单选题
As one of a rare group of economists who believe that "manufacturing matters" for the health of the American economy, I was heartened to hear President Obama emphasize manufacturing in his State of the Union address. During the last two years, the manufacturing sector has led the economic recovery, expanding by about 10 percent and adding more than 300,000 jobs. Though there are economists who do not share my view, I believe that a strong manufacturing sector matters for several reasons.
First, economists agree that the United States must rebalance growth away from consumption and imports financed by foreign borrowing toward exports. Manufactured goods account for about 86 percent of merchandise exports from the United States and about 60 percent of exports of goods and services combined. American manufacturing exports are becoming more attractive as a result of rising wages abroad, the decline in the dollar"s value, increasing supply-chain coordination and transportation costs, and strong productivity growth in American manufacturing.
Germany and Japan, two high-wage countries, have maintained substantial shares of manufacturing in their economies, and are major exporters of manufactured goods to emerging market economies. Like manufacturing in these countries, manufacturing in the United States can win larger shares of global export markets with the right policies in place.
Second, on average manufacturing jobs are high-productivity, high value-added jobs with good pay and benefits. In 2009, the average manufacturing worker earned $74,447 in annual pay and benefits compared with $63,122 for the average non-manufacturing worker. In that year, only about 9 percent of the work force was employed in manufacturing, down from about 13 percent in 2000. The fall in manufacturing employment during the 2000s was a major factor behind growing wage inequality and the polarization of job opportunities between the top and bottom of the wage and skill distribution, with a hollowing out of middle-income jobs.
Third, manufacturing matters because of its substantial role in innovation. American leadership in science and technology remains highly dependent on R. & D. investment by manufacturing companies, and the social returns to such investment are substantial, far exceeding the returns to the companies that fund it.
American multinational companies that account for about 84 percent of all private-sector business R. & D. in the United States still place about 84 percent of their R. & D. activities in the United States, often in clusters around research universities. But this share is gradually declining as American companies shift some of their R. & D. to Asia in response to rapidly growing markets, ample supplies of technical workers and engineers and generous subsidies. Congress"s failure to extend and broaden the R. & D. tax credit, as President Obama has urged, is also encouraging companies in the United States to look to other countries offering far more generous R. & D. tax incentives.
单选题
It can be concluded from Paragraph 2 that a booming manufacturing is important in that it can ______.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】细节事实题
[解析] 第二段作者提到了制造业对美国来说至关重要的第一点原因，那就是rebalance growth away from consumption and imports financed by foreign borrowing toward exports(它能使美国重新平衡经济增长，摆脱之前对消费和以外债为资金来源的进口的依赖，转而通过出口实现增长。)根据这层含义，我们对四个选项进行辨析。A正确，制造业至关重要，因为它能够改变美国的经济增长模式，从依赖进口转而成为靠出口实现增长。B错误，第二段并没有提到美国债务危机的问题。制造业重要并不是因为它能够抑制来自新兴国家的进口产品，而是它能够使美国自身的产品变得更具有竞争力，从而扩大出口，消除赤字，所以C错。D错误，第二段最后提到了美元贬值的问题，美国制造业出口日益增长，其中一个原因就是因为美元的贬值，和D的内容完全不符。
单选题
Germany and Japan are mentioned in Paragraph 3 as ______.