Seventeenth-century philosopher John Locke stated that as much as 99 percent of

游客2024-01-12  8

问题 Seventeenth-century philosopher John Locke stated that as much as 99 percent of the value of any useful product can be attributed to "the effects of labor." For Locke’s intellectual heirs it was only a short step to the "labor theory of value," whose formulators held that 100 percent of the value of any product is generated by labor (the human work needed to produce goods) and that therefore the employer who appropriates any part of the product’s value as profit is practicing theft.
Although human effort is required to produce goods for the consumer market, effort is also invested in making capital goods (tools, machines, etc.), which are used to facilitate the production of consumer goods. In modern economies about one-third of the total output of consumer goods is attributable to the use of capital goods. Approximately two-thirds of the income derived from this total output is paid out to workers as wages and salaries, the remaining third serving as compensation to the owners of the capital goods. Moreover, part of this remaining third is received by workers who are shareholders, pension beneficiaries, and the like. The labor theory of value systematically disregards the productive contribution of capital goods—a failing for which Locke must bear part of the blame. [br] Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage?

选项 A、The author explores the origins of a theory and explains why the theory never gained widespread acceptance.
B、The author introduces the premise of a theory, evaluates the premise by relating it to objective reality, then proposes a modification of the theory.
C、After quoting a well-known authority, the author describes the evolution of a theory, then traces its modern form back to the original quotation.
D、After citing a precursor of a theory, the author outlines and refutes the theory, then links its flaw to the precursor.
E、After tracing the roots of a theory, the author attempts to undermine the theory by discrediting its originator.

答案 D

解析 Evaluation
The question asks us to identify the statement that most accurately describes the organization of the passage.
A The author indeed explores an aspect of the origin of the labor theory of value, to do with the philosopher John Locke. However, the author neither claims that the theory never gained widespread acceptance nor tries to explain a supposed fact that the theory never gained widespread acceptance.
B Although the author explains a fundamental aspect of a theory—the labor theory of value—and then may seem to evaluate this aspect by "relating it to objective reality," she or he does not propose a modification of the theory.
C The passage indeed quotes John Locke, who is well known and may be considered an authority on certain matters. However, Locke would not be considered an authority on the contents of the labor theory of value, which, the passage suggests, did not exist at the time of Locke. Furthermore, much of the passage is devoted to developing a criticism of the theory. A good characterization of the passage would need to at least mention this criticism.
D Correct. The author begins the passage by describing a theory of John Locke that is, according to the author, a precursor to the labor theory of value. Most of the second paragraph is devoted to a criticism of the theory, which the author ends by claiming that Locke is somewhat responsible for the supposed flaw.
E The criticism of the labor theory of value is based on certain purported claims, made by the theory, about the economy that, according to the author, do not agree with the theory. The criticism of John Locke is then based on this critique of the theory, and the claim that Locke is somewhat responsible for the flaw in the theory that the author claims to identify. Because the critique of the theory is thus not based on the critique of Locke, and thus not on something that would purportedly "discredit" him, this option is clearly incorrect.
The correct answer is D.
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