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  3. Invention and innovation have been quintessentially American pursuits from the earliest days of the republic. Benjamin Franklin

Invention and innovation have been quintessentially American pursuits from the earliest days of the republic. Benjamin Franklin

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问题     Invention and innovation have been quintessentially American pursuits from the earliest days of the republic. Benjamin Franklin was a world-famous scientist and inventor. Cyrus McCormick and his harvester, Samuel F. B. Morse and the telegraph, Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone—the 19th century produced a string of inventors and their world-changing creations. And then there was the greatest of them all,Thomas Alva Edison. He came up with the crucial devices that would give birth to three enduring American industries; electrical power,recorded music and motion pictures.
    Much of the world we live in today is a legacy of Edison and of his devotion to science and innovation. Edison taught us to invent,and for decades we were the best in the world. But today, more than 160 years after Edison’s birth, America is losing its scientific edge. A landmark report released in May by the National Science Board lays out the numbers: while U. S. investment in R&D as a share of total GDP has remained relatively constant since the mid-1980s at 2. 7% ,the federal share of R&D has been consistently declining—even as Asian nations like Japan and South Korea have rapidly increased that ratio. At the same time, American students seem to be losing interest in science. Only about one-third of U. S. bachelor’s degrees are in science or engineering now,compared with 63% in Japan and 53% in China.
    It’s ironic that nowhere is America’s position in science and technology more threatened than in the industry that Edison essentially invented: energy. Clean power could be to the 21st century what aeronautics and the computer were to the 20th, but the U. S. is already falling behind. Meanwhile, Congress remains largely paralyzed. Though in May the House of Representatives was finally able to pass the $ 86 billion America Competes Reauthorization Act, which would double the budgets of the National Science Foundation(NSF)and Energy Department’s Office of Science, the bill’s fate is cloudy in the deadlocked Senate. " At this rate. . . we’ll be buying most of our wind generators and photovoltaic panels from other countries," former NSF head Arden L. Bement said at a congressional hearing recently. "That’s what keeps me awake sometimes at night. "
    Some erosion of the U. S. ’s scientific dominance is inevitable in a globalized world and might not even be a bad thing. Tomorrow’s innovators could arise in Shanghai or Seoul or Bangalore. And Edison would counsel against panic—as he put it once, " Whatever setbacks America has encountered, it has always emerged as a stronger and more prosperous nation. " But the U. S. will inevitably decline unless we invest in the education and research necessary to maintain the American edge. The next generation of Edisons could be waiting. But unless we move quickly,they won’t have the tools they need to thrive.
According to paragraph 2,which of the following decreasessince the mid-1980s?
选项 A、Federal spending in R&D.
B、Private spending in R&D.
C、Federal spending in R&D as a share of GDP.
D、Gross spending in R&D as a share of GDP.
答案C
解析 本题考查第二段的具体细节。第二段用一些数据表明了美国与其他国家相比在科研领域的优势在缩小。其中一个数据就是研发经费占GDP的份额，这是考量一个国家对于科研重视程度的指标。文中指出，尽管自20世纪80年代起，美国全国在研发领域的投资占GDP的份额基本持平，但是美国政府在其中所占的份额却在缩小。这说明在美国政府之外，来自私人领域的研发投资占的比重在上升。这一题有一定的迷惑性，关键就在于对“美国政府”投资和“总”投资，以及对“投资总额”和“投资份额”要加以区分。正确答案应该是[C]。
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