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  3. Recent years have brought minority-owned businesses in the United States unprecedented opportunities — as well as new and signif

Recent years have brought minority-owned businesses in the United States unprecedented opportunities — as well as new and signif

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问题     Recent years have brought minority-owned businesses in the United States unprecedented opportunities — as well as new and significant risks. Civil rights activists have long argued that one of the principal reasons why Blacks, Hispanics, and other minority groups have difficulty establishing themselves in business is that they lack access to the sizable orders and subcontracts that are generated by large companies. Now Congress, in apparent agreement, has required by law that businesses awarded federal contracts of more than $ 1,000,000 do their best to find minority subcontractors and record their efforts to do so on forms filed with the government. Indeed, some federal and local agencies have gone so far as to set specific percentage goals for apportioning parts of public works contracts to minority enterprises.
    Corporate response appears to have been substantial. According to figures collected in 1997, the total of corporate contracts with minority businesses rose from $177 million in 1992 to $2.2 billion in 1997. The projected total of corporate contracts with minority businesses for the early 2000’s is estimated to be over 70 billion per year with no letup anticipated in the next decade.
    Promising as it is for minority businesses, this increased patronage poses dangers for them, too. First, minority firms risk expanding too fast and overextending themselves financially, since most are small concerns and, unlike large businesses, they often need to make substantial investments in new plants, staff, equipment, and the like in order to perform work subcontracted to them. If, thereafter, their subcontracts are for some reason reduced, such firms can face potentially crippling fixed expenses. The world of corporate purchasing can be frustrating for small entrepreneurs who get requests for elaborate formal estimates and bids. Both consume valuable time and resources, and a small company’s efforts must soon result in orders, or both the morale and the financial health of the business will suffer.
    A second risk is that White-owned companies may seek to cash in on the increasing apportionments through formation of joint ventures with minority-owned concerns. Of course, in many instances there are legitimate reasons for joint ventures; clearly, White and minority enterprises can team up to acquire business that neither could acquire alone. But civil rights groups and minority business owners have complained to Congress about minorities being set up as "fronts" with White backing, rather than being accepted as full partners in legitimate joint ventures.
    Third, a minority enterprise that secures the business of one large corporate customer often runs the danger of becoming — and remaining — dependent. Even in the best of circumstances, fierce competition from larger, more established companies makes it difficult for small concerns to broaden their customer bases: when such firms have nearly guaranteed orders from a single corporate benefactor, they may truly have to struggle against complacency arising from their current success.
The primary purpose of the text is to
选项 A、present a commonplace idea and its inaccuracies.
B、describe a situation and its potential drawbacks.
C、propose a temporary solution to a problem.
D、analyze a frequent source of disagreement.
答案B
解析 主旨大意题。一般文章的首段点明文章主旨，而段落的首句往往是段落的中心话题，解题时应注意这一技巧。文章第一句中破折号后面的内容和选项[B]中的its potential drawbacks是相互吻合的。通读全文后也可以发现，文章是在描述少数民族企业的状况以及其所面临的潜在危险。因此，本题选[B]。
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