第28 套
Consolidated Industry in the United States
Laws of incorporation passed in the United States in the1830s and1840s made it easier for business organizations to raise money by selling stock to members of the public.The ability to sell stock to a broader public made it possible for entrepreneurs to gather vast sums of capital and undertake large projects.This led to the emergence of modern corporations as a major force in the United States after1865.These large, national business enterprises needed more systematic administrative structures.As a result,corporate leaders introduced a set of managerial techniques that relied on systematic division of responsibilities,a carefully designed hierarchy of control, careful cost-accounting procedures,and perhaps above all a new breed of business executive:the middle manager,who formed a layer of command between workers and owners.Efficient administrative capabilities helped make possible another major feature of the modern corporation:consolidation(combining many things into one).
1.Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the
highlighted sentence in the passage?Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.
A.Corporate leaders expanded the role of middle managers,who now had the
responsibility to introduce systematic techniques of cost-accounting and a carefully designed hierarchy of control
B.Corporate leaders replaced the former hierarchy of control with a new system,the
main advantage of which was that it divided responsibilities among middle managers.
C.Corporate leaders were transformed into middle managers as a result of
innovations such as the systematic division of responsibilities and the introduction of careful cost-accounting procedures.
D.Corporate leaders introduced a variety of innovative managerial techniques,the
most important probably being the middle manager,a new executive layer below owners.
Businessmen created large,consolidated organizations primarily through two methods. One was horizontal integration—the combining of multiple firms engaged in the same enterprise into a single cor
poration.The consolidation of many different railroad lines into one company was an example.Another method,which became popular in the 1890s,was vertical integration—the taking over of all the different businesses on which a company relied for its primary function.Thus,Carnegie steel controlled mines and railroads as well as steel mills.
2.Why does the author provide the information that”Carnegie Steel controlled
mines and railroads as well as steel mills”?
A.To challenge the idea that railroads generally integrated horizontally
B.To help explain vertical integration by providing an example of a company using
it
C.To help explain how a company’s primary function influenced the method of
integration it used
D.To show that vertical integration was a much more effective technique for
consolidation than horizontal integration was
The most celebrated corporate empire of the late nineteenth century was John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil.Shortly after1865,Rockefeller launched a refining company in Cleveland,Ohio,and immediately began trying to eliminate his competition.Allying himself with other wealthy capitalists,he proceeded methodically to buy out competing refineries.In1870,he formed the Standard Oil Company of Ohio,which in a few years had acquired twenty of the twenty-five refineries in Cleveland,as well as plants in Pittsburgh,Philadelphia,New York,and Baltimore.He built his own barrel factories,warehouses,and pipelines.Standard Oil owned its own railroad freight cars and developed its own marketing organization.By the1880s,Rockefeller had established such dominance within the petroleum industry that to much of the nation he served as a leading symbol of monopoly.
3.The word“launched”in the passage is closest in meaning to
A.bought
C.inherited
D.Started
4.The word“methodically”in the passage is closest in meaning to
A.aggressively
B.rapidly
C.secretly
D.Systematically
5.According to paragraph3,which of the following was true of John    D.
Rockefeller?
A.He acquired most of the oil refineries in Cleveland,Ohio.
B.He bought some companies solely because they made supplies for competing oil
refineries.
C.He limited sales of Standard Oil petroleum to companies associated with
competing refineries.
D.He built many more new oil refineries than he bought.
6.According to paragraph3,the Standard Oil Company of Ohio owned all of the
following EXCEPT:
A.a marketing organization
B.railroad freight cars
C.railroad lines
D.barrel factories
Rockefeller and other industrialists saw consolidation as a way to cope with what they believed was the greatest curse of the modern economy.“cutthroat competition.”Most businessmen claimed to believe in free enterprise and a competitive marketplace, but in fact they feared that substantial compe
tition could result in instability and ruin for all.As the movement toward consolidation accelerated,new vehicles emerged to facilitate it.The railroads began with so-called pool arrangements—informal agreements among various companies to stabilize rates and divide markets.But if even a few firms in an industry were unwilling to cooperate(as was almost always the case),the pool arrangements collapsed.The failure of the pools led to new techniques of consolidation.At first,the most successful such technique was the creation of the “trust”—pioneered by Standard Oil in the early1880s and perfected by the banker J.P. Morgan.Under a trust agreement,stockholders in individual corporations transferred their stocks to a small group of trustees in exchange for shares in the trust itself. Owners of trust certificates often had no direct control over the decisions of the trustees,they simply received a share of the profits of the combination.The trustees themselves,on the other hand,might literally own only a few companies but could exercise effective control over many.
7.The word“accelerated”in the passage is closest in meaning to
A.became common
B.gained acceptance
C.speeded up
D.Began
8.The word“perfected”in the passage is closest in meaning to
A.improvedvertical怎么读
B.adopted
C.made popular
D.made profitable
9.According to paragraph4,many industrialists in the1880s worried that
A.pool arrangements would divide markets
< much competition would destroy the modern economy
10.According to paragraph4,which of the following was a problem with pool
arrangements?
A.They were effective only with railroads.
B.They could succeed only if all the firms in an industry cooperated.
C.They were effective only in situations where rates had already been stabilized.
D.They could be implemented only in industries with a large number of firms
11.It can be inferred from paragraph4that trusts were more successful than pool
arrangements at
C.allowing small stockholders to participate in decision making
D.limiting the amount of money paid to the owners of individual corporations
In1889,the state of New Jersey helped produce a third form of consolidation by changing its laws of incorporation to permit companies to buy up the stock of other companies.Other states soon followed.These changes made the trust unnecessary and permitted actual corporate mergers.Rockefeller,for example,quickly relocated Standard Oil to New Jersey and created there what became known as a holding company—a central corporate body that would buy up the stock of various members of the Standard Oil trust and establish direct,formal ownership of the corporations in the trust.
12.According to paragraph5,why did Rockefeller move Standard Oil to New Jersey?
A.To be in a better position to pressure the state to change its laws of incorporation
B.To increase the number of corporations under his control in the Standard Oil trust
C.To raise the needed amounts of money for the establishment of his new holding
company
D.To acquire direct,legal ownership of the corporations in the Standard Oil trust
13.Look at the four squares[⏹]that indicate where the following sentence could be
added to the passage.
In addition to expanding horizontally,Rockefeller’s company expanded vertically as well.
Where would the sentence best fit?
The most celebrated corporate empire of the late nineteenth century was John D.
Rockefeller’s Standard Oil.Shortly after1865,Rockefeller launched a refining company in Cleveland,Ohio,and immediately began trying to eliminate his competition.Allying himself with other wealthy capitalists,he proceeded methodically to buy out competing refineries.⏹In1870,he formed the Standard Oil Company of Ohio,which in a few years had acquired twenty of the twenty-five refineries in Cleveland,as well as plants in Pittsburgh,Philadelphia, New York,and Baltimore.⏹He built his own barrel factories,warehouses,and pipelines.⏹Standard Oil owned its own railroad freight cars and developed its own marketing organization.⏹By the1880s,Rockefeller had established such dominance within the petroleum industry that to much of the nation he served as a leading symbol of monopoly.
14.Directions:An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is
provided below.Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices
that express the most important ideas in the passage.Some sentences do not belong in the summary because the express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage.This question is worth2points.
Businesses’increased ability to raise capital by selling stock led to the emergence of large corporations as a major force in the United States after 1865.
A.Large businesses developed more efficient administrative structures,which
allowed them to consolidate through horizontal integration,vertical integration, or both.
B.Even though consolidation initially developed in manufacturing,it was J.P.
Morgan in the banking industry who came up with the most successful consolidation technique.
C.The most famous corporation was Rockefeller’s Standard Oil,which acquired
many competing businesses and controlled its supply sources,eventually establishing itself as a holding company.
D.In order to limit competition as effectively as they could,industrialists created
pool arrangements and then later trusts and holding companies.
E.The rise of corporations as the dominant force in the American economy forced
certain states to pass new laws that resulted in direct state control over consolidation.
F.Corporate consolidation was an extremely complex process,and required
enormous amounts of capital for carrying out various integration procedures.
The Brain Size of Bottlenose Dolphins
Large brain size does not always mean that an animal is highly intelligent.Brain size is necessarily associated with overall body size,with large animals having large brains and small animals having small brains.However,it is still necessary for there to be some minimum amount of circuitry(brain cells
and processes)present for a species to have the potential to be highly intelligent,whatever way the term intelligence is defined.A measure of relative brain size that has been applied to a variety of species is the encephalization quotient(EQ),the radio of brain mass to body size.The EQ is calculated by measuring the relative size of different body parts over a wide range of species.An EQ of1.0means that the brain is exactly the size one would expect for an animal of a particular size,an EQ higher than1.0means that a species is relatively brainy.
1.According to paragraph1,what does it mean for an animal to have an EQ higher
than1.0?
A.Its brain has more mass than similarly sized brains of other animals.
B.Its brain is larger than expected for the animal’s overall body size.
C.Its brain is larger than that of most other animals.
D.Its brain is larger than that of any animal with an EQ of less than1.0. Bottlenose dolphins have a very high EQ,about2.8or higher.Thus,dolphin brains

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