下面为大家整理的是一篇关于cost—cutting of industries的SAT文章阅读模拟题，后面附有8道题目和正确答案。SAT文章阅读考试涉及到的类别很多，需要大家很多的练习。下面大家就和天道小编一起来看看详细内容吧。

Since the late 1970’s, in the face of a severe loss of
market share in dozens of industries, manufacturers in
the United States have been trying to improve produc-
tivity—and therefore enhance their international
(5) competitiveness—through cost—cutting programs. (Cost-
cutting here is defined as raising labor output while
holding the amount of labor constant.) However, from
1978 through 1982, productivity—the value of goods
manufactured divided by the amount of labor input—
(10) did not improve; and while the results were better in the
business upturn of the three years following, they ran 25
percent lower than productivity improvements during
earlier, post-1945 upturns. At the same time, it became clear that the harder manufactures worked to imple-
(15) ment cost-cutting, the more they lost their competitive
edge.
With this paradox in mind, I recently visited 25
companies; it became clear to me that the cost-cutting
approach to increasing productivity is fundamentally
(20) flawed. Manufacturing regularly observes a “40, 40, 20”
rule. Roughly 40 percent of any manufacturing-based
competitive advantage derives from long-term changes
in manufacturing structure (decisions about the number,
size, location, and capacity of facilities) and in approaches
(25)to materials. Another 40 percent comes from major
changes in equipment and process technology. The final
20 percent rests on implementing conventional cost-
cutting. This rule does not imply that cost-cutting should
not be tried. The well-known tools of this approach—
(30)including simplifying jobs and retraining employees to
work smarter, not harder—do produce results. But the
tools quickly reach the limits of what they can
contribute.
Another problem is that the cost-cutting approach
(35) hinders innovation and discourages creative people. As
Abernathy’s study of automobile manufacturers has
shown, an industry can easily become prisoner of its
own investments in cost-cutting techniques, reducing its
ability to develop new products. And managers under
(40) pressure to maximize cost-cutting will resist innovation
because they know that more fundamental changes in
processes or systems will wreak havoc with the results on
which they are measured. Production managers have
always seen their job as one of minimizing costs and
(45) maximizing output. This dimension of performance has
until recently sufficed as a basis of evaluation, but it has
created a penny-pinching, mechanistic culture in most
factories that has kept away creative managers.
Every company I know that has freed itself from the
(50)paradox has done so, in part, by developing and imple-
menting a manufacturing strategy. Such a strategy
focuses on the manufacturing structure and on equip-
ment and process technology. In one company a manu-
facturing strategy that allowed different areas of the
(55)factory to specialize in different markets replaced the
conventional cost-cutting approach; within three years
the company regained its competitive advantage.
Together with such strategies, successful companies are
also encouraging managers to focus on a wider set of
objectives besides cutting costs. There is hope for manufacturing, but it clearly rests on a different way of
managing.

　　1.The author of the passage is primarily concerned with

　　(A) summarizing a thesis

　　(B) recommending a different approach

　　(C) comparing points of view

　　(D) making a series of predictions

　　(E) describing a number of paradoxes

　　2. It can be inferred from the passage that the manufacturrs mentioned in line 2 expected that the measures they implemented would

　　(A) encourage innovation

　　(B) keep labor output constant

　　(C) increase their competitive advantage

　　(D) permit business upturns to be more easily predicted

　　(E) cause managers to focus on a wider set of objectives

　　3. The primary function of the first paragraph of the passage is to

　　(A) outline in brief the author’s argument

　　(B) anticipate challenges to the prescriptions that follow

　　(C) clarify some disputed definitions of economic terms

　　(D) summarize a number of long-accepted explanations

　　(E) present a historical context for the author’s observations

　　4. The author refers to Abernathy’s study (line 36) most probably in order to

　　(A) qualify an observation about one rule governing manufacturing

　　(B) address possible objections to a recommendation about improving manufacturing competitiveness

　　(C) support an earlier assertion about one method of increasing productivity

　　(D) suggest the centrality in the United States economy of a particular manufacturing industry

　　(E) given an example of research that has questioned the wisdom of revising a manufacturing strategy

　　5. The author’s attitude toward the culture in most factories is best described as

　　(A) cautious

　　(B) critical

　　(C) disinterested

　　(D) respectful

　　(E) adulatory

　　6. In the passage, the author includes all of the following EXCEPT

　　(A) personal observation

　　(B) a business principle

　　(C) a definition of productivity

　　(D) an example of a successful company

　　(E) an illustration of a process technology

　　7. The author suggests that implementing conventional cost-cutting as a way of increasing manufacturing competitiveness is a strategy that is

　　(A) flawed and ruinous

　　(B) shortsighted and difficult to sustain

　　(C) popular and easily accomplished

　　(D) useful but inadequate

　　(E) misunderstood but promising

　　Correct Answers：BCECBED

　　以上就是这篇关于cost—cutting of industries的SAT文章阅读模拟题的全部内容，后面的正确答案没有解析。大家在备考自己的SAT阅读考试的时候，可以根据自己的实际情况，到文章中进行查找，这样就能更好的掌握答题的方法了。