bigpig

23. 是讲sacchar这个国家的trade deficit，他们认为是有与sugar的出口的原因，说price使得他们没有竞争优势，所以要降低价格，来改善贸易环境，这个意思。
原题
40. The following appeared as part of an article in a weekly newsmagazine.
“The country of Sacchar can best solve its current trade deficit problem by lowering the price of sugar, its primary export. Such an action would make Sacchar better able to compete for markets with other sugar-exporting countries. The sale of Sacchar’s sugar abroad would increase, and this increase would substantially reduce Sacchar’s trade deficit.”
Discuss how well reasoned... etc.
The author of this article argues that the country of Sacchar can best solve its current trade deficit problem by lowering the price of its main export, sugar. The line of reasoning is that this action would make Sacchar more competitive with other sugar-exporting countries, thereby increasing sales of Sacchar’s sugar abroad and, in turn, substantially reducing the trade-deficit. This line of reasoning is unconvincing for a couple of reasons.
In the first place, this argument is based on an oversimplified analysis of the trade deficit problem Sacchar currently faces. A trade-deficit occurs when a country spends more on imports than it earns from exports. The author’s argument relies on the assumption that earnings from imports will remain constant. However, the author provides no evidence that substantiates this assumption. It is possible that revenues from imports will increase dramatically in the near future; if so, the course of action proposed by the author might be unnecessary to solve Sacchar’s trade deficit problem. Conversely, it is possible that revenues from imports are likely to decrease dramatically in the near future. To the extent that this is the case, lowering sugar prices may have a negligible countervailing effect, depending on the demand for Sacchar’s sugar.
In the second place, increasing sales by lowering the price of sugar will not yield an increase in income unless the increase in sales is sufficient to overcome the loss in income due to the lower price. This raises three questions the author fails to address. First, will a price decrease in fact stimulate demand? Second, is demand sufficient to meet the increase in supply? Third, can Sacchar increase the sugar production sufficiently to overcome the deficit? In the absence of answers to these questions, we cannot assess the author’s proposal.
In conclusion, the author provides an incomplete analysis of the problem and, as a result, provides a questionable solution. To better evaluate the proposal, we would need to know how revenues from imports are likely to change in the future. To strengthen the argument, the author must provide evidence that demand is sufficient to meet the proposed increase in supply, and that Sacchar has sufficient resources to accommodate the increase.
观点
1比起价格下降而带来的损失产量提高的影响是不是更大不是定数Increasing sales by lowering the price of sugar will not yeild an increase in income unless the increase in sales is sufficient to overcome the loss in income due to the lower price. in the absence of ...
2可能性价比本来就很有竞争力了不需要降价，也可能价格已经很低了没有降低的空间了
3降低进口可能是一个更好的办法A trade-deficit occurs when a country spends more on imports than it earns from exports. However, the author provides no evidence that substantiates this assumption. It is possible that revenues from imports will increase dramatically in the near future; if so, the course of action proposed by the author might be unnecessary to solve Sacchar's trade deficit proplem. To the extent that this is the case...

bigpig

24. 说一个firm  如果增加information technology 的投入的话 公司就会profitable
内容来源于一家广告公司的高科技部门：有结论说员工的效率越高，公司的profit就越高。又有结论说对经常使用电脑的部门进行高科技方面的投资，这些部门的员工的工作效率就越高。于是该部门说他们计划投资目前available的最尖端的科技，这样公司的profit per dollar就会随着员工效率(貌似是这个词)而升高。

题库原题：
The more efficient a firm's employees are, the more profitable that firm will be. Improvements in a firm's information technology hardware and software are a proven way to increase the efficiency of employees who do the majority of their work on computers. Therefore, if our firm invests in the most powerful and advanced information technology available, employee productivity will be maximized. This strategy ensures that every dollar spent on enhanced information technology will help to increase our firm's profit margins.

bigpig

25. 就是Apogee Company那个
题库原题
2. The following appeared in a memorandum from the business department of the Apogee Company.
“When the Apogee Company had all its operations in one location, it was more profitable than it is today. Therefore, the Apogee Company should close down its field offices and conduct all its operations from a single location. Such centralization would improve profitability by cutting costs and helping the company maintain better supervision of all employees.”
Discuss how well reasoned... etc
下面摘自APogee公司的商务部门的备忘录：
当Apogee将它所有的业务部门集中在一处时，它将有比现在更多的利润。因此，Apogee应该关闭它的驻外办公室并从单一场所管理它的所有部门。这样的话，集中会通过削减成本提高利润，并帮助公司更好地对所有员工进行监督。
北美范文
In this argument the author concludes that the Apogee Company should close down field offices and conduct all its operations from a single, centralized location because the company had been more profitable in the past when all its operations were in one location. For a couple of reasons, this argument is not very convincing.
First, the author assumes that centralization would improve profitability by cutting costs and streamlining supervision of employees. This assumption is never supported with any data or projections. Moreover, the assumption fails to take into account cost increases and inefficiency that could result from centralization. For instance, company representatives would have to travel to do business in areas formerly served by a field office, creating travel costs and loss of critical time. In short, this assumption must be supported with a thorough cost-benefit analysis of centralization versus other possible cost-cutting and/or profit-enhancing strategies.
Second, the only reason offered by the author is the claim that Apogee was more profitable when it had operated from a single, centralized location. But is centralization the only difference relevant to greater past profitability? It is entirely possible that management has become lax regarding any number of factors that can affect the bottom line such as inferior products, careless product pricing, inefficient production, poor employee expense account monitoring, ineffective advertising, sloppy buying policies and other wasteful spending. Unless the author can rule out other factors relevant to diminishing profits, this argument commits the fallacy of assuming that just because one event (decreasing profits) follows another (decentralization), the second event has been caused by the first.
In conclusion, this is a weak argument. To strengthen the conclusion that Apogee should close field offices and centralize, this author must provide a thorough cost-benefit analysis of available alternatives and rule out factors other than decentralization that might be affecting current profits negatively.
思路提供
1.        causal oversimplification: It is imprudent to conclude that the establishment of the field offices is the only reason explaining the decline of the profit.
2.        all things are equal: The success of the centralization of the past does not guarantee the applicability in the future.
3.        either-or-or choice: The  author assumes that the centralization and the establishment of field offices are mutually exclusive alternatives, there is no middle ground between they two. In fact, we can have the field offices under centralized control.

bigpig

26. 说通常non-for-profit 组织和慈善机构的员通常都motivated。一个interview说这是因为non-for-profit的员工都认为自己做的是有利于improve society的事情。因此作者说，这个公司可以通过捐款来使员工more motivated than before.
思路：
1.    这个interview 并不靠谱，并没有证据证明所有非盈利组织的人都这么觉得。
2.    可能有其他原因使得员工变得motivated，比如一些training program会使员工变得self-motivated, 而且领导也很重要的，员工受领导影响嘛。
3.    既然是营利性机构，那么一旦利润减少，员工的工资必将受到影响，所以员工也有可能工作更不积极了。
说下我的思路吧：
1.    这个interview 并不靠谱，并没有证据证明所有非盈利组织的人都这么觉得。
2.    可能有其他原因使得员工变得motivated，比如一些training program会使员工变得self-motivated, 而且领导也很重要的，员工受领导影响嘛。
3.    既然是营利性机构，那么一旦利润减少，员工的工资必将受到影响，所以员工也有可能工作更不积极了。
题库原题： The following appeared in a memorandum from the head of a human resources department at a major automobile manufacturing company to the company's managers:
“Studies have found that employees of not-for-profit organizations and charities are often more highly motivated than employees of for-profit corporations to perform well at work when their performance is not being monitored or evaluated. Interviews with employees of not-for-profit organizations suggest that the reason for their greater motivation is the belief that their work helps to improve society. Because they believe in the importance of their work, they have personal reasons to perform well, even when no financial reward is present. Thus, if our corporation began donating a significant portion of its profits to humanitarian causes, our employees’ motivation and productivity would increase substantially and our overall profits would increase as well.”
网上搜罗的思路：
Firstly, it is highly doubtful that employees of not-for-profit organizations and charities are often more highly motivated than employees of for-profit corporations. However, differences between the two departments clearly outweigh the similarities, thus making the comparison highly less than valid. For example, most of the workers in the not-for profit organizations are volunteers, who can self-motivated with dedication and integrity to society; while the employees in the for-profit corporation can also be highly promoted by the personal reasons, such as job satisfaction. Besides the monitoring and evaluation in the job performance can improve the employee’s efficiency and proficiency, thus making the employee self-fulfilled.
Secondly, the author unfairly assumes that the proposed donation would suffice to achieve the increasing profits. This is not necessarily the case without a thorough cost-benefit analysis. It is possible that the after the part of profits, once distributed as the bonus to the employees, will be donated to the humanitarian causes, the employees might be unsatisfied and then less productive. Consequently, the profits of the corporation reduced because increased cost from the donation and reduced productivity.
27. AA 五年前搞了个比赛，三年后旅游人多了，现在为了刺激应该再搞一个刺激经济和人数