短句问答30: 商业经济
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. Foreign-made cars and textiles were sweeping into the domestic market. Americas machine-tool industry was on the ropes. For a while it looked as though the making of semiconductors, which America had invented and 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 or Americas 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 bas yielded io blind pride. American industry has changed its structure, has gone on a diet, has learnt to be more quickwitted, according to Richard Cavanagh, executive dean of Harvards 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 D.C. 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 che United States.
参考译文
长时问且不费力的成功史可能成为一种可怕的阻碍。但是，如果处理得当，它可以变成一种动力。二战结束后，美国进入了一个熠熠生辉的时期，它的市场规模是任何一个竞争对手的八部以上，这使得它的产业经济规模无与伦比。它的科学家是世界上最出色的，它的工人在技术上是最棒的。美国和美国人的繁荣富裕是那些经济受到战争摧毁的欧洲人和亚洲人所难以想象的。
这种独占鳌头的情形随着其他国家日渐强盛，不可避免地被削弱。同样不可避免的是逐渐失去统治地位的痛苦滋味。到了20世纪80年代中期，美国人困惑地发现他们的产业竞争力逐渐衰落。一些大的美国产业，如电子消费品，已经在外国的竞争下萎缩或消失。到了l987年，只有一家美国电视制造公司 顶点 公司存留下来。(现在则荡然无存： 顶点 已在7月份被南韩LG电子公司收购。)外国生产的汽车和纺织品席卷了美国国内市场。美国的机床制造业处境艰难。曾经有一段时间，连美国发明的处于新的电脑时代核心地位的半导体制造业看上去也将成为下一个牺牲品。
所有这一切导致了一场信心危机。美国人不再把繁荣当作理所当然的事情。他们开始相信他们做生意的办法不对头，他们的收入也会因此很快下降。在80年代中期人们对美国产业衰退的原因提出一个又一个的质疑。他们间或抛出的耸人听闻的调查结果充满了关于海外经济竞争力增长的警告。
形势改变得多快啊!1995年，美国可以回顾过去五年里经济的稳步增长，而日本则一直在苦苦挣扎。很少美国人把这个原因单纯地归结为美元贬值或商业周期转变这样明显的原因。自我怀疑为盲目自大所替代。按照哈佛大学肯尼迪政府学院的行政院长理查德 卡佛纳的说法， 美国产业改变了结构，进行了瘦身运动，学会了如何更加机敏地反应 。 看到我们的工商业怎么提高生产力让我为自己是个美国人而感到骄傲， 华盛顿特区的智囊团卡托学会的史蒂芬 摩尔如是说。而哈佛大学商学院的威廉 萨尔曼相信人们在回顾这段时期时，会把它看成 美国企业管理的黄金时代 。
测试题
1. When the economy of European and Asian were deep in difficulties after WWII, the U.S. was enjoying a period of_______________________.
2. Until the 1980s Americans began to realize their_____________was on the decline.
3. The loss of U.S. predominance in the world economy caused_______________.
4. According to the passage. some findings tended to attribute the causes of Americas industrial decline to_____________.
5. What was the reason for the revival of the U.S. economy in the l990s in the authors opinion?
答案详解
1.
第1段最后一句。
解析：题干the economy of... were deep in difficulties是原文whose economies
the war had destroyed的近义改写，答案在主句中找。主句说战后的美国繁荣富
裕。题干要求填入名词，因此只需将prosperous改写为prosperity即可。
2.
第2段第3句。
解析：根据时间状语1980s查找到解题关键句。在20世纪80年代，美国人就发现他们的industrial competitiveness逐渐衰落。原文中的found 和fading分别对应题干的realized和on the decline.
3.
第3段第1句。
解析：文章第2段主要是用一些具体的例子，描述美国的the retreat from predominance(退出统治地位)，即题干中的loss of U.S. predominance in the world economy，紧接着在第3段总结，说所有这些对美国造成了a crisis of confidence(一场信心危机)，即题干所问的后果。
4.
第3段最后一句。
解析：原文就美国产业衰退的原因引申了一些人的看法，提到某些调查结果中全是关于海外经济竞争力增长的警告，也就是说这些调查结果倾向于将原因归结为海外经济竞争力增长，故答案为the growing competition from overseas。
5.
最后一段第3句。
解析：该段第3句中this指代上一句提到的90年代美国经济的稳步增长，对应题干中的the revival of the U.S. economy in the l990s。答案本句中找。obvious一词表明作者认为这时期美国经济的繁荣主要是因为A devalued dollar or the turning of the business cycle。后面内容是一些名人对于美国经济的盲目自信，而非作者的观点。注意避免观点张冠李戴。