『新东方在线托福听力』为托福考生准备了ETS托福TPO/Official 48 Lec 4听力练习：What is the lecture mainly about?原文题目答案解析，TPO/Official 48 Lec 4听力原文范文音频翻译。

托福TPO/Official 48 Lec 4听力原文What is the lecture mainly about?【新东方在线】

旁白：听美国历史课的一部分讲座。

Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in an American History class.

我们一直在谈论转变 - 美国经济在19世纪的工业化。

Professor: We have been talking about the transformation—the industrialization of United States economy in 19th century.

随着国家从以农业转向以工业为基础，政治权力也转移了。

As the country shifted from an agricultural to an industrial base, political power shifted too.

商业成了……很多权利去……去……去……从政府去到商业领袖的手中。

Businesses became... a lot of power went... went... went... went from the government into the hands of business leaders.

那么，为什么会这样呢？一个精英集团，一些商业巨头，如何在19世纪下半叶控制着一些重要的民族工业？

So, why did this happen? How did an elite group, a few business giants, how did they end up dominating, controlling a number of important national industries in the last quarter of the 19th century?

它们是如何变得如此占主导地位的？

他们如何利用美国社会的新工业化？

How did they take advantage of the new industrialization of American society?

那么，想想安德鲁·卡内基和钢铁业的例子。

Well, consider the example of Andrew Carnegie and the steel industry.

我们已经讨论了国家网络的发展……国家铁路系统。

We have already discussed the development of a national network... a national system of railroads.

那么，这种增长创造了对钢铁的巨大需求。

Well, this growth created a tremendous demand for steel.

国家铁路系统需要很多铁路轨道，对吧？

A national railroad system needs a lot of railroad tracks, right?

他建造了世界上最现代化的钢铁厂。

He built the world's most modern steel mill.

他提出了一个称为垂直整合的商业组织系统。

And he came up with a system of business organization called Vertical Integration.

垂直整合只是意味着……所有……每个特定行业的每一个活动都由一家公司执行。

Vertical Integration just means... that all... every single activity of a particular industry's processing is performed by a single company.

在钢铁行业，这意味着铁矿石的开采，用于将矿石从矿山转移到工厂的运输，将矿石转变为钢铁，制造过程和销售。

In the case of the steel industry, this means the mining of iron ore, the transportation used to get ore from the mine to the mill, turning the ore into the steel, the manufacturing process and sales.

他在如此大规模的实践垂直整合，他实际上拥有整个钢铁业。

He practiced Vertical Integration on such a large scale that he practically owned the whole steel industry.

这当然给了他很多的政治影响力。

This, of course, gave him a lot of political clout.

只是一个快速介绍，但你明白它的重点，对吧？

Just a quick sketch, but you get the idea, right?

这里是另一个例子：约翰·洛克菲勒。

Here is another example: John D. Rockefeller.

洛克菲勒拥有一家炼油厂，但他想扩大他的业务。

Rockefeller owned an oil refinery, but he wanted to expand his business.

由于行业中有很多竞争，他认为购买他的竞争对手的业务是一个非常好的方式。

Since there was lots of competition in the industry, he thought the smart way to go about it would be to buy his competitors' businesses.

但当时一家公司控制另一家公司是非法的。

But at the time it was illegal for one corporation to control another.

所以他做的是：他创造了一个称为信托的组织。

So what he did was: he created an organizational structure called a trust.

托拉斯是……好吧，我现在不必深入讨论这个。

A trust is... well I don't have to go into that now.

重要的是，托拉斯创造了一个单一的中央管理团队。

What matters is that a trust created a single, central management team.

这个团队掌控了其它仍然是独立公司的活动。

And that team directed the activities of what otherwise still appeared to be independent companies.

这个新的……法律实体工作得非常好，在某种程度上洛克菲勒控制了90％的国家的炼油厂，这再次给他很大的政治力量。

This new... uh... legal entity worked so well that at one point Rockefeller controlled 90% of the country's oil refineries, which again gave him lots of political power.

所以有两种不同的方法来扩展业务，两者都相当有效。

So you've got two different approaches to expanding a business, and both were quite effective.

当然，这不是唯一的两个例子。

Of course, these weren't the only two examples.

由铁路，食品加工，电力等众多行业发展出强大的个人经营的大型企业。

A number of big businesses run by powerful individuals developed across a wide range of industries, like railroads, food processing, electricity.

但他们都有的共同点是：政府让他们按照他们想要的方式运作。

But what they all had in common was: the government let them operate pretty much how they wanted to.

为什么政府保持如此低调，允许个人获得这么多的行业控制权？

Why did the government keep such a low profile and allow individuals to gain so much control of the industries?

很明显，他们拥有的财富和权力可以影响政治领导人。

Well, obviously, they had the wealth and the power to influence political leaders.

但也是，事实是，这些行业领导者做出了重大贡献。

But also, the truth is that these industry leaders made a significant contribution.

他们在技术上的投资导致了许多新的生产技术的发展，这加强了经济。

Their investments in technologies led to the development of many new production techniques, which strengthened the economy.

许多人捐了很多钱给慈善机构。安德鲁卡内基的慷慨为人们所敬佩。

And many of them gave lots of money to charity. Andrew Carnegie was particularly admired for his generosity.

但有一件事情尤其地给了他们权利。

But there was one thing in particular that gave them power.

他们是受益者，也许是一个理论的最大受益者，一个在19世纪的主导政治理论，即自由放任主义。它的意思是别干预。

And that's they were beneficiaries, probably the biggest beneficiaries of a theory, a dominant political theory in the 19th century, something called Laissez-Faire Doctrine. Laissez-Faire roughly means let it alone.

And that pretty much summarized the theory's philosophy.

这个想法是政府应该不干涉企业，允许它不受管制地经营。

The idea was that government should leave business alone, allow it to operate unregulated.

立法者不应该通过很多法律，或担心管理商业行为。

Legislators weren't supposed to pass a lot of laws, or worry about regulating business practices.

当人们挑战公司的商业行为时，我的意思是，在法庭案件中，确实有少数法律通常被解释为有利于商业利益。

When people did challenge a company's business conduct, I mean, I mean, in court cases, well, the few laws that did exist were usually interpreted in favor of business interests.

但随着时间的推移，公众开始越来越明显地感到困扰，一些大公司简单地拥有了过多的控制权。

But over time, it started becoming increasingly obvious and troubling to the public that some of these big companies simply had too much control.

有人批评业主有太多机会剥削工人，工人和消费者，因为他们可以控制价格和工资。

There were criticisms that owners had too much opportunity to exploit workers, workers and consumers, because they could control prices and wages.

And small business owners and small farmers couldn't compete.

所以有坏的新闻，坏的宣传，太多了政府最终觉得它必须做些事情。

So there was bad press, bad publicity, enough that the government eventually felt it had to do something.

所以它通过了两个关键的立法。

So it passed two key pieces of legislation.

一项法律旨在规范铁路设定的价格；另一个是将托拉斯用于限制竞争是非法的。

One law was designed to regulate the prices set by the railroads; another made it illegal for trusts to be used to limit competition.

两者都旨在减少某些行业中存在的排他性控制。

Both were aimed squarely at reducing the exclusive control that existed in some industries.

Why does the professor discuss vertical integration?

In what two ways did business leaders make a positive contribution to the United States in the nineteenth century?

According to the professor, what is the main reason that some businesses were able to become powerful during the nineteenth century?

Why did the government pass new laws aimed at businesses?

What does the professor imply about the term "trust" when she says this:

We've been talking about the transformation, the industrialization of United States economy in the 19 century. As the country shifted from an agricultural to an industrial base, political power shifted too. Businesses became a lot of power went from the government into the hands of business leaders. So why did this happen? How did an elite group, a few business giants, how did they end up dominating, controlling a number of important national industries in the last quarter of the 19th century? How did they get to be so dominant? How did they figure out? How did they take advantage of the new industrialization of American society?
Well, consider the example of Andrew Carnegie and the steel industry. We've already discussed the development of a national network, a national system of railroads. Well, this growth created a tremendous demand for steel. Our national railroad system needs a lot of railroad tracks, right? And Carnegie seized the opportunity. He built the world’s most modern steel mill and he came up with the system of business or organization, called vertical integration. Vertical integration just means that all. Every single activity of the particular industries processing is performed by a single company. In the case of the steel industry, this means the mining of iron ore, the transportation used to get ore from the mind to the mill, turning the ore into the steel, the manufacturing process and sales. Carnegie controlled all of these. He practiced vertical integration on such a large scale that he practically owned the whole steel industry. This of course gave him a lot of political clout, just a quick sketchbook, but you get the idea right?
Here's another example-- John D. Rockefeller .Rockefeller owned an oil refinery, but he wanted to expand his business. Since there was lots of competition in the industry, he thought the smart way to go about it would be to buy his competitors’ businesses. But at the time it was illegal for one corporation to control another. So what he did was: he created an organizational structure called a trust. A trust is a… Well, I don't have to go into that now… What matters is that a trust created a single central management team, and that team directed the activities of what otherwise still appeared to be independent companies. This new legal entity worked so well that at one point Rockefeller controlled 90% of the country's oil refineries, which again gave him lots of political power. So you've got two different approaches to expanding the business. And both were quite effective. Of course, these weren’t the only two examples. A number of big businesses run by powerful individuals develop cross a wide range of industries, like railroads, food processing, electricity. But what they all had in common was the government let them operate pretty much how they wanted to.
So why did he do that? Why did the government keep such a low profile and allow individuals to gain so much control of the industries? Well, obviously, they had the wealth and the power to influence political leaders, but also the truth is that these industry leaders made a significant contribution. Their investments in technologies led to the development of many new production techniques, which strengthen the economy, and many of them gave a lot of money to charity. Andrew Carnegie was particularly admired for his generosity. But there was one thing in particular that gave them power, and that's they were beneficiaries, probably the biggest beneficiaries of a theory, a dominant political theory in the 19th century, something called laissez-faire doctrine.
Laissez-faire roughly means let it alone and that pretty much summarize the theory’s philosophy. The idea was that the government should leave business alone, allow it to operate on regulated. Legislatures weren't supposed to pass a lot of laws or worry about regulating business practices. When people did challenge companies business conduct, I mean, I mean, in court cases, well, the few laws that did exist were usually interpreted in favor of business’ interests. But over time it started becoming increasingly obvious and troubling to the public, that some of these big companies simply had too much control. There were criticisms that owners have too much opportunity to exploit workers, workers and consumers, because they could control prices and wages. And small-business owners and small farmers couldn't compete, so there was bad press, bad publicity. enough that the government eventually felt it had to do something, So it passed two key pieces of legislation. One law was designed to regulate the prices set by the railroads, another made it illegal for trusts to be used to limit competition. Both were aimed squarely at reducing the exclusive control that existed in some industries.

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