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Passage 3
     Federal efforts to aid minority businesses began in the
1960’s when the Small Business Administration (SBA)
began making federally guaranteed loans and govern-
ment-sponsored management and technical assistance
(5) available to minority business enterprises. While this
program enabled many minority entrepreneurs to
form new businesses, the results were disappointing,
since managerial inexperience, unfavorable locations,
and capital shortages led to high failure rates. Even 15
(10) years after the program was implemented, minority      
  business receipts were not quite two percent of the national
  economy’s total receipts.
      Recently federal policymakers have adopted an
approach intended to accelerate development of the
(15) minority business sector by moving away from directly
aiding small minority enterprises and toward supporting
larger, growth-oriented minority firms through interme-
diary companies. In this approach, large corporations
participate in the development of successful and stable
(20) minority businesses by making use of government-
sponsored venture capital. The capital is used by a
participating company to establish a Minority Enterprise
Small Business Investment Company or MESBIC. The
MESBIC then provides capital and guidance to minority
(25) businesses that have potential to become future suppliers
or customers of the sponsoring company.
   MESBIC’s are the result of the belief that providing
established firms with easier access to relevant manage-
ment techniques and more job-specific experience, as
(30) well as substantial amounts of capital, gives those firms
a greater opportunity to develop sound business founda-
tions than does simply making general management
experience and small amounts of capital available.
Further, since potential markets for the minority busi-
(35) nesses already exist through the sponsoring companies,   
   the minority businesses face considerably less risk in
terms of location and market fluctuation. Following
early financial and operating problems, sponsoring
corporations began to capitalize MESBIC’s far above
(40) the legal minimum of $500,000 in order to generate
sufficient income and to sustain the quality of manage-
ment needed. MESBIC’c are now emerging as increas-
ingly important financing sources for minority enter-
prises.
(45)  Ironically, MESBIC staffs, which usually consist of
Hispanic and Black professionals, tend to approach
investments in minority firms more pragmatically than
do many MESBIC directors, who are usually senior
managers from sponsoring corporations. The latter
(50) often still think mainly in terms of the “social responsi-
bility approach” and thus seem to prefer deals that are
riskier and less attractive than normal investment criteria
   would warrant. Such differences in viewpoint have pro-
   duced uneasiness among many minority staff members,
(55) who feel that minority entrepreneurs and businesses
should be judged by established business considerations.
These staff members believe their point of view is closer
to the original philosophy of MESBIC’s and they are
concerned that, unless a more prudent course is fol-
lowed, MESBIC directors may revert to policies likely
to re-create the disappointing results of the original SBA
approach.
5. The author refers to the “financial and operating problems”(line 38 ) encountered by MESBIC’s primarily in order to
(A) broaden the scope of the discussion to include the legal considerations of funding MESBIC’S through sponsoring companies
(B) call attention to the fact that MESBIC’s must receive adequate funding in order to function effectively
(C) show that sponsoring companies were willing to invest only $500,000 of government-sponsored venture capital in the original MESBIC’s
(D) compare SBA and MESBIC limits on minimum funding  
(E) refute suggestions that MESBIC’s have been only marginally successful
Explanation:
B is the best answer.
The reference in lines 56-57 to “financial and operating problems” appears in the context of a discussion of why corporations came to capitalize MESBIC”s “far above the legal minimum of $ 500,000.” The problems are cited to illustrate the reasons that MESBIC’s need more。
这道题我选的是C，虽然C从文章中也找不到很好的支持，但似乎也能推断出来。我总觉得B有点脱离ets客观公正的出题思路，加进了作者的个人感情因素，所以很不解，哪位牛牛给俺分析一下。

elitist

仔细看了看文章和选项，发现这道题的问题本身非常关键： 5. The author refers to the “financial and operating problems”(line 38 ) encountered by MESBIC’s primarily in order to 也就是说财务和运营问题是MESBIC遇到的问题，而不是赞助企业遇到的。 文中那句话应该翻译如下： Following early financial and operating problems, sponsoring corporations began to capitalize MESBIC’s far above the legal minimum of $500,000 in order to generate sufficient income and to sustain the quality of management needed. 因为MESBIC在早期遇到了财务及运营方面的问题，所以赞助企业开始对其加大投资力度以达到刺激充足进帐及维持应有管理水准（这里是指赞助企业希望帮助MESBIC提高收入和管理水平)的目的。

虽然这个following从语法角度应该修饰sponsoring corporations，但其实是修饰MESBIC。 文中"MESBIC'S"是MESBIC的复数形式，可能所有大写字母缩写的复数都是加 ['s]。