请教prep-p1-essay #7中的一题

shuijing0528

Essay #7.  146      (22165-!-item-!-188;#058&00146-00)

 

The United States government has a long-standing policy of using federal funds to keep small business viable.  The Small Business Act of 1953 authorized the Small Business Administration (SBA) to enter into contracts with government agencies having procurement powers and to arrange for fulfillment of these contracts by awarding subcontracts to small businesses.  In the mid-1960's, during the war on poverty years, Congress hoped to encourage minority entrepreneurs by directing such funding to minority businesses.  At first this funding was directed toward minority entrepreneurs with very low incomes.  A 1967 amendment to the Economic Opportunity Act directed the SBA to pay special attention to minority-owned businesses located in urban or rural areas characterized by high proportions of unemployed or low-income individuals.  Since then, the answer given to the fundamental question of who the recipients should be--the most economically disadvantaged or those with the best prospects for business success--has changed, and the social goals of the programs have shifted, resulting in policy changes.

 

The first shift occurred during the early 1970's.  While the goal of assisting the economically disadvantaged entrepreneur remained, a new goal emerged:  to remedy the effects of past discrimination.  In fact, in 1970 the SBA explicitly stated that their main goal was to increase the number of minority-owned businesses. 
                At the time, minorities constituted seventeen percent of the nation's population, but only four percent of the nation's self-employed. 
            This ownership gap was held to be the result of past discrimination.  Increasing the number of minority-owned firms was seen as a way to remedy this problem.  In that context, providing funding to minority entrepreneurs in middle- and high-income brackets seemed justified.

 

In the late 1970's, the goals of minority-business funding programs shifted again.  At the Minority Business Development Agency, for example, the goal of increasing numbers of minority-owned firms was supplanted by the goal of creating and assisting more minority-owned substantive firms with future growth potential.  Assisting manufacturers or wholesalers became far more important than assisting small service businesses.  Minority-business funding programs were now justified as instruments for economic development, particularly for creating jobs in minority communities of high unemployment.

Question #22.  146-05  (22257-!-item-!-188;#058&000146-05)

 

It can be inferred that the "ownership gap" (see highlighted text) would be narrowed if which of the following were to occur?

 

(A) Minority entrepreneurs received a percentage of government contracts equal to that received by nonminority entrepreneurs.

(B) Middle- and high-income minority entrepreneurs gave more assistance to their low-income counterparts in the business community.

(C) Minority entrepreneurs hired a percentage of minority employees equal to the percentage of minority residents in their own communities.

(D) The percentage of self-employed minority persons rose to more than ten percent of all self-employed persons.

(E) Seventeen percent of all persons employed in small businesses were self-employed.

OA-（D）

答案D说的没有错，从正面回答了gap的问题所在，即橙色highlight部分 “At the time, minorities constituted seventeen percent of the nation's population, but only four percent of the nation's self-employed.” 但总感觉这个回答不够呼应原文。 A为什么不对呢？文章蓝色highlight有说：“Increasing the number of minority-owned firms was seen as a way to remedy this problem. ” 请大家分析一下。

goyce36

蓝色部分说的是增加the number of minority-owned firms 而A说的是增加合同数。是不同的。

再说D。文中说少数人占全国人口17%，而少数人口占全国有工作人口的4%。也就是说少数人口中失业率比全国平均失业率高。而D说，把少数人口中有工作的提高到全国就业人口的10% ，即减小这种差距。