请教TEST 1 第十六题，第十七题

TEST 1

16.   In a political system with only two major parties, the entrance of a third-party candidate into an election race damages the chances of only one of the two major candidates. The third-party candidate always attracts some of the voters who might otherwise have voted for one of the two major candidates, but not voters who support the other candidate. Since a third-party candidacy affects the two major candidates unequally, for reasons neither of them has any control over, the practice is unfair and should not be allowed.

If the factual information in the passage above is true, which of the following can be most reliably inferred from it?

(A) If the political platform of the third party is a compromise position between that of the two major parties, the third party will draw its voters equally from the two major parties.

(B) If, before the emergence of a third party, voters were divided equally between the two major parties, neither of the major parties is likely to capture much more than one-half of the vote.

(C) A third-party candidate will not capture the votes of new voters who have never voted for candidates of either of the two major parties.

(D) The political stance of a third party will be more radical than that of either of the two major parties。

(E) The founders of a third party are likely to be a coalition consisting of former leaders of the two major parties.

加粗部分是什么意思。我怎么看不明白呢？

17.   Companies considering new cost-cutting manufacturing processes often compare the projected results of making the investment against the alternative of not making the investment with costs, selling prices, and share of market remaining constant.

Which of the following, assuming that each is a realistic possibility, constitutes the most serious disadvantage for companies of using the method above for evaluating the financial benefit of new manufacturing processes?

(A) The costs of materials required by the new process might not be known with certainty.

(B) In several years interest rates might go down, reducing the interest costs of borrowing money to pay for the investment.

(C) Some cost-cutting processes might require such expensive investments that there would be no net gain for many years, until the investment was paid for by savings in the manufacturing process.

(D) Competitors that do invest in a new process might reduce their selling prices and thus take market share away from companies that do not.

(E) The period of year chosen for averaging out the cost of the investment might be somewhat longer or shorter, thus affecting the result.

答案是D，可我看不出答案和题目问的有什么关系。而且我觉得题目有问题。什么叫做compare the projected results of making the investment against the alternative of not making the investment with costs, selling prices, and share of market remaining constant.

为把问题说清楚, 不得不啰嗦些了:　

第三党的候选人总是吸引原来(在没有第三党的情况下)会选其他两个主要党候选人之一的选民, 但是不会吸引会选另外一个候选人的选民.