prep 2 essay 1 #1

文春三刀禾

Essay #1.009(21233-!-item-!-188;#058&00009-00)

The modern multinational corporation is described as having originated when the owner-managers of nineteenth-century British firms carrying on international trade were replaced by teams of salaried managers organized into hierarchies.Increases in the volume of transactions in such firms are commonly believed to have necessitated this structural change.Nineteenth-century inventions like the steamship and the telegraph, by facilitating coordination of managerial activities, are described as key factors. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century chartered trading companies, despite the international scope of their activities, are usually considered irrelevant to this discussion:the volume of their transactions is assumed to have been too low and the communications and transport of their day too primitive to make comparisons with modern multinationals interesting.

In reality, however, early trading companies successfully purchased and outfitted ships, built and operated offices and warehouses, manufactured trade goods for use abroad, maintained trading posts and production facilities overseas, procured goods for import, and sold those goods both at home and in other countries.The large volume of transactions associated with these activities seems to have necessitated hierarchical management structures well before the advent of modern communications and transportation.For example, in the Hudson's Bay Company, each far-flung trading outpost was managed by a salaried agent, who carried out the trade with the Native Americans, managed day-to-day operations, and oversaw the post's workers and servants.One chief agent, answerable to the Court of Directors in London through the correspondence committee, was appointed with control over all of the agents on the bay.

The early trading companies did differ strikingly from modern multinationals in many respects.They depended heavily on the national governments of their home countries and thus characteristically acted abroad to promote national interests.Their top managers were typically owners with a substantial minority share, whereas senior managers' holdings in modern multinationals are usually insignificant.They operated in a preindustrial world, grafting a system of capitalist international trade onto a premodern system of artisan and peasant production.Despite these differences, however, early trading companies organized effectively in remarkably modern ways and merit further study as analogues of more modern structures.

Question #1.009-01(21279-!-item-!-188;#058&000009-01)

The author's main point is that

(A) modern multinationals originated in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with the establishment of chartered trading companies

(B) the success of early chartered trading companies, like that of modern multinationals, depended primarily on their ability to carry out complex operations

(C) early chartered trading companies should be more seriously considered by scholars studying the origins of modern multinationals

(D) scholars are quite mistaken concerning the origins of modern multinationals

(E) the management structures of early chartered trading companies are fundamentally the same as those of modern multinationals

Question #2.009-04(21325-!-item-!-188;#058&000009-04)

With which of the following generalizations regarding management structures would the author of the passage most probably agree?

(A) Hierarchical management structures are the most efficient management structures possible in a modern context.

(B) Firms that routinely have a high volume of business transactions find it necessary to adopt hierarchical management structures.

(C) Hierarchical management structures cannot be successfully implemented without modern communications and transportation.

(D) Modern multinational firms with a relatively small volume of business transactions usually do not have hierarchically organized management structures.

(E) Companies that adopt hierarchical management structures usually do so in order to facilitate expansion into foreign trade.

Question #3.009-05(21371-!-item-!-188;#058&000009-05)

The passage suggests that modern multinationals differ from early chartered trading companies in that

(A) the top managers of modern multinationals own stock in their own companies rather than simply receiving a salary

(B) modern multinationals depend on a system of capitalist international trade rather than on less modern trading systems

(C) modern multinationals have operations in a number of different foreign countries rather than merely in one or two

(D) the operations of modern multinationals are highly profitable despite the more stringent environmental and safety regulations of modern governments

(E) the overseas operations of modern multinationals are not governed by the national interests of their home countries

Question #4.009-07(21417-!-item-!-188;#058&000009-07)

According to the passage, early chartered trading companies are usually described as

(A) irrelevant to a discussion of the origins of the modern multinational corporation

(B) interesting but ultimately too unusual to be good subjects for economic study

(C) analogues of nineteenth-century British trading firms

(D) rudimentary and very early forms of the modern multinational corporation

(E) important national institutions because they existed to further the political aims of the governments of their home countries

1. C21279-!-item-!-188;#058&000009-01

2. B21325-!-item-!-188;#058&000009-04

3. E21371-!-item-!-188;#058&000009-05

4. A21417-!-item-!-188;#058&000009-07

超级费解为什么第一题就选C    我选的是B   B又哪里错了啊

开门红，真的是不幸啊！

1. C21279-!-item-!-188;#058&000009-01

2. B21325-!-item-!-188;#058&000009-04

3. E21371-!-item-!-188;#058&000009-05

4. A21417-!-item-!-188;#058&000009-07

超级费解为什么第一题就选C    我选的是B   B又哪里错了啊

开门红，真的是不幸啊！

gedn01

同红，后来想通了

The author's main point is that

(A) modern multinationals originated in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with the establishment of chartered trading companies
(B) the success of early chartered trading companies, like that of modern multinationals, depended primarily on their ability to carry out complex operations
(C) early chartered trading companies should be more seriously considered by scholars studying the origins of modern multinationals
(D) scholars are quite mistaken concerning the origins of modern multinationals
(E) the management structures of early chartered trading companies are fundamentally the same as those of modern multinationals

原文中心：the volume of their transactions is assumed to have been too low and the communications and
transport of their day too primitive to make comparisons with modern multinationals interesting

Question #2.  009-04    (21325-!-item-!-188;#058&000009-04)
With which of the following generalizations regarding management structures would the author of the passage most probably agree?

(A) Hierarchical management structures are the most efficient management structures possible in a modern context.
(B) Firms that routinely have a high volume of business transactions find it necessary to adopt hierarchical management structures.
(C) Hierarchical management structures cannot be successfully implemented without modern communications and transportation.
(D) Modern multinational firms with a relatively small volume of business transactions usually do not have hierarchically organized management structures.
(E) Companies that adopt hierarchical management structures usually do so in order to facilitate expansion into foreign trade.
原文：The large volume of transactions associated with these activities seems to have necessitated hierarchical management structures well before the advent of modern communications and transportation

Question #3.  009-05    (21371-!-item-!-188;#058&000009-05)

The passage suggests that modern multinationals differ from early chartered trading companies in that

(A) the top managers of modern multinationals own stock in their own companies rather than simply receiving a salary
(B) modern multinationals depend on a system of capitalist international trade rather than on less modern trading systems
(C) modern multinationals have operations in a number of different foreign countries rather than merely in one or two
(D) the operations of modern multinationals are highly profitable despite the more stringent environmental and safety regulations of modern governments
(E) the overseas operations of modern multinationals are not governed by the national interests of their home countries
原文：They depended heavily on the national governments of their home countries and thus characteristically acted abroad to promote national interests.
Question #4.  009-07    (21417-!-item-!-188;#058&000009-07)

According to the passage, early chartered trading companies are usually described as
(A) irrelevant to a discussion of the origins of the modern multinational corporation
(B) interesting but ultimately too unusual to be good subjects for economic study
(C) analogues of nineteenth-century British trading firms
(D) rudimentary and very early forms of the modern multinational corporation
(E) important national institutions because they existed to further the political aims of the governments of their home countries
原文：chartered trading companies, despite the international scope of their activities, are usually considered irrelevant to

李小色

想请教楼主一下哇~~“They depended heavily on the national governments of their home countries and thus characteristically acted abroad to promote national interests.”这句话应该怎么理解呢？
我认为，意思是说early trading companies对本国政府依赖性很强，所以，为了提高利率，要经常参与国际交易。
是这样吗？