In this section there are two reading passages followed by a total of 10 multiple-choice questions. Read the passages and then write your answers on your answer sheet.

Passage 1

It seemed to me, and still does, that the system of American business often produces wrong, immoral and irresponsible decisions, even though the personal morality of the people running the business is often above reproach. The system has a different morality as a group than the people do as individuals, which permits it to willfully produce ineffective or dangerous products, deal dictatorially and often unfairly with supplies, pay bribes for business, abrogate their rights of employees by demanding blind loyalty to management or tamper with the democratic process of government through illegal political contributions.

I am not a psychologist, so I can’ t offer a professional opinion on what happens to the freedom of individual minds when they are blended into the group management thought process of business. But my private analysis is this: Morality has to do with people. If an action is viewed primarily from the perspective of its effect on people, it is put into the moral realm.

Business in America, however, is impersonal. This is particular true of large American multi-national corporations. They are viewed by their employees and publics as faceless. They have no personality. The ultimate measure of success and failure of these business is not their effect on people but rather their earnings per share of stock. If earnings are high, the business is considered good. If they are low or in the red ink, it is considered a failure. The first question to greet any business proposal is how will it affect profits? People do not enter the equation of a business decision except to the extent that the effect on them will hurt or enhance earnings per share. In such a completely impersonal context, business decisions of questionable personal morality are easily justified. The unwavering devotion to the bottom line brings this about, and the American public until now has been more than willing to accept this. When someone is forced into early retirement in a management power-play or a supplier is cheated out of sale by under- the -table dealings, the public reaction is generally, “Oh, well, that’ s business. ” And management’ s reaction is often, “It’ s what’ s on the bottom line that counts. ” A person who shoots and kills another is sentenced to life in prison. A business man who makes a defective product which kills people may get a normal fine or a verbal slap on the hands, if he is ever brought to trial at all.