OG-33-208

xue3y

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.

208. 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)

(E)   a deterrence to high performance levels in an industry

对答案E没有疑问,但我想知道为什么D不对?文章不是说：私营公司 raised the level of performance in every area. 所以现在labor disruptions common in the 1970’s and early 1980’s have now virtually disappeared.，不正是说明state-owned industries的这种phenomenon比privatized industries ‘more often’ 吗？

forgmat66

以下是引用wangyu73cn在2005-6-5 9:24:00的发言：

我认为，

1、虽然在文章中有：At Associated British Ports, labor disruptions common in the 1970's and early 1980's have now virtually disappeared. 但这里只是说明了这一家的情况。

2、不能以偏概全地认为整个国有企业都如此。

3、文章中也没有对与国有企业相对立的私人企业的labor disruption 的frequency进行概括性论述。否则也可能对D选项的正误发生影响。
我们不妨设想一下，如果在文章中的其他地方有论述提及”私人企业的这种频率较低”，那D就可能为正确选项了。
再考虑一下，ETS会如何通过文章或出题来设置不同难度呢？在写文章时，ETS很可能会先设置出某个例子，然后再用晦涩表达说明这个例子具有私人企业或国有企业的代表性；在设置问题时，则问其对立面的情况如何。这样，利用上述设置把“归纳”和“取非”两个方面纠缠在一起来进行考察，增加思维的难度。所以我想，看OG应该看出ETS的一些意图来才好。即便不是ETS的本意，也是很好的思维锻炼，有备无患。

因此，OG的解释是有道理的，而且非常到位，以简单的表述对应了以上3重意思：the passage makes no generalization about the frequence of labor disruption throughout either state-owned or private companies.

xue3y

谢谢forgmat66的解释，我也知道文章中的确没有普遍现象是怎样，但infer题不就是选文章中没有提到，却又能合理推出的吗？ETS也是从这两句话推出了选项E，文中也没提及labor disruptions就是performance level呀？而且你说的第1，2点也可以用在E上。

再看看文章，从结构上来说，第二段一开始就提出了performance level，然后举了几个例子，好像说labor disruptions就是the level of performance in one area.

不知道了，有点胡涂。。。