另一种解释Other observers link high Japanese productivity to higher levels of capital investment per worker. But(转折) a historical perspective leads to a different(-) conclusion. When the two top Japanese automobile makers matched and then doubled United States productivity levels in the mid-sixties, capital investment per employee was comparable to that of United States firms. Furthermore, by the late seventies, the amount of fixed assets required to produce one vehicle was roughly equivalent in Japan and in the United States.
Since capital investment was not higher in Japan, it had to be other factors that led to higher productivity. 第三种解释A more fruitful(+) explanation may lie with Japanese production techniques. Japanese automobile producers did not simply implement conventional processes more effectively: they made critical changes in United States procedures*7A. For instance, the mass-production philosophy of United States automakers encouraged the production of huge lots of cars*6 in order to utilize fully expensive, component-specific*6B equipment and to occupy fully workers who have been trained to execute one operation efficiently*8A. Japanese automakers chose to make small-lot production feasible by introducing several departures from United States practices, including the use of flexible equipment*8A that could be altered easily to do several different production tasks and the training of workers*4 in multiple jobs*4D. Automakers could schedule the production of different components or models on single machines, thereby eliminating the need to store the buffer stocks of extra components that result when specialized equipment and workers are kept constantly active.
1. The primary purpose of the passage is to主题题(写法性)
(A) present the major steps of a process
(B) clarify an ambiguity
(C) chronicle a dispute
(D) correct misconceptions(D)
(E) defend an accepted approach
2. The author suggests that if the observers of Japan mentioned in line 3 were correct, which of the following would be the case?虚拟语气(反证法)
(A) The equipment used in Japanese automobile plants would be different from the equipment used in United States plants.
(B) Japanese workers would be trained to do several different production jobs.
(C) Culture would not have an influence on the productivity levels of workers.
(D) The workers in Japanese-run plants would have higher productivity levels regardless of where they were located.(E)
(E) The production levels of Japanese-run plants located in the United States would be equal to*2E those of plants run by United States companies.
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