星火30篇文章贯通考研词汇 29

Unit 29 Business：How to Serve the Society More Efficiently¹………………………………………………515
企业：如何更好地为社会服务
企业在运营过程中要占用或者消耗社会资源，甚至带来诸如污染等社会问题。而这应列入其社会成本。拿钢铁公司来说，应该要求钢铁公司安装污染控制设备或者支付相当于因污染而造成的社会成本的罚金，否则钢铁公司就是牺牲了社会，养肥了自己。此外，本文也介绍了管理经济学中的其他重要课题……
One very important inquiry² in managerial economics concerns the interrelationship between the firm and society. Managerial economics can help to clarify the vital role business firms play in our society and to point out ways of improving their operations for society’s benefit. A business enterprise is a combination of people, physical assets and information (technical, sales, coordinative³ and so on). The people directly involved include stockholders(股东) , management, labor⁴, suppliers and customers. In addition to these direct participants, all society is indirectly⁵ involved in the firm’s operations because businesses use resources otherwise available for other purposes (including air and water), pay taxes if operations are profitable, provide employment, and generally produce most of the material output for our society.
Firms exist because they are useful in the process of allocating⁶ resources, producing and distributing goods and services. If social welfare could somehow be measured, business firms might be expected to operate in a manner that would lead toward maximizing some index of social well-being⁷. Just which bundle of goods and services as well as which distribution pattern for the bundle would maximize social welfare is a complex, actually unanswerable, question. It is, however, one of the most vital questions facing us today.
The traditional way of handling this matter in the United Stated has been through the economic and political systems. The economic system produces and allocates⁸ goods and services through the market mechanism⁹. Firms determine what consumers desire, bid for the resources necessary to produce these products, and then make and distribute them. The participants—suppliers of capital, labor and raw materials—must all be compensated¹⁰ from the sale of the output. Further, the firm competes for the consumer’s dollar with other firms in the same and other industries. This process is “natural” in the sense that it occurs in all human societies as they develop.
A difficulty arises in the course of this development. Certain groups are likely to gain excessive economic power permitting them to obtain too large a share of the value created by firms. To illustrate¹¹, the economics of producing and distributing electric power are such that only one firm can efficiently serve a given community. As a result, the electric company could charge high prices and earn excessive profits. Society’s solution to this potential exploitation is rate regulation. Prices charged by electric companies and certain other monopolistic enterprises are controlled and held down to a level just sufficient to provide stockholders with a “fair” rate of return on their investment. The regulatory(调整的) process is simple in concept; but in practice, it is costly¹², difficult to operate, and in many ways arbitrary. It is a poor substitute for competition, but a substitute that is sometimes necessary.
The second problem in the economic development of society occurs when a limited number of firms serve a given market. If the firms compete with one another, no exploitation(剥削) occurs; however, if they conspire(共谋) with one another in setting prices, they may be able to obtain excessive profits. The antitrust laws(反托拉斯法) are designed to prevent such collusion(勾结), as well as to prevent the merging¹³ of competing firms whenever the effect of the merger¹⁴ would be to lessen¹⁵ competition substantially. Like direct regulation, the antitrust laws contain arbitrary elements and are costly to administer, but they, too, are necessary if economic justice, as defined by the body politic(国家), is to be preserved.
The third problem is that, under certain conditions, firms can exploit workers, so laws designed to equalize the bargaining power of firms and workers have been developed. These labor laws require firms to submit to collective bargaining and to refrain from(戒除) certain “unfair” practices.
The fourth problem by the economic system is that, in their production processes, firms may impose costs on society; for example, by dumping wastes into air or the water or by defacing(损伤外观) the earth, as in strip mining(露天采矿). If a steel mill creates polluted air, which requires people to paint their houses in three years instead of in five years or to have their clothes dry-cleaned(干洗) more frequently or to suffer lung illness, the mill is creating a cost to society in general, or a social cost. The steel company should be required to install pollution-control equipment or to pay fines equal to the social cost of the pollution; otherwise, the steel company is gaining at the expense of society, because the company is not paying its full social costs. Additionally, failure to shift social costs back onto the firm results in an economically inefficient¹⁶ allocation of resources between industries and firms. Currently some of the practices being applied¹⁷ to avoid this include the establishment of emissions¹⁸ limits both for manufacturing processes and for products that pollute (for example, autos), as well as the imposition of fines or outright¹⁹ (彻底的)closures of firms that do not meet these standards.
All the measures discussed above—utility regulation, antitrust laws, labor laws, and pollution control restrictions—are examples of actions taken by society to modify the behavior of business firms and to make this behavior more consistent with broad social goals. Since these social measures all constrain²⁰ firms, the economy of the United States could be called a constrained²¹ –enterprise system as opposed to a free-enterprise system.
注释:
inquiry
economics
clarify→★clear
enterprise
combination
stockholder→★hold
profitable→★office
employment→★employ
output→★put
manner
index
distribution
question→★question
through→★through
mechanism→★machine
bid
compensate
illustrate
profit
solution
monopolistic→★monday
sufficient
investment→★vest
arbitrary
lessen→★little
define→★finish
equalize
collective
impose
earth→★earth
mill
expense→★spend
economically→★economy
establishment
manufacture
utility
restriction
consistent→★stand
economy→★economy

1 efficiently   

adv.高效率地，有能力地

参考例句：

• The worker oils the machine to operate it more efficiently.工人给机器上油以使机器运转更有效。
• Local authorities have to learn to allocate resources efficiently.地方政府必须学会有效地分配资源。

2 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。

3 coordinative   

adj.同等的，同位的

参考例句：

• Ecological city is one with coordinative development of society, economy and eco-environment. 生态城市是社会、经济、生态环境协调发展的城市。 来自互联网
• An environment-economy coordinative development of regional environment-economy problem is studied quantitatively. 建立了环境经济协调发展判据，对区域环境经济协调发展问题进行了定量研究。 来自互联网

4 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

5 indirectly   

adv.间接地，不直接了当地

参考例句：

• I heard the news indirectly.这消息我是间接听来的。
• They were approached indirectly through an intermediary.通过一位中间人，他们进行了间接接触。

6 allocating   

分配，分派( allocate的现在分词 )； 把…拨给

参考例句：

• Administrative practice generally follows the judicial model in allocating burdens of proof. 在分配举证责任方面，行政实践通常遵循司法模式。
• A cyclical multiplexing technique, allocating resources in fixed-time slices. 以固定的时间片分配资源的循环复用技术。

7 well-being   

n.安康，安乐，幸福

参考例句：

• He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
• My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福，却被误解为多管闲事。

8 allocates   

分配，分派( allocate的第三人称单数 )； 把…拨给

参考例句：

• The state allocates huge funds for the development of aid-agriculture industries. 国家拨出大批资金，发展支农工业。
• The value that then I create value allocates part to discuss. 于是我把价值创造的价值分配分别开来论述。

9 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

10 compensated   

补偿，报酬( compensate的过去式和过去分词 )； 给（某人）赔偿（或赔款）

参考例句：

• The marvelous acting compensated for the play's weak script. 本剧的精彩表演弥补了剧本的不足。
• I compensated his loss with money. 我赔偿他经济损失。

11 illustrate   

v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图

参考例句：

• The company's bank statements illustrate its success.这家公司的银行报表说明了它的成功。
• This diagram will illustrate what I mean.这个图表可说明我的意思。

12 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

13 merging   

合并（分类）

参考例句：

• Many companies continued to grow by merging with or buying competing firms. 许多公司通过合并或收买竞争对手的公司而不断扩大。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• To sequence by repeated splitting and merging. 用反复分开和合并的方法进行的排序。

14 merger   

n.企业合并，并吞

参考例句：

• Acceptance of the offer is the first step to a merger.对这项提议的赞同是合并的第一步。
• Shareholders will be voting on the merger of the companies.股东们将投票表决公司合并问题。

15 lessen   

vt.减少，减轻；缩小

参考例句：

• Regular exercise can help to lessen the pain.经常运动有助于减轻痛感。
• They've made great effort to lessen the noise of planes.他们尽力减小飞机的噪音。

16 inefficient   

adj.效率低的，无效的

参考例句：

• The inefficient operation cost the firm a lot of money.低效率的运作使该公司损失了许多钱。
• Their communication systems are inefficient in the extreme.他们的通讯系统效率非常差。

17 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

18 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。

19 outright   

adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的

参考例句：

• If you have a complaint you should tell me outright.如果你有不满意的事，你应该直率地对我说。
• You should persuade her to marry you outright.你应该彻底劝服她嫁给你。

20 constrain   

vt.限制，约束；克制，抑制

参考例句：

• She tried to constrain herself from a cough in class.上课时她竭力忍住不咳嗽。
• The study will examine the factors which constrain local economic growth.这项研究将考查抑制当地经济发展的因素。

21 constrained   

adj.束缚的,节制的

参考例句：

• The evidence was so compelling that he felt constrained to accept it. 证据是那样的令人折服，他觉得不得不接受。
• I feel constrained to write and ask for your forgiveness. 我不得不写信请你原谅。