the century of technological innovation

in the United States beginning in 1876,

Thomas Hughes assigns special promi-

(5) nence to Thomas Edison as archetype

of the independent nineteenth-century

25

inventor. However, Hughes virtually

ignores Edison’s famous contemporary

and notorious adversary in

(10) the field of electric light and power,

George Westinghouse. This comparative

neglect of Westinghouse is

consistent with other recent historians’

works, although it marks an intriguing

(15) departure from the prevailing view

during the inventors’ lifetimes (and for

decades afterward) of Edison and

Westinghouse as the two “pioneer

innovators” of the electrical industry.

(20) My recent reevaluation of Westinghouse,

facilitated by materials found

in railroad archives, suggests that

while Westinghouse and Edison shared

important traits as inventors, they

(25) differed markedly in their approach to

the business aspects of innovation.

For Edison as an inventor, novelty

was always paramount: the overriding

goal of the business of innovation was

(30) simply to generate funding for new

inventions. Edison therefore undertook

just enough sales, product development,

and manufacturing to accomplish this.

Westinghouse, however, shared the

(35) attitudes of the railroads and other

industries for whom he developed

innovations: product development,

standardization, system, and order

were top priorities. Westinghouse

(40) thus better exemplifies the systematic

approach to technological development

that would become a hallmark of modern

corporate research and development.

The primary purpose of the passage is to

A. reevaluate a controversial theory

B. identify the flaws in a study

C. propose a new method of historical research

D. compare two contrasting analyses

E. provide a fresh perspective

答案E 我选B，我觉得B答案也许不如E好，但E这里与gwd1里的一个题目很相似，想知道为什么GWD1那个是对的 而这个不是，它俩有什么区别吗GWD1的文章我贴在2楼

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Q6:

According to the passage, Edison’s chief concern as an inventor was the

A. availability of a commercial market

B. costs of developing a prototype

C. originality of his inventions

D. maintenance of high standards throughout production

E. generation of enough profits to pay for continued marketing

Answer:

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Q7:

The author of the passage implies that the shift away from the views of Westinghouse’s

contemporaries should be regarded as

A. a natural outgrowth of the recent revival of interest in Edison

B. a result of scholarship based on previously unknown documents

C. reflective of modern neglect of the views of previous generations

D. inevitable, given the changing trends in historical interpretations

E. surprising, given the stature that Westinghouse once had

主要是第七个有问题 答案E 我选A

War) political history and women’s his-

tory use separate sources and focus

Line on separate issues. Political histori-

(5) ans, examining sources such as voting

records, newspapers, and politicians’

writings, focus on the emergence in the

1840’s of a new “American political

nation,” and since women were neither

(10) voters nor politicians, they receive little

discussion. Women’s historians, mean-

while, have shown little interest in the

subject of party politics, instead draw-

ing on personal papers, legal records

(15) such as wills, and records of female

associations to illuminate women’s

domestic lives, their moral reform

activities, and the emergence of the

woman’s rights movement.

(20) However, most historians have

underestimated the extent and signifi-

cance of women’s political allegiance

in the antebellum period. For example,

in the presidential election campaigns

(25) of the 1840’s, the Virginia Whig party

strove to win the allegiance of Virginia’s

women by inviting them to rallies and

speeches. According to Whig propa-

ganda, women who turned out at the

(30) party’s rallies gathered information

that enabled them to mold party-loyal

families, reminded men of moral values

that transcended party loyalty, and con-

ferred moral standing on the party.

(35) Virginia Democrats, in response,

began to make similar appeals to

women as well. By the mid-1850’s

the inclusion of women in the rituals of

party politics had become common-

(40) place, and the ideology that justified

such inclusion had been assimilated

by the Democrats.

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Q4:

The primary purpose of the passage as a whole is to

A. examine the tactics of antebellum political parties with regard to women

B. trace the effect of politics on the emergence of the woman’s rights movement

C. point out a deficiency in the study of a particular historical period

D. discuss the ideologies of opposing antebellum political parties

E. contrast the methodologies in two differing fields of historical inquiry

这个题目的C与上面的那个B很相似