单选题 {{B}}练习五{{/B}}

The American economic system is organized around a basically private-enterprise, market oriented economy in which consumers largely determine what shall be produced by spending their money in the marketplace for those goods and services that they want most. Private businessmen, striving to make their profits, produce these goods and services in competition with other businessmen: and the profit motive, operating under competitive pressures, largely determines how these goods and services are produced. Thus, in the American economic system it is the demand of individual consumers, coupled with the desire of businessmen to maximize profits and the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes, that together determine what shall be produced and how resources are used to produce it.
An important factor in a market-oriented economy is the mechanism by which consumer demands can be expressed and responded to by producers. In the American economy, this mechanism is provided by a price system, a process in which prices rise and fall in response to relative demands of consumers and supplies offered by seller-producers. If the product is in short supply relative to the demand, the price will be a bit up and some consumers will be eliminated from the market. If, on the other hand, producing more of a commodity results in reducing its cost, this will tend to increase the supply offered by seller-producers, which in turn will lower the price and permit more consumers to buy the product. Thus, price is the regulating mechanism in the American economic system.
The important factor in a private-oriented economy is that individuals are allowed to own productive resources (private property), and they are permitted to hire labor, gain control over natural resources, and produce goods and services for sale at a profit. In the American economy, the concept of private property embraces not only the ownership of productive resources but also certain rights, including the right to determine the price of a product or to make a free contract with another private individual.

单选题 In Line 9, Para.1, "the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes" means ______.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】解此题的关键在于联系上下文去理解maximize的含义。该词一般作“使……增加到尽可能大”解，但它在上下文中的意思是：“充分利用”。如果不联系上下文而是孤立地去理解 maximize，那么很可能会选错。The desire of individuals to maximize their incomes的意思是：“人们充分利用自己收入的欲望”，也就是人们希望钱能值钱，也即人们希望提高购买力，这与 D的内容同义，因此D为正确答案。

单选题 The first two sentences in the second paragraph tell us that ______.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】解此题须用排除法。将四个选项与第一、二句一一对照，A错。mechanized的意思是：“机械化的”，mechanized producers显然不通，因此可以排除。B也错，它说：“消费者通过生产者表达他们的需求”，这与第一句的定语从句的意思有出入，该从句的意思是：“通过这一机制，消费者的要求可以得到表达，并由生产者做出反应。”C也错，因为价格由谁决定，这两句未提及。D为正确答案，“供求决定价格”，这正是第二句后半句的内容。

单选题 According to the passage, a private-enterprise economy is characterized by ______.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】解此题的关键在于根据题中的关键词a private-enterprise economy找到解题的依据。原文最后一段第一句出现了private—enterprise economy，因此，最后一段就是解题依据。将四个选项与最后一段一一对照，B不对，它仅表达了第一句的部分内容。C也不对，它也仅表达了第一句的部分内容。D也不对，它仅表达了最后一句的部分内容。三个选项都只反映了局部而非全部内容。正确答案为A，它表达了最后一句由not only…but also连接的全部内容：私人财产和有关的权利。