单选题 Until recently, most American entrepreneurs (企业家)were men. Discrimination against women in business, the demands of caring for families, and lack of business training had kept the number of women entrepreneurs small. Now, however, businesses owned by women account for more than $40 billion in annual revenues, and this figure is likely to continue rising throughout the 1980s. As Carolyn Doppelt Gray, an official of the Small Business Administration, has noted, "The 1970s was the decade of women entering management, and the 1980s has turned out to be the decade of the woman entrepreneur."
What are some of the factors behind this trend? For one thing, as more women earn advanced degrees in business and enter the corporate world, they are finding obstacles. Women are still excluded from most executive suites. Charlotte Taylor, a management consultant, had noted, "In the 1970s women believed if they got an MBA and worked hard, they could become chairman of the board. Now they've found out that isn't going to happen, so they go out on their own."
In the past, most women entrepreneurs worked in "women's" fields—cosmetics and clothing, for example. But this is changing. Consider ASK Computer Systems, a $22-million-a-year computer software business. It was founded in 1973 by Sandra Kurtzig, who was then a housewife with degrees in math and engineering. When Kurtzig founded the business, her first product was software that let weekly newspapers keep tabs on their newspaper carriers—and her office was a bedroom at home, with a shoebox under the bed to hold the company's cash. After she succeeded with the newspaper software system, she hired several bright computer-science graduates to develop additional programs. When these were marketed and sold. ASK began to grow. It now has 200 employees, and Sandra Kurtzig owns $66.9 million of stock.
Of course, many women who start their own businesses fail, just as men often do. They still face hurdles in the business world, especially problems in raising money; the Banking and finance world is still dominated by men, and old attitudes die hard. Most businesses owned by women are still quite small.
But the situation is changing; there are likely to be many more Sandra Kurtzigs in the years ahead.

单选题 All of the following were mentioned in the passage as prejudices against women in the business world EXCEPT ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】根据第一段第2句,可知在商界中对于女性的歧视,对女性照顾家庭的需要,以及对商业方面训练的缺乏,这三者都影响女性进入商界,而B项的内容,缺乏工作能力没有被提到,因此应选B项。
单选题 The author mentions the "shoebox under the ded" in the third paragraph in order to ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】在文中作者举了一个女性在商界成功的例子,她的公司起初也不大,但经过她的努力,公司已有很大规模。为了说明她的公司创业时期的规模很小,作者提到她用鞋盒来装公司的现金,所以A项正确,这说明了那个公司起初财力很有限。
单选题 The word "hurdles" in Paragraph 4 can be best replaced by ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】hurdles是hurdle的复数形式,意为“困难,障碍”,与D项obstacles意思相同。本句意为:女性从商仍要面对困难,尤其是筹集资金上的困难。
单选题 The main idea of this passage is that ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】总的来看,文章的意思是:从商的女性的数量正在上升,不断有女性开创自己的企业。
单选题 The last sentence in Paragraph 2 "so they go out on their own. "means that ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】在文章第二段中,作者谈到,一些身在商界的妇女发现,尽管她们有较高的学历并且工作非常勤奋,仍不能成为企业的领导者,因此她们纷纷离开,开起了自己的公司。B项符合此意,故应选B项。