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  3. There is widespread belief that the emergence of giant industries has been a

There is widespread belief that the emergence of giant industries has been a

游客2025-04-08  14
问题     There is widespread belief that the emergence of giant industries has been accompanied by an equivalent surge in industrial research. A recent study of important inventions made since the turn of the century reveals that more than half were the product of individual inventors working alone, independent of organized industrial research. While industrial laboratories contributed such important products as nylon and transistors, independent inventors developed air conditioning, the automatic transmission, the jet engine, the helicopter, insulin, and streptomycin. Still other inventions, such as stainless steel, television, silicones, and Plexiglas were developed through the combined efforts of individuals and laboratory teams.
    Despite these finding, we are urged to support monopolistic power on the grounds that such power creates an environment supportive of innovation. We are told that the independent inventor, along with the small firm, cannot afford to undertake the important research needed to improve our standard of living while protecting our diminishing resources; that only the giant corporation or conglomerate, with its prodigious assets, can afford the kind of expenditures that produce the technological advances vital to economic progress. But when we examine expenditures for research, we find that of the more than $ 35 billion spent each year in this country, almost two-thirds is spent by the federal government. More man half of this government expenditure is funneled into military research and product development, accounting for the enormous increase in spending in such industries as nuclear energy, aircraft, missiles, and electronics. There are those who consider it questionable that these defense-linked research projects will either improve our standard of living or do much to protect our diminishing resources.
    Recent history has demonstrated that we may have to alter our longstanding conception of the process actuated by competition. The price variable, once perceived as the dominant aspect of the process, is now subordinate to the competition of the new product, the new business structure, and the new technology. While it can be assumed that in a highly competitive industry not dominated by single corporation, investment in innovation — a risky and expensive budget item — might meet resistance from management and stockholders concerned about cost-cutting, efficient organization, and large advertising budgets, it would be an egregious error to equate the monopolistic producer with bountiful expenditures on research. Large-scale enterprises tend to operate more comfortably in stable and secure circumstances, and their managerial bureaucracies tend to promote the status quo and resist the threat implicit in change. Moreover, in some cases, industrial giants faced with little or no competition seek to avoid the capital loss resulting from obsolescence by deliberately obstructing technological progress. By contrast, small firms undeterred by large investments in plant and capital equipment often aggressively pursue new techniques and new products, investing in innovation in order to expand their market shares.
    The conglomerates are not, however, completely except from strong competitive pressures. There are instances in which they too must compete with another industrial Goliath, and then their weapons may include large expenditures for innovation. [br] Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the author’s main point?
选项 A、In the last decade, conglomerates have significantly increased their research budgets for defense technology.
B、Tax restructuring permits smaller firms to write off a larger percentage of profits against research.
C、A ten-year study of the extent of resources devoted to research by smaller enterprises reveals a steady decline.
D、Military research is being directed more extensively to space technology than to short-range missiles.
答案 A
解析 细节判断题。作者的主要观点是看好小公司的发展前途，所以削弱的话，必然是对小公司进行负面评价，选项C是小公司decline。故为答案。选项A(在最后十年大公司的研究经费增加了)符合作者的观点，因为原文尾段说出了大公司的投入会增加，所以不正确；选项B(税务重组允许小公司对研究增加费用)对小公司是正态度；选项D是无关作者主要观点的选项。
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