that a strong manufacturing sector matters for several reasons.
    First, economists agree that the United States must rebalance growth away from consumption and imports financed by foreign borrowing toward exports. Manufactured goods account for about 86 percent of merchandise exports from the United States and about 60 percent of exports of goods and services combined. American manufacturing exports are becoming more attractive as a result of rising wages abroad, the decline in the dollar’ s value, increasing supply-chain coordination and transportation costs, and strong productivity growth in American manufacturing.
Germany and Japan, two high-wage countries, have maintained substantial shares of manufacturing in their economies, and are major exporters of manufactured goods to emerging market economies. Like manufacturing in these countries, manufacturing in the United States can win larger shares of global export markets with the right policies in place.
    Second, on average manufacturing jobs are high-productivity, high value-added jobs with good pay and benefits. In 2009, the average manufacturing worker earned $74,447 in annual pay and benefits compared with $63,122 for the average non-manufacturing worker. In that year, only about 9 percent of the work force was employed in manufacturing, down from about 13 percent in 2000. The fall in manufacturing employment during the 2000s was a major factor behind growing wage inequality and the polarization of job opportunities between the top and bottom of the wage and skill distribution, with a hollowing out of middle-income jobs.
    Third, manufacturing matters because of its substantial role in innovation. American leadership in science and technology remains highly dependent on R. & D. investment by manufacturing companies, and the social returns to such investment are substantial, far exceeding the returns to the companies that fund it.
    American multinational companies that account for about 84 percent of all private-sector business R. & D. in the United States still place about 84 percent of their R. & D. activities in the United States, often in clusters around research universities. But this share is gradually declining as American companies shift some of their R. & D. to Asia in response to rapidly growing markets, ample supplies of technical workers and engineers and generous subsidies. Congress’ s failure to extend and broaden the R. & D. tax credit, as President Obama has urged, is also encouraging companies in the United States to look to other countries offering far more generous R. & D. tax incentives.
Germany and Japan are mentioned in Paragraph 3 as______.

选项 A、negative examples of developed countries who neglect the development of manufacturing
B、warnings for Americans about potential competition in global manufacturing export market
C、successful examples of countries who have recovered from economic crisis by focusing on manufacturing
D、successful examples of developed countries who maintained competitive edge in manufacturing

答案D

解析 第二段作者主要论述的观点是美国应该大力发展制造业,因为制造业产品的出口能够帮助美国摆脱依赖进口的经济增长模式。接着第三段就举了德国和日本的例子。作为发达国家的代表,这两个国家在制造业方面都具备相当的实力,他们在向新兴国家出口制造业产品方面也一马当先。因此,这里德国和日本是作为正面例子推出的,首先可以将[A]排除。作者以这两个国家为例,不是想要说明它们对美国会造成威胁,而是希望美国能够从这两个国家身上学到一些经验,因此[B]错误。[C]说德国和日本关注制造业是正确信息,但是后半句说依靠制造业而成功摆脱经济危机,文中无此信息。[D]为正确答案。
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