(This passage is excerpted from material published in 1980.)
Federal efforts to aid minority businesses began in the 1960’s when the Small Business Administration (SBA) began making federally guaranteed loans(5题中1取反) and government-sponsored management and technical assistance available to minority business enterprises. While this program enabled many minority entrepreneurs to form new businesses, the results were disappointing, since managerial inexperience, unfavorable locations, and capital shortages led to high failure rates. Even years after the program was implemented, minority business receipts were not quite two percent of the national economy’s total receipts.
Recently federal policymakers have adopted an approach intended to accelerate development of the minority business sector by moving away from directly aiding small minority enterprises and toward supporting larger, growth-oriented minority firms through intermediary companies. In this approach, large corporations participate in the development of successful and stable minority businesses by making use of government-sponsored venture capital. The capital is used by a participating company to establish a Minority Enterprise Small Business Investment Company or MESBIC. The MESBIC then provides capital and guidance to minority businesses that have potential to become future suppliers or customers of the sponsoring company.(5题中2同义变换)
MESBIC’s are the result of the belief that providing established firms with easier access to relevant management techniques and more job-specific experience, as well as substantial amounts of capital, gives those firms a greater opportunity to develop sound business foundations than does simply making general management experience and small amounts of capital available. Further, since potential markets for the minority businesses already exist through the sponsoring companies, the minority businesses face considerably less risk in terms of location and market fluctuation. Following early financial and operating problems, sponsoring corporations began to capitalize MESBIC’s far above the legal minimum of $500,000 in order to generate sufficient income and to sustain the quality of management needed. MESBIC’s are now emerging as increasingly important financing sources for minority enterprises.
Ironically, MESBIC staffs, which usually consist of Hispanic and Black professionals, tend to approach investments in minority firms more pragmatically than do many MESBIC directors, who are usually senior managers from sponsoring corporations. The latter often still think mainly in terms of the “social responsibility approach” and thus seem to prefer deals that are riskier and less attractive than normal investment criteria would warrant. Such differences in viewpoint have produced uneasiness among many minority staff members, who feel that minority entrepreneurs and businesses should be judged by established business considerations. These staff members believe their point of view is closer to the original philosophy of MESBIC’s(5题中2同义变换,在第二段找到相应内容) and they are concerned that, unless a more prudent course is followed, MESBIC directors may revert to (revert t v.回复, 归还) policies likely to re-create the disappointing results of the original SBA approach.(5题中1取反,在第一段找相应内容)
5. Based on information in the passage, which of the following would be indicative of the pragmatism of MESBIC staff members?
I. A reluctance to invest in minority businesses that show marginal expectations of return on the investments
II. A desire to invest in minority businesses that produce goods and services likely to be of use to the sponsoring company
III. A belief that the minority business sector is best served by investing primarily in newly established businesses
(A) I only
(B) III only
(C) I and II only
(D) II and III only(C)
(E) I, II and III
做题的时候回原文最后一段去定位,一个都没找到,然后就瞎选了一个,后来回头看被震撼住了,发现选项都分散在前面段落里,不禁想问一句,这是ets出的题吗?我觉得这种题拿给我碰上,十有八九是无法准确定位的,不知大家有没什么好的方法?
另外,选项分支2中likely to be of use to 是什么意思啊?
多谢多谢! |