Passage 45 While there is no blueprint for transforming a largely government-controlled economy into a free one, the experience of the United Kingdom since 1979 clearly shows one approach that works: privatization, in which (5)
state-owned industries are sold to private companies. By 1979, the total borrowings and losses of state-owned industries were running at about t3 billion a year. By selling many of these industries, the government has decreased these borrowings and losses, gained over t34 (10) billion from the sales, and now receives tax revenues from the newly privatized companies. Along with a dramatically improved overall economy, the government has been able to repay 12.5 percent of the net national debt over a two-year period. (15)
In fact, privatization has not only rescued individual industries and a whole economy headed for disaster, but has also raised the level of performance in every area. At British Airways and British Gas, for example, productivity per employee has risen by 20 percent. At associated (20)
British Ports, labor disruptions common in the 1970’s and early 1980’s have now virtually disappeared. At British Telecom, there is no longer a waiting list—as there always was before privatization—to have a telephone installed. Part of this improved productivity has come about (25) because the employees of privatized industries were given the opportunity to buy shares in their own companies. They responded enthusiastically to the offer of shares; at British Aerospace, 89 percent of the eligible work force bought shares; at Associated British Ports, 90 percent; and at (30)
British Telecom, 92 percent. When people have a personal stake in something, they think about it, care about it, work to make it prosper. At the National Freight Consortium, the new employee-owners grew so concerned about their company’s profits that during wage negotiations they (35) actually pressed their union to lower its wage demands. Some economists have suggested that giving away free shares would provide a needed acceleration of the privati- zation process. Yet they miss Thomas Paine’s point that “what we obtain too cheap we esteem too lightly.” In (40)
order for the far-ranging benefits of individual ownership to be achieved by owners, companies, and countries, employees and other individuals must make their own decisions to buy, and they must commit some of their own resources to the choice. 对第三题有问题. 3. It can be inferred from the passage that the author considers labor disruptions to be (A) an inevitable problem in a weak national economy (B) a positive sign of employee concern about a company (C) a predictor of employee reactions to a company’s offer to sell shares to them (D) a phenomenon found more often in state-owned industries than in private companies (E) a deterrence to high performance levels in an industry 答案是E, 在HIGHLIGHT可以找到对应的话. 可是D好象也对啊.在文中 At associated (20)
British Ports, labor disruptions common in the 1970’s and early 1980’s have now virtually disappeared. At British Telecom, there is no longer a waiting list—as there always was before privatization—to have a telephone installed. 1) 1970和1980就是私有化的时候,2)从文章结构来看也本段话就是说明私有化后的改变啊. 为什么不对呢?请问问题是不是在PRIVATE COMPANY 这个词有不准确,私有公司不等于私有化??? | 
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发表于 2006-8-13 19:43:00
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