这道题没有讨论过。

107. The number of patents granted to inventors by the United States Patent Office dropped from 56,000 in 1971 to 45,000 in 1978. Spending on research and development, which peaked at 3 percent of the gross national product (GNP) in 1964, was only 2.2 percent of the GNP in 1978. During this period, when the LACE>United StatesLACE> percentage was steadily decreasing, LACE>West GermanyLACE> and LACE>JapanLACE> increased the percentage of their GNP’s spent on research and development to 3.2 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively.

Which of the following conclusions is best supported by the information above?

(A) There is direct relationship between the size of a nation’s GNP and the number of inventions it produces.

(B) LACE>JapanLACE> and LACE>West GermanyLACE> spent more money on research and development is directly related to the number of inventions patented in that nation.

(C) The amount of money a nation spends on research and development is directly relocated to the number of inventions patented in that nation.

(D) Between 1964 and 1978 the United States consistently spent a larger percentage of its GNP on research and development than did Japan. D

(E) Both West Germany and Japan will soon surpass the United States in the number of patents granted to investors.

ans: D

这道题并不难，但是我多想了一下，产生了一个问题：

如果有一个选项是这样的：The size of the percentage that a nation spends on research and development is directly relocated to the number of inventions patented in that nation.

(也就是说一个国家对于R&D的投资占GNP的大小是与专利的数量直接有关的，或更直接的说是投资比例与专利数量成正比。)

不知道conclusion对不对？

（依据是： The number of patents granted to inventors by the United States Patent Office dropped from 56,000 in 1971 to 45,000 in 1978. Spending on research and development, which peaked at 3 percent of the gross national product (GNP) in 1964, was only 2.2 percent of the GNP in 1978.）

盼解答，谢谢！：）

A happened, B happened 不等于A cause B, or B cause A, or A and B are related.

What if most inventors and smart people died between 1971 and 1978.