A history of long and effortless success can be a dreadful handicap, but, if properly handled, it may become a driving force. When the United States entered just such a glowing period after the end of the Second World War, it had a market eight times larger than any competitor, giving its industries unparalleled economies of scale. Its scientists were the world’s best, its workers the most skilled. America and Americans were prosperous beyond the dreams of the Europeans and Asians whose economies the war had destroyed.

       长期轻而易举的成功历史可能是一种可怕的障碍，但若处理得当，这种障碍也有可能转化为一种积极的推动力。二战结束后，美国恰好进入了这样的一段辉煌时期，当时，它拥有比任何竞争者大8倍的市场，这使其工业经济规模发展到前所未有的状态。美国的科学家是世上最优秀的，它的工人是技术最强的。美国的繁荣是那些经济遭到战争破坏的欧亚各国做梦也无法达到的。

It was inevitable that this primacy should have narrowed as other countries grew richer. Just as inevitably, the retreat from predominance proved painful. By the mid-1980s Americans had found themselves at a loss over their fading industrial competitiveness. Some huge American industries, such as consumer electronics, had shrunk or vanished in the face of foreign competition. By 1987 there was only one American television maker left, Zenith. (Now there is none: Zenith was bought by South Korea’s LG Electronics in July.) Foreign-made cars and textiles were sweeping into the domestic market. America’s machine-tool industry was on the ropes. For a while it looked as though the making of semiconductors, which America had invented and which sat at the heart of the new computer age, was going to be the next casualty.

随着其他国家日益强盛，美国的这一优势地位逐渐下降是不可避免的。从优势地位上退出的痛苦也同样是在所难免的。到了20世纪80年代中期，面对其日益衰退的工业竞争力，美国人感到不知所措。面对国外竞争，一些像消费电子产业之类的大型美国工业已经萎缩或渐渐消失。到1987年，美国只剩下Zenith一家电视生产商。（现在一家也没有了：Zenith于在7月被韩国LG电器公司收购。）外国制造的汽车和纺织品当时正大举涌入国内市场。美国的机床工业当时危在旦夕。有一段时间，半导体制造业似乎要成为下一个受害者，虽然美国是半导体的发明者，而且半导体处于新计算机时代的核心位置。

All of this caused a crisis of confidence. Americans stopped taking prosperity for granted. They began to believe that their way of doing business was failing, and that their incomes would therefore shortly begin to fall as well. The mid-1980s brought one inquiry after another into the causes of America’s industrial decline. Their sometimes sensational findings were filled with warnings about the growing competition from overseas.

      所有这一切导致了信心危机。美国不再视繁荣为理所当然的事。他们开始相信自己的商业经营方式是失败的，并相信不久他们的收入也会因此而下降。80年代中期，人们对美国工业衰退的原因作了一次又一次的调查探究。他们有时有些惊人的发现，警示人们小心日益增长的海外的竞争。

How things have changed! In 1995 the United States can look back on five years of solid growth while Japan has been struggling. Few Americans attribute this solely to such obvious causes as a devalued dollar or the turning of the business cycle. Self-doubt has yielded to blind pride. “American industry has changed its structure, has gone on a diet, has learnt to be more quick-witted,” according to Richard Cavanagh, executive dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. “It makes me proud to be an American just to see how our businesses are improving their productivity,” says Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute, a think-tank in Washington, DC. And William Sahlman of the Harvard Business School believes that people will look back on this period as “a golden age of business management in the United States.”

    世事难料啊！1995年，美国可以回顾过去5年的稳固发展而日本却步履维艰。几乎没有美国人将这个发展单纯地归因于美元贬值或商业周期循环这些显而易见的原因。到如今，自我怀疑已变成盲目骄傲。“美国的工业已经改变了结构，消除了机构冗长，学会了反应机敏”，这是哈佛大学肯尼迪管理学院行政院长Richard Cavanagh的看法。华盛顿特区的智囊团——Cato研究院的Stephen Moore说，“看到我们各个企业正在提高生产率，我为自己是一个美国人而感到自豪。”哈佛商学院的William Sahlman相信人们将来会把这个时期视为“美国商业管理的黄金时代”。

51. The U.S. achieved its predominance after World War Ⅱbecause_____.

[A] it had made painstaking efforts towards this goal

[B] its domestic market was eight times larger than before

[C] the war had destroyed the economies of most potential competitors

[D] the unparalleled size of its workforce had given an impetus to its economy

二战后美国之所以取得了优势地位是因为_____。

[A] 该国为实现这一目标而付出了艰苦的努力

[B] 其国内市场是过去的八倍

[C] 战争摧毁了大部分潜在竞争对手的经济

[D] 该国无以伦比的劳动力大军对经济起到了推动作用

52. The loss of U.S. predominance in the world economy in the 1980s is manifested in the fact that the American __________.

[A] TV industry had withdrawn to its domestic market

[B] semiconductor industry had been taken over by foreign enterprises

[C] machine-tool industry had collapsed after suicidal actions

[D] auto industry had lost part of its domestic market

美国在20世纪80年的世界经济中失去了统治地位，这可以通过以下__________事实表现出来。

[A] 其电视行业退回到了国内市场

[B] 半导体工业被外国企业接管

[C] 机床业在其自杀性行为后倒闭

[D] 汽车业失去了部分国内市场

53. What can be inferred from the passage?

[A] It is human nature to shift between self-doubt and blind pried.

[B] Intense competition may contribute to economic progress.

[C] The revival of the economy depends on international cooperation.

[D] A long history of success may pave the way for further development.

我们可以从文中推断中以下哪一项？

[A] 在自我怀疑和自高自大之间变化是人类的天性

[B] 激烈的竞争可能有利于经济的发展

[C] 经济的复苏取决于国际间的合作

[D] 长期的成功可能为将来的发展铺平道路

54. The author seems to believe the revival of the U.S. economy in the 1990s can be attributed to the____.

[A] turning of the business cycle

[B] restructuring of industry

[C] improved business management

[D] success in education

作者似乎相信美国经济在20世纪90年代的复苏是由于_____。

[A] 商业周期的变化

[B] 工业重组

[C] 企业管理的改进

[D] 成功的教育