Unit 1
Part One
The American economic system is organized around a basically private-enterprise, market-oriented economy in which consumers largely determine what shall be produced by spending their m
oney in the marketplace for those goods and services that they want most. Private businessmen, striving to make profits, produce these goods and services in competition with other businessmen; and the profit motive, operating under competitive pressures, largely determines how these goods and services are produced. Thus, in the American economic system it is the demand of individual consumers, coupled with the desire of businessmen to maximize profits and the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes, that together determine what shall be produced and how resources are used to produce it.
An important factor in a market-oriented economy is that mechanism by which consumer demands can be expressed and responded to by producers. In the American economy, this mechanism is provided by a price system, a process in which prices rise and fall in response to relative demands of consumers and supplies offered by seller-producers. If the product is in short supply relative to the demand, the price will be bid up and some consumers will be eliminated from the market. If, on the other hand, producing more of a commodity results in reducing its cost, this will tend to increase the supply offered by seller-producers, which in turn will lower the price and permit more consumers to buy the product. Thus, price is the regulating mechanism in the American economic system.
The important factor in a private-enterprise economy is that individual are allowed to own productive resources （private property）, and they are permitted to hire labor, gain control over natural resources, and produce goods and services for sale at a profit. In the American economy, the concept of private property embraces not only the ownership of productive resources but also certain rights, including the right to determine the price of a product or to make a free contract with another private individual.
1. In Lines 8-9, Para. 1,“the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes” means ____.
[A] Americans are never satisfied with their incomes
[B] Americans tend to overstate their incomes
[C] Americans want to have their incomes increased
[D] Americans want to increase the purchasing power of their incomes
2. The first two sentences in the second paragraph tell us that ____.
[A] producers can satisfy the consumers by mechanized production
[B] consumers can express their demands through producers
[C] producers decide the prices of products
[D] supply and demand regulate prices
3. According to the passage, a private-enterprise economy is characterized by ____.
[A] private property and rights concerned
[B] manpower and natural resources control
[C] ownership of productive resources
[D] free contracts and prices
4.The passage is mainly about ____.
[A] how American goods are produced
[B] how American consumers buy their goods
[C] how American economic system works
[D] how American businessmen make their profits
Part 1
重點詞匯：
market-oriented（以市場為導向的）←market市場+orient定位+ed形容詞后綴。
embrace （v.擁抱；包含）即em+brace，em-（=in），brace詞根“手臂”，故“使在手臂里”→擁抱→引申為“包含”。brace作單詞意為“v.支撐n.支柱”
coupled with 與……相結合；bid up 哄抬物價；gain control over 獲得對……的控制。
難句解析：
①The American economic system is organized around a basically private-enterprise, market-oriented economy in which consumers largely determine what shall be produced by spending their money in the marketplace for those goods and services that they want most.
這是一個有定語從句和賓語從句的復雜句。首先要抓住的核心句為The American economic system is organized around a... economy，economy前面的定語在開始閱讀時可以不看。在economy后面是一個以in which引導的定語從句in which consumers largely determine，而這個從句中又有一個賓語從句what shall be produced。在定語從句中又有一個by引導的分詞結構spending their money in the marketplace for those goods and services that they want most作狀語，說明消費者是如何決定應生產(chǎn)何種產(chǎn)品，而這個方式狀語中又有一個定語從句that they want most。
通過分析結構我們知道此句的所有意思都是圍繞核心句的表語economy展開的，因此在閱讀中應分層次，逐層理解對這一核心詞的陳述，分清主次，全面理解。
② Thus, in the American economic system it is the demand of individual consumers, coupled with the desire of businessmen to maximize profits and the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes, that together determine what shall be produced and how resources are used to produce it.
首先要抓住句首的thus，看到這個詞，就應想到此句是前面敘述引出的結論。再看句子結構，跳過狀語in the American economic system，先抓住這是一個強調(diào)結構It is... that，因此所強調(diào)的部分是理解的重點，而它由三個平行成分組成，分別為the demand of individual consumers，the desire of businessmen to maximize profits和the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes，中間用coupled with和and連接。而在that后面的部分有兩個并列賓語從句what shall be produced和how resources are used to produce it接在動詞determine的后面。
首先要抓住強調(diào)句型，并重點理解所強調(diào)的內(nèi)容，其次要理解句中最后一個it所指代的對象是what shall be produced。
③ An important factor in a market-oriented economy is the mechanism by which consumer demands can be expressed and responded to by producers.
此句的結構與第一句類似，只是表語的定語從句更加復雜。
此句在理解中的難點是定語從句by which consumer demands can be expressed and responded to by producers，為了方便理解，我們可以將此句and后的部分由被動句改為主動句：by which consumer demands can be expressed and producers can respond to consumer demands，這樣就可以避免對responded to by producers的不理解。
④ If, on the other hand, producing more of a commodity results in reducing its cost, this will tend to increase the supply offered by seller-producers, which in turn will lower the price and permit more consumers to buy the product.
這是一個有條件狀語從句的主從句，從句由if引導，主體結構為... producing more of a commodity results in reducing its cost...，其中producing more of a commodity是一個分詞短語作主語，而主句以this為主語，里面包含一個定語從句which in turn will lower the price and permit more consumers to buy the product。
此句在理解中的難點是句中代詞的指代關系，其中第一個its所指的是commodity，而主句的主語this所指的是整個條件狀語從句。主句中的定語從句也并不是修飾某一個特定的詞，而是指整個主句表達to increase the supply offered by seller-producers。
⑤ In the American economy, the concept of private property embraces not only the ownership of productive resources but also certain rights, including the right to determine the price of a product or to make a free contract with another private individual.
此句的主句結構為the concept embraces not only... but also...。主要的難點在其賓語部分，是一個not only... but also...連接的并列結構，而后面有一個長的補足語including the right to determine the price of a product or to make a free contract with another private individual。
此句的難點為如何理解復雜賓語，注意在開始的時候先應抓主句，可以先不理會逗號后面的補足語部分，然后再分析including后面的成分，同時要記住這一部分是修飾certain rights的。
試題解析：
1．【正確答案】[D]
該選擇項意為：美國人想增加其收入的購買力。文章第1段最后一句是從生產(chǎn)者與消費者兩方的愿望對照來說的，而且，該段第1句也首先陳述了該文所要談的內(nèi)容。[A]、[C]的意思是：美國人想增加其收入。這與本文的主旨不相符合，因為，工資關系反映的是勞資雙方的關系而不是生產(chǎn)者與消費者的關系。[B]中“overstate”意為“夸大、夸張”，這個選擇項的語義與文章的內(nèi)容不相干。
在做這一題時，將“maximize”一詞的意思置入文章的上下文中考查極其重要。
2．【正確答案】[D]
文章第2段第1、2句所表達的內(nèi)容是該段的主題：價格（的波動）是供求關系（生產(chǎn)者與消費者的關系）的反映。該段的最后一句也重述總結了這一主題。
[A]中“mechanized”意為“機械化的”，而原文中“mechanism”意為“機制”。[B]原文第2段第1句中“by which”意指“by means of this mechanism”，即：通過這一機制反映出來；該句中的“by producers”則只與“responded to”有關，即：生產(chǎn)者對消費者的需要作出反應。[C]所表達的內(nèi)容不正確，因為原句明確指出：價格為供求關系所調(diào)節(jié)。
3．【正確答案】[A]
該項意為：私人財產(chǎn)（的擁有）及相應的權利。原文第3段的兩句反復從這兩方面總結了美國資本主義私有制經(jīng)濟制度的特征。[B]意為：勞動力及自然資源的控制。與原文相差甚遠。[C]只表達了美國經(jīng)濟制度特征的一方面，因此，失之片面。[D]只強調(diào)了權力這一方面，因此，也是片面的。
4．【正確答案】[C]
意為：美國經(jīng)濟的特征及其運行（work）。這是該文所主要闡明的內(nèi)容，這一主旨在文章的第1段第1、2句與第3段說得很明確。
[A]、[B]、[D]文章的主旨不是產(chǎn)品的生產(chǎn)過程，也不是消費者如何購物，更不是商人如何賺錢。
全文翻譯：
從根本上說，美國經(jīng)濟體制是圍繞私有企業(yè)、在以市場為導向的經(jīng)濟基礎上建立起來的。在這種體制下需要生產(chǎn)什么在很大程度上是消費者通過到市場花錢購買他們最需要的商品和服務來決定的。為了獲取利潤，私有企業(yè)主在與他人競爭中生產(chǎn)這些產(chǎn)品，提供這些服務。在競爭的壓力下追求利潤的動機以及如何運作在很大程度上決定生產(chǎn)商品和提供服務的方式。因此，在美國經(jīng)濟體制中，消費者個人的需求，加上商人獲取利潤的追求及消費者想限度提高購買力的愿望三者共同決定應該生產(chǎn)什么和如何利用資源來生產(chǎn)這些產(chǎn)品。
市場型經(jīng)濟中的一個重要因素是反映消費者需求以及生產(chǎn)者對消費者需求作出反應的機制。在美國經(jīng)濟中，這一機制是由價格體制體現(xiàn)的，價格隨消費者的相對需求與生產(chǎn)者的供應情況而上下浮動。如果供不應求，價格就上升，有些消費者就會被排擠出市場。另一方面，某種產(chǎn)品大量生產(chǎn)導致成本下降，產(chǎn)銷者提供的產(chǎn)品就會增加，這就會使價格下跌，那么，更多的消費者就購買該產(chǎn)品。因此，價格是美國經(jīng)濟體制中的調(diào)節(jié)機制。
私有企業(yè)經(jīng)濟的一個重要因素是允許個人擁有生產(chǎn)資料（私有財產(chǎn)），允許他們雇用勞動力，控制自然資源，通過生產(chǎn)產(chǎn)品、提供服務來獲取利潤。在美國經(jīng)濟中，私有財產(chǎn)的概念不僅包括生產(chǎn)資料的所有權，也包括一定的權利，比如，產(chǎn)品價格的決定權或與其他私有個體的自由簽約權。
Part One
The American economic system is organized around a basically private-enterprise, market-oriented economy in which consumers largely determine what shall be produced by spending their m
oney in the marketplace for those goods and services that they want most. Private businessmen, striving to make profits, produce these goods and services in competition with other businessmen; and the profit motive, operating under competitive pressures, largely determines how these goods and services are produced. Thus, in the American economic system it is the demand of individual consumers, coupled with the desire of businessmen to maximize profits and the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes, that together determine what shall be produced and how resources are used to produce it.
An important factor in a market-oriented economy is that mechanism by which consumer demands can be expressed and responded to by producers. In the American economy, this mechanism is provided by a price system, a process in which prices rise and fall in response to relative demands of consumers and supplies offered by seller-producers. If the product is in short supply relative to the demand, the price will be bid up and some consumers will be eliminated from the market. If, on the other hand, producing more of a commodity results in reducing its cost, this will tend to increase the supply offered by seller-producers, which in turn will lower the price and permit more consumers to buy the product. Thus, price is the regulating mechanism in the American economic system.
The important factor in a private-enterprise economy is that individual are allowed to own productive resources （private property）, and they are permitted to hire labor, gain control over natural resources, and produce goods and services for sale at a profit. In the American economy, the concept of private property embraces not only the ownership of productive resources but also certain rights, including the right to determine the price of a product or to make a free contract with another private individual.
1. In Lines 8-9, Para. 1,“the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes” means ____.
[A] Americans are never satisfied with their incomes
[B] Americans tend to overstate their incomes
[C] Americans want to have their incomes increased
[D] Americans want to increase the purchasing power of their incomes
2. The first two sentences in the second paragraph tell us that ____.
[A] producers can satisfy the consumers by mechanized production
[B] consumers can express their demands through producers
[C] producers decide the prices of products
[D] supply and demand regulate prices
3. According to the passage, a private-enterprise economy is characterized by ____.
[A] private property and rights concerned
[B] manpower and natural resources control
[C] ownership of productive resources
[D] free contracts and prices
4.The passage is mainly about ____.
[A] how American goods are produced
[B] how American consumers buy their goods
[C] how American economic system works
[D] how American businessmen make their profits
Part 1
重點詞匯：
market-oriented（以市場為導向的）←market市場+orient定位+ed形容詞后綴。
embrace （v.擁抱；包含）即em+brace，em-（=in），brace詞根“手臂”，故“使在手臂里”→擁抱→引申為“包含”。brace作單詞意為“v.支撐n.支柱”
coupled with 與……相結合；bid up 哄抬物價；gain control over 獲得對……的控制。
難句解析：
①The American economic system is organized around a basically private-enterprise, market-oriented economy in which consumers largely determine what shall be produced by spending their money in the marketplace for those goods and services that they want most.
這是一個有定語從句和賓語從句的復雜句。首先要抓住的核心句為The American economic system is organized around a... economy，economy前面的定語在開始閱讀時可以不看。在economy后面是一個以in which引導的定語從句in which consumers largely determine，而這個從句中又有一個賓語從句what shall be produced。在定語從句中又有一個by引導的分詞結構spending their money in the marketplace for those goods and services that they want most作狀語，說明消費者是如何決定應生產(chǎn)何種產(chǎn)品，而這個方式狀語中又有一個定語從句that they want most。
通過分析結構我們知道此句的所有意思都是圍繞核心句的表語economy展開的，因此在閱讀中應分層次，逐層理解對這一核心詞的陳述，分清主次，全面理解。
② Thus, in the American economic system it is the demand of individual consumers, coupled with the desire of businessmen to maximize profits and the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes, that together determine what shall be produced and how resources are used to produce it.
首先要抓住句首的thus，看到這個詞，就應想到此句是前面敘述引出的結論。再看句子結構，跳過狀語in the American economic system，先抓住這是一個強調(diào)結構It is... that，因此所強調(diào)的部分是理解的重點，而它由三個平行成分組成，分別為the demand of individual consumers，the desire of businessmen to maximize profits和the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes，中間用coupled with和and連接。而在that后面的部分有兩個并列賓語從句what shall be produced和how resources are used to produce it接在動詞determine的后面。
首先要抓住強調(diào)句型，并重點理解所強調(diào)的內(nèi)容，其次要理解句中最后一個it所指代的對象是what shall be produced。
③ An important factor in a market-oriented economy is the mechanism by which consumer demands can be expressed and responded to by producers.
此句的結構與第一句類似，只是表語的定語從句更加復雜。
此句在理解中的難點是定語從句by which consumer demands can be expressed and responded to by producers，為了方便理解，我們可以將此句and后的部分由被動句改為主動句：by which consumer demands can be expressed and producers can respond to consumer demands，這樣就可以避免對responded to by producers的不理解。
④ If, on the other hand, producing more of a commodity results in reducing its cost, this will tend to increase the supply offered by seller-producers, which in turn will lower the price and permit more consumers to buy the product.
這是一個有條件狀語從句的主從句，從句由if引導，主體結構為... producing more of a commodity results in reducing its cost...，其中producing more of a commodity是一個分詞短語作主語，而主句以this為主語，里面包含一個定語從句which in turn will lower the price and permit more consumers to buy the product。
此句在理解中的難點是句中代詞的指代關系，其中第一個its所指的是commodity，而主句的主語this所指的是整個條件狀語從句。主句中的定語從句也并不是修飾某一個特定的詞，而是指整個主句表達to increase the supply offered by seller-producers。
⑤ In the American economy, the concept of private property embraces not only the ownership of productive resources but also certain rights, including the right to determine the price of a product or to make a free contract with another private individual.
此句的主句結構為the concept embraces not only... but also...。主要的難點在其賓語部分，是一個not only... but also...連接的并列結構，而后面有一個長的補足語including the right to determine the price of a product or to make a free contract with another private individual。
此句的難點為如何理解復雜賓語，注意在開始的時候先應抓主句，可以先不理會逗號后面的補足語部分，然后再分析including后面的成分，同時要記住這一部分是修飾certain rights的。
試題解析：
1．【正確答案】[D]
該選擇項意為：美國人想增加其收入的購買力。文章第1段最后一句是從生產(chǎn)者與消費者兩方的愿望對照來說的，而且，該段第1句也首先陳述了該文所要談的內(nèi)容。[A]、[C]的意思是：美國人想增加其收入。這與本文的主旨不相符合，因為，工資關系反映的是勞資雙方的關系而不是生產(chǎn)者與消費者的關系。[B]中“overstate”意為“夸大、夸張”，這個選擇項的語義與文章的內(nèi)容不相干。
在做這一題時，將“maximize”一詞的意思置入文章的上下文中考查極其重要。
2．【正確答案】[D]
文章第2段第1、2句所表達的內(nèi)容是該段的主題：價格（的波動）是供求關系（生產(chǎn)者與消費者的關系）的反映。該段的最后一句也重述總結了這一主題。
[A]中“mechanized”意為“機械化的”，而原文中“mechanism”意為“機制”。[B]原文第2段第1句中“by which”意指“by means of this mechanism”，即：通過這一機制反映出來；該句中的“by producers”則只與“responded to”有關，即：生產(chǎn)者對消費者的需要作出反應。[C]所表達的內(nèi)容不正確，因為原句明確指出：價格為供求關系所調(diào)節(jié)。
3．【正確答案】[A]
該項意為：私人財產(chǎn)（的擁有）及相應的權利。原文第3段的兩句反復從這兩方面總結了美國資本主義私有制經(jīng)濟制度的特征。[B]意為：勞動力及自然資源的控制。與原文相差甚遠。[C]只表達了美國經(jīng)濟制度特征的一方面，因此，失之片面。[D]只強調(diào)了權力這一方面，因此，也是片面的。
4．【正確答案】[C]
意為：美國經(jīng)濟的特征及其運行（work）。這是該文所主要闡明的內(nèi)容，這一主旨在文章的第1段第1、2句與第3段說得很明確。
[A]、[B]、[D]文章的主旨不是產(chǎn)品的生產(chǎn)過程，也不是消費者如何購物，更不是商人如何賺錢。
全文翻譯：
從根本上說，美國經(jīng)濟體制是圍繞私有企業(yè)、在以市場為導向的經(jīng)濟基礎上建立起來的。在這種體制下需要生產(chǎn)什么在很大程度上是消費者通過到市場花錢購買他們最需要的商品和服務來決定的。為了獲取利潤，私有企業(yè)主在與他人競爭中生產(chǎn)這些產(chǎn)品，提供這些服務。在競爭的壓力下追求利潤的動機以及如何運作在很大程度上決定生產(chǎn)商品和提供服務的方式。因此，在美國經(jīng)濟體制中，消費者個人的需求，加上商人獲取利潤的追求及消費者想限度提高購買力的愿望三者共同決定應該生產(chǎn)什么和如何利用資源來生產(chǎn)這些產(chǎn)品。
市場型經(jīng)濟中的一個重要因素是反映消費者需求以及生產(chǎn)者對消費者需求作出反應的機制。在美國經(jīng)濟中，這一機制是由價格體制體現(xiàn)的，價格隨消費者的相對需求與生產(chǎn)者的供應情況而上下浮動。如果供不應求，價格就上升，有些消費者就會被排擠出市場。另一方面，某種產(chǎn)品大量生產(chǎn)導致成本下降，產(chǎn)銷者提供的產(chǎn)品就會增加，這就會使價格下跌，那么，更多的消費者就購買該產(chǎn)品。因此，價格是美國經(jīng)濟體制中的調(diào)節(jié)機制。
私有企業(yè)經(jīng)濟的一個重要因素是允許個人擁有生產(chǎn)資料（私有財產(chǎn)），允許他們雇用勞動力，控制自然資源，通過生產(chǎn)產(chǎn)品、提供服務來獲取利潤。在美國經(jīng)濟中，私有財產(chǎn)的概念不僅包括生產(chǎn)資料的所有權，也包括一定的權利，比如，產(chǎn)品價格的決定權或與其他私有個體的自由簽約權。