dtop考研英语一阅读理解真题加解析1994 Passage 1

The American economic system is organized around a basically private-enterprise, market-oriented

1994 Passage 1

economy in which consumers largely determine what shall be produced by spending their money in the

marketplace for those goods and services that they want most. Private businessmen, striving to make

profits, produce these goods and services in competition with other businessmen; and the profit motive,

operating under competitive pressures, largely determines how these goods and services are produced.

Thus, in the American economic system it is the demand of individual consumers, coupled with the

desire of businessmen to maximize profits and the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes, that

together determine what shall be produced and how resources are used to produce it.

An important factor in a market-oriented economy is the mechanism by which consumer demands

can

be expressed

and

responded

to

by

producers.

In

the

American economy

,

this

mechanism

is

provided

by a price system, a process in which prices rise and fall in response to relative demands of consumers

and supplies offered by seller- producers. If the products is in short supply relative to the demand, the

price will be bid up and some consumers will be eliminated from the market. If

, on the other hand,

producing more of a commodity results in reducing its cost, this will tend to increase the supply offered

by seller-producers, which in turn will lower the price and permit more consumers to buy the product.

Thus, price is the regulating mechanism in the American economic system.

The

important

factor

in

a

private-enterprise

economy

is

that

individuals

are

allowed

to

own

productive resources (private property), and they are permitted to hire labor

, gain control over natural

resources, and produce goods and services for sale at a profit. In the American economy

, the concept of

private

property

embraces

not

only

the

ownership

of

productive

resources

but

also

certain

rights,

including the right to determine the price of a product or to make a free contract with another private

individual.

51. In line 8, paragraph 1,

[A] Americans are never satisfied with their incomes

[B] Americans tend to overstate their incomes

[C] Americans want to have their incomes increased

[D] Americans want to increase the purchasing power of their incomes

52. The first two sentences in the second paragraph tell us that ________.

[A] producers can satisfy the consumers by mechanized production

[B] consumers can express their demands through producers

[C] producers decide the prices of products

[D] supply and demand regulate prices

53. According to the passage, a private-enterprise economy is characterized by ________.

[A] private property and rights concerned

[B] manpower and natural resources control

[C] ownership of productive resources

[D] free contracts and prices

54. The passage is mainly about ________.

[A] how American goods are produced

[B] how American consumers buy their goods

[C] how American economic system works

[D] how American businessmen make their profits

重点词汇：

market-oriented

（以市场为导向的）←

market

市场

+orient

+ed

形容

词后

缀。

permit

（

v

.

许可；许可证

）即

per+mit

，

per -(=through)

，

mit

词根

“

传送

”

，< /p>

故

“允许传

送过

去”

→许可

。

同

根词：

admit

（

v

.

让??

进入；

承认

）

←

ad(=to)+mit

；

emit

（

v

.

散

发，

发射

）

←

e(=ex)+mit

；

transmit

（

v

.

传播

；

传

导

）

←

trans(=thr ough)+mit

。

Liberty

is

the

right to do whatever the laws permit.

自

由就

是做

法律允许的任

何事的

权利

。

embrace

??????????

（

.

拥抱

；

包

含）

即

em+brace

，

em-(=in)

，

brace

词根“手臂”

，故“使在手臂里”→拥抱→ 引申

为“包

含”

。

brace

作单词

意为

“