单选题 An analyst does research about common-size financial statements and develops the appropriate common-size financial statements to analyze trends over time for a company. Information selected from those common-size statements follows:

	2008	2009	2010	2011
Stated as a percentage of assets for each year: Inventory	8%	8%	7%	7%

Stated as a percentage of sales for each year: Cost of goods sold	46%	42%	36%	34%

Earnings before interest and taxes	15%	18%	20%	25%
Interest expense	6%	7%	7%	8%

Which of the following conclusions based on the information above would be correct regardless of changes in the company's total asset turnover ratio during the same period? From 2008 to 2011, the company most likely experienced a(n):
A. increase in the interest coverage ratio.
B. decrease in the interest coverage ratio.
C. decrease in the inventory turnover ratio.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 利息保障倍数(interest coverage ratio)=息税前利润(EBIT)/利息费用(interest expense)，因为息税前利润和利息费用都来自利润表，它们可以进行相除计算，从而可得出，从2008～2011年该比率是不断增加的。
存货周转率(inventory turnover)=销货成本(COGS)/存货(inventory)，因为销货成本来自利润表，而存货来自资产负债表，所以它们之间是无法进行比较的。