The important factor in a private-enterprise economy is that individuals are allowed to own productive resources (private property) , and they are permitted to hire labor, gain control over natural resources, and produce goods and services for sale at a profit. In the American economy, the concept of private property embraces not only the ownership of productive resources but also certain rights, including the right to determine the price of a product or to make a free contract with another private individual.

　　54. The passage is mainly about__.

　　[A] how American goods are produced

　　[B] how American consumers buy their goods

　　[C] how American economic system works

　　[D] how American businessmen make their profits

　　[答案] C

　　[解题思路]

　　本文的第一句话就直截了当地说明了文章的中心思想，即“The American economic system is organized around a basically private-enterprise, market-oriented economy in which consumers largely determine what shall be produced by spending their money in the marketplace for those goods and services that they want most”( 从根本上说，美国经济体制是围绕私有企业、在以市场为导向的经济基础上建立起来的。在这种体制下需要生产什么在很大程度上是消费者通过到市场花钱购买他们最需要的商品和服务来决定的)，文章最后两段随即就美国经济体系运作的两个方面进行讨论，因此正确答案为C选项。

　　[题目译文]

　　本文的主要是关于 。

　　[A] 美国的产品是如何生产的

　　[B] 美国的顾客是如何购买产品的

　　[C] 美国的经济体系是如何运作的

　　[D] 美国的商人是如何取得利润的