how business leaders get political power in 19th托福听力原文翻译及问题答案

how business leaders get political power in 19th托福听力原文翻译及问题答案

一、how business leaders get political power in 19th 托福听力原文：

NARRATOR: Listen to part of a lecture in an American history class.

FEMALE PROFESSOR: We've been talking about the transformation... the industrialization of the United States economy in the nineteenth century. As the country shifted from an agricultural to an industrial base, political power shifted, too. Businesses became...a lot of power went, went, went, went from the government into, into the hands of business leaders.

So, why did this happen? How did an elite group, a few business giants, how did they end up dominating, controlling a number of important national industries in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. How did they get to be so dominant? How did they figure out... how did they take advantage of the new industrialization of American society?

Well consider the example of Andrew Carnegie and the steel industry.

We've already discussed the development of a national network, a, a national system of railroads. Well, this growth created a tremendous demand for steel; a national railroad system needs a lot of railroad tracks, right? And Carnegie seized the opportunity. He built the world's most modern steel mill. And he came up with a system of business or-organization called vertical integration.

Vertical integration just means that all... every single activity of a particular industry's processing is performed by a single company. In the case of the steel industry, this means the mining of iron ore, the transportation used to get ore from the mine to the mill, turning the ore into the steel, the manufacturing process, and sales. Carnegie controlled all of these; he practiced vertical integration on such a large scale that he practically owned the whole steel industry. This of course gave him a lot of political clout. Just a quick sketch, but you get the idea, right? Here’s another example—John D. Rockefeller.

Rockefeller owned an oil refinery, but he wanted to expand his business. Since there was lots of competition in the industry, he thought the smart way to go about it would be to buy his competitors' businesses. But, at the time, it was illegal for one corporation to control another. So, what he did was, he created an organizational structure called a trust.  A trust is—oh, well, I don't have to go into that now.

What matters is that a trust created a single, central management team, and that team directed the activities of what otherwise still appeared to be independent companies. This new, ah, legal entity worked so well that at one point, Rockefeller controlled 90 percent of the country's oil refineries, which again gave him lots of political power.

So you've got two different approaches to expanding a business, and both were quite effective. Of course, these weren't the only two examples; a number of big businesses run by powerful individuals developed across, oh, a wide range of industries, like railroads, food processing, electricity but what they all had in common was... the government let them operate pretty much how they wanted to.

So why did they do that? Why did the government keep such a low profile and allow individuals to gain so much control of the industries? Well, obviously, they had the wealth and the power to influence political leaders.

But also, the truth is that these industry leaders made a significant contribution. Their investments in technologies led to the development of many new production techniques, which strengthened the economy. And, many of them gave lots of money to charity; Andrew Carnegie was particularly admired for his generosity.

But there was one thing in particular that gave them power, and that's . . . they were beneficiaries, probably the biggest beneficiaries of, of, of, uh, a theory, a dominant political theory in the nineteenth century, something called laissez-faire doctrine. Laissez-faire roughly means “let it alone,” and that pretty much summarized the theory's philosophy. The idea was that government should leave business alone, allow it to operate unregulated. Legislatures weren't supposed to pass a lot of laws, or worry about regulating business practices. When people did challenge a company's business conduct, I mean, I mean in court cases, well, the few laws that did exist were usually interpreted in favor of business interests.

But, over time, it started becoming increasingly obvious, and troubling to the public, that some of these big companies simply had too much control. There were criticisms that owners had too much opportunity to exploit workers, workers and consumers, because they could control prices and wages. And small business owners and small farmers couldn't compete.

So there was bad press, bad publicity. Enough that the government eventually felt it had to do something. So it passed two key pieces of legislation. One law was designed to regulate the prices set by the railroads. Another made it illegal for trusts to be used to limit competition. Both were aimed squarely at reducing the exclusive control that existed in some industries.

二、how business leaders get political power in 19th 托福听力中文翻译：

旁白：在美国历史课上听一节课的一部分。

女教授：我们一直在谈论转型。。。十九世纪美国经济的工业化。随着国家从农业基地转向工业基地，政治权力也随之转移。企业变得。。。大量的权力从政府转移到商业领袖手中。

那么，为什么会发生这种情况？一个精英集团，几个商业巨头，如何在十九世纪的最后四分之一占据主导地位，控制着许多重要的民族工业。他们是怎么变得如此占主导地位的？他们怎么知道。。。他们是如何利用美国社会的新型工业化的？

我们以安德鲁·卡内基和钢铁业为例。

我们已经讨论了国家铁路网的发展，国家铁路系统。嗯，这种增长创造了对钢铁的巨大需求；一个国家的铁路系统需要很多铁轨，对吗？卡内基抓住了这个机会。他建造了世界上最现代化的钢厂。他提出了一个叫做垂直整合的商业或组织体系。

垂直整合只是意味着所有。。。特定行业加工的每一项活动都由一家公司执行。就钢铁行业而言，这意味着铁矿石的开采、将矿石从矿山运到工厂的运输、将矿石转化为钢铁、制造过程和销售。卡内基控制了所有这些；他大规模实施垂直整合，几乎拥有了整个钢铁行业。这当然给了他很大的政治影响力。只是一个简单的草图，但你明白了，对吧？这是另一个约翰·D·洛克菲勒的例子。

洛克菲勒拥有一家炼油厂，但他想扩大业务。由于该行业竞争激烈，他认为明智的做法是收购竞争对手的业务。但是，在当时，一家公司控制另一家公司是非法的。所以，他所做的是，他创建了一个叫做信托的组织结构&nbsp；信任是哦，好吧，我现在不必再谈这个了。

重要的是，信托公司创建了一个单一的中央管理团队，该团队负责管理看似独立的公司的活动。这个新的，啊，法律实体运作得如此之好，以至于洛克菲勒一度控制了该国90%的炼油厂，这再次给了他很大的政治权力。

所以你有两种不同的方法来拓展业务，而且都非常有效。当然，这不是仅有的两个例子；许多由有权势的个人经营的大企业跨越了，哦，广泛的行业，如铁路、食品加工、电力，但他们的共同点是。。。政府让他们按照自己的意愿运作。

那他们为什么这么做？为什么政府保持如此低调，并允许个人获得如此多的行业控制权？很明显，他们拥有财富和权力来影响政治领导人。

但事实是，这些行业领导者做出了重大贡献。他们对技术的投资导致了许多新生产技术的发展，从而加强了经济。而且，他们中的许多人向慈善机构捐赠了大量资金；安德鲁·卡内基（AndrewCarnegie）的慷慨尤其令人钦佩。

但有一件事给了他们力量，那就是。他们是受益者，可能是一种理论的最大受益者，一种十九世纪占主导地位的政治理论，一种叫做自由放任主义的理论。自由放任大致意味着“别管它”，这大致概括了该理论的哲学。当时的想法是，政府应该让企业独善其身，允许其不受监管地运营。立法机构不应该通过很多法律，也不应该担心监管商业惯例。当人们质疑一家公司的商业行为时，我的意思是，我的意思是，在法庭案件中，确实存在的少数法律通常被解释为有利于商业利益。

但是，随着时间的推移，一些大公司的控制权太大，这一点开始变得越来越明显，并让公众感到不安。有人批评业主有太多机会剥削工人、工人和消费者，因为他们可以控制价格和工资。小企业主和小农户无法竞争。

所以有坏的新闻，坏的宣传。足以让政府最终感到必须采取行动。因此，它通过了两项关键的立法。有一项法律是为了规范铁路制定的价格。另一项法案规定，利用信托限制竞争是非法的。两者都是为了减少

三、how business leaders get political power in 19th 托福听力问题：

Q1:1.What is the lecture mainly about?

A. Ways that new managerial techniques hastened the industrialization of American society in the nineteenth century

B. Ways that the United States government tried to regulate business practices in the nineteenth century

C. Reasons that business leaders gained political power in the late nineteenth-century United States

D. A comparison of the management styles of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller

Q2:2.Why does the professor discuss vertical integration?

A. To explain how Andrew Carnegie gained control of the steel industry

B. To describe the most typical organization for businesses in the nineteenth century

C. To explain how John D. Rockefeller organized the oil industry

D. To explain the origins of the business trust

Q3:3.In what two ways did business leaders make a positive contribution to the United States in the nineteenth century? Click on 2 answers.

A. They invested in new production technologies.

B. They raised wage levels.

C. They improved safety conditions.

D. They supported charitable causes.

Q4:4.According to the professor, what is the main reason that some businesses were able to become powerful during the nineteenth century?

A. The government assisted businesses when they had financial difficulties.

B. Taxation was based upon the profitability of a business.

C. The government did not impose many regulations on businesses.

D. Some government officials once held influential positions in large businesses.

Q5:5.Why did the government pass new laws aimed at businesses?

A. To correct mistakes made by the judicial system

B. To respond to complaints from the public

C. To increase employment rates

D. To increase tax revenue from large industries

Q6:6.What does the professor imply about the term “trust” when she says this:

A. She should not have mentioned the term.

B. It is unnecessary to explain the details of the term.

C. She wants the students to explain the term to her later.

D. She wants to discuss a different term.

四、how business leaders get political power in 19th 托福听力答案：

A1:正确答案：C

A2:正确答案：A

A3:正确答案：AD

A4:正确答案：C

A5:正确答案：B

A6:正确答案：B

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