单选题 Adam Smith, writing in the 1770s, was the first person to see the importance of the division of labor and to explain part of its advantages. He gives as an example the process by which pins were made in England. "One man draws out the wire; another strengthens it; a third cuts it; a fourth points it; a fifth grinds it at the top to prepare it to receive the head. To make the head requires two or three operations. To put it on is a separate operation, to polish the pins is another. And the important business of making pins is, in this manner, divided into about eighteen operations, which in some factories are all performed by different people, though in others the same man will sometimes perform two or three of them." Ten men, Smith said, in this way, turned out twelve pounds of pins a day or about 4,800 pins per worker. But if all of them had worked separately and independently without division of labor, none of them could have made twenty pins in a day and perhaps not even one. There can be no doubt that division of labor is an efficient way of organizing work. Fewer people can make more pins. Adam Smith saw this but he also took it for granted that division of labor is in itself responsible for economic growth and development and that it accounts for the difference between expanding economies and those that stand still. But division of labor adds nothing new; it only enables people to produce more of what they already have.
单选题 According to the passage, Adam Smith was the first person to______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】解析:本题的依据是文章第1段的第1句话…was the first person to see the importance of the division of labor and to explain part of its advantages。C项中的understand等于原文中的see,因此C项为正确答案。
单选题 Adam Smith saw that the division of labor______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】解析:本题可参照文章的第3段。从中可知,通过分工合作工人们能极大地提高产量。因此正确答案为B项。
单选题 Adam Smith mentioned the number 4,800 in order to______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】解析:本题可参照此句的下一句without division of labor,none of them could have made twenty pins in a day and perhaps not even one。从中可知,作者用这一数字显示分工的优越性。因此A项为正确答案。
单选题 According to the writer, Adam Smith's mistake was in believing that division of labor_____.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】解析:本题的依据是文章最后一段的第3句话Adam Smith saw this but he also took it for granted that和文章的最后一句 But division of labor adds nothing new;it only enables people to produce more of what they already have。因此C项是正确答案。
单选题 Which of the following could serve as an appropriate title for the passage?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】解析:从文中内容可知,A项不够全面,作者并非是在介绍这位经济学家。B项不适合,文章主要是讲分工,但重点不在理论研究方面,而是用实例说明分工怎样提高了劳动效率。D项是明显错误的,因为文章说Adam Smith是第一个提出分工理论的人,而不是最后一个。因此C项是正确答案。