Citing the fact that the real gross

             domestic product (GDP) per capita was

             higher in 1997 than ever before, some

Line      journalists have argued that the United

  (5)      States economy performed ideally in

1997.  However, the real GDP is almost

always higher than ever before; it falls

only during recessions.  One point

these journalists overlooked is that in

 (10)      1997, as in the twenty-four years imme-

diately preceding it, the real GDP per

capita grew nearly one-half percent a

year more slowly than it had on aver-

age between 1873 and 1973.  Were the

 (15)      1997 economy as robust as claimed,

the growth rate of real GDP per capita

in 1997 would have surpassed the

average growth rate of real GDP per

capita between 1873 and 1973 because

 (20)      over fifty percent of the population

           worked for wages in 1997 whereas

            only forty percent worked for wages

between 1873 and 1973.  If the growth

rate of labor productivity (output per

 (25)      hour of goods and services) in 1997

had equaled its average growth rate

between 1873 and 1973 of more than

two percent, then, given the proportion-

ately larger workforce that existed in

 (30)      1997, real GDP per capita in 1997 would

have been higher than it actually was,

since output is a major factor in GDP.

            However, because labor productivity

grew by only one percent in 1997, real

(35)         GDP per capita grew more slowly in

1997 than it had on average between

1873 and 1973.

我也觉得似乎B正确