prep07 语法的一道题目，求大牛！

huanglianjing

The modern multinationalcorporation is described as having originated when the owner-managers ofnineteenth-century British firms carrying on international trade were replacedby teams of salaried managers organized into hierarchies.  Increases in the volume of transactions insuch firms are commonly believed to have necessitated this structuralchange.  Nineteenth-century inventionslike the steamship and the telegraph, by facilitating coordination ofmanagerial activities, are described as key factors. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-centurychartered trading companies, despite the international scope of theiractivities, are usually considered irrelevant to this discussion:  the volume of their transactions is assumedto have been too low and the communications and transport of their day tooprimitive 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 forimport, and sold those goods both at home and in other countries.  The large volume of transactions associatedwith these activities seems to have necessitated hierarchical managementstructures well before the advent of modern communications and transportation.  For example, in the Hudson's Bay Company, eachfar-flung trading outpost was managed by asalaried agent, who carried out the trade with the Native Americans, managedday-to-day operations, and oversaw the post's workers and servants.  One chief agent, answerable to the Court ofDirectors in London through the correspondence committee, was appointed withcontrol over all of the agents on the bay.
The early tradingcompanies did differ strikingly from modern multinationals in manyrespects.  They depended heavily on thenational governments of their home countries and thus characteristically actedabroad to promote national interests. Their top managers were typically owners with a substantial minorityshare, whereas senior managers' holdings in modernmultinationals are usually insignificant. They operated in a preindustrial world, grafting a system of capitalistinternational trade onto a premodern system of artisan and peasantproduction.  Despite these differences,however, early trading companies organized effectively in remarkably modernways and merit further study as analogues of more modern structures.




Question 4:According to the passage, earlychartered trading companies are usually described as
(A)   irrelevant to a discussion ofthe origins of the modern multinational corporation
(B)   interesting but ultimately toounusual to be good subjects for economic study
(C)   analogues ofnineteenth-century British trading firms
(D)   rudimentary and very earlyforms of the modern multinational corporation
(E)    important national institutions because they existed to further thepolitical aims of the governments of their home countries
我选的c，答案是a.看了分析之后我知道a是从整个文章层面来做的。但是我不知道c为毛不对啊，文中红色是我认为的supporting.快考试了，求救命

li3360065

early chartered trading companies ≠The modern multinationalcorporation。

The modern multinationalcorporation is described as having originated when the owner-managers ofnineteenth-century British firms carrying on international trade were replacedby teams of salaried managers organized into hierarchies （陈述A：The modern multinationalcorporation的起源）
Increases in the volume of transactions insuch firms are commonly believed to have necessitated this structuralchange.  Nineteenth-century inventionslike the steamship and the telegraph, by facilitating coordination ofmanagerial activities, are described as key factors.（论证A：提供一堆支持陈述A）

Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century chartered trading companies, despite the international scope of theiractivities, are usually considered irrelevant to this discussion 这个老观点出现了，说Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century chartered trading companies 不适合陈述A 这个话题，因为这些早期公司不够格，不满足现代公司起源的条件，也就是说 这些早期公司跟nineteenth-century British firms 比 不够格。

所以看C选项，答案清楚了吧~

huanglianjing

谢谢2楼的！