新东方蓝皮书105

industrialists from the country Distopia were accused of promoting the Distopia intervention in the Arcadian civil war merely to insure that the industrialists' facilities in Arcadia made substanstial profits during the war.Yet this cannot be the motive since,as the Distopians forsaw,Distopia's federal expenses for the intervention were 8 billion dollars,whereas,during the war,profits from the DIstopian industialists' facilities in Arcadia totaled only 4 billion dollars.

which of the following,if true,exposes a serious flaw in the argument made in the second sentence above？

answer:

B:the largest proportion of Distopia's federal expenses is borne by those who receive no significant industial profits.

答案的意思是“D的花费大部分是由利润很少的企业所支付的”么？

想不通这个答案怎么解释？

My personal understanding of the second sentence: 保护facilities以维护industrialists的profit并不能成为他们煽动D国干涉A国内战的动机，因为可以预见到要是D国人参与A国内战，费用高达8，而保护industrialists的profit只有4 （不合算！）.

这个“不合算！”有一个比较隐蔽的假设：industrialists必须要承担大部分的expenses。

若是expenses不是由那帮industrialists来埋单的话，industrialists就很合算了，于是达到削弱目的。
（分享做这道题的感悟：要注意通过语气去体会文章意思！“totaled only"读出不合算之意）

o  ,多谢楼上解释，那么这道题的industrialists 和who receive no significant industrial profits不是一类人。难道industrialists特指的是4billion里面的 ？

Yes! industrialists 可以获得4b的利润，可见是who receive significant industrial profits了，应该可以纳入“大资”，那些who receive no significant industrial profits,自然是“小资”了，“大资”不用埋单由“小资”来埋，“大资”不是很合算了吗？