In American Genesis, which covers the century of technological innovation in the United States beginning in 1876, Thomas Hughes assigns special prominence to Thomas Edison as archetype of the independent nineteenth-century inventor. However, Hughes virtually ignores Edison’s famous contemporary and notorious adversary in 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 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.
My recent reevaluation of Westin-house, facilitated by materials found in railroad archives, suggests that while Westinghouse and Edison shared important traits as inventors, they 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 simply to generate funding for new inventions. Edison therefore undertook just enough sales, product development, and manufacturing to accomplish this. Westinghouse, however, shared the attitudes of the railroads and other industries for whom he developed innovations: product development standardization, system and order were top priorities. Westinghouse thus better exemplifies the systematic approach to technological development that would become a hallmark of modern corporate research and development.
T-9-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
这题我选E，答案是C，我怎么也想不明白，可能是我对文章理解有误，以下是我的理解，还请大家指正。
我选E是因为定位了 For Edison as an inventor, novelty was always paramount: the overriding goal of the business of innovation was simply to generate funding for new inventions. Edison therefore undertook just enough sales, product development, and manufacturing to accomplish this.
