【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[听力原文]

Market Economy

Professor: Today we"re going to examine two economies that have developed throughout the globe. They are command and market economies. There are pros and cons for each.
Let"s look at the command economy first. The foundation of it is that it is directed and controlled by a centralized government. Now just think about clothing for example. This will really surprise those of you who love to shop and must have the latest fashion. A command economy means that the government is involved in every step. They are responsible for designing the clothes, choosing the material, how many of each to make, where it will be manufactured, the purchase price, the wages paid to the workers, etc. That"s quite a large responsibility to give to someone who has no idea about how different people are shaped. Really, you"d all probably look as though you were wearing sacks or something.
Now as well as the design flaws, there are other downsides to a command economy. Even if it were possible to produce something that everyone would want to wear, there are other things that could go wrong. Often factories don"t meet quotas, needs are under-estimated, and a product could sell too quickly, and so on. They are the main reasons. Basically things have to be adjusted. Production and prices might have to be increased or decreased; there might be restrictions on the number of items a person could buy, etc.
Now, let"s look at the market economy. That means private enterprise with the government not making the decisions. Here"s how it works. We"ll use the same example of clothing. Maybe somebody, say Jack, decides to open a company making clothes. He designs and makes them fashionable so people will want to buy and wear them. If the clothes become popular then Jack can increase the price and keep increasing it. By doing this Jack can make more profit and/or expand his business to make even more money. At the same time, other people will have noticed how well he is doing and will start up new businesses in competition. This way prices will level off or even come down because people will buy the same thing costing less. The companies will have to cut costs, and perhaps do with less profit to stay in business. In theory anyway! Gucci, Nike, and all those guys seem to be proving the theory wrong—but that"s a whole other story.
Naturally in Western Europe, North America and Asia they will tell you that the market economy is the way to go. "Freedom" is a word that you will hear when discussing this type of economy. It means different things to different people. For the people on the street it means that they have the freedom to get a job, join a union, change employers and so forth. For some individuals it means they have the freedom to start a business, run it and enjoy the profits—after-tax profits anyway.
Politicians and economists spout that the market economy is not just an ideology because it has been tested and it"s tried and true. You"ll hear other words like democracy, decentralized, flexible, practical, private enterprise, and entrepreneurial spirit, used in the same breath. But, and here"s the thing, the politicians and economists will admit—if they"re pushed—that this market system does have inequalities and abuses big time.
So there you have it. With a command economy the government runs everything and everybody but with a market economy the government supposedly provides assistance only to correct problems that can"t be solved by the market. With command economy come chronic shortages, inefficiencies, not to mention God-awful fashion designs. On the other hand, the market economy is said to offer greater opportunities for economic growth, technological progress, prosperity and gorgeous fashion designs. This is only a brief overview obviously and we can"t make decisions on which type of economy is best based on fashion designs, but you get the idea. Neither is perfect.

[解析] 从讲座的最后，教授说“Neither is Perfect.”中可以找到中心思想。即市场经济和计划经济都不够完美。