Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 43 to 50.
Until recently, most American entrepreneurs were men. Discrimination against women in business, the demands of caring for families, and lack of business training had kept the number of women entrepreneurs small. Now, however, businesses owned by women account for more than $40 billion in annual revenues, and this figure is likely to continue rising throughout the 1990s. as Carolyn Doppe;t Gray, an offical of the Small Business Administration, has noted, “The 1970s was the decade of women entering management, and the 1980s turned out to be the decade pf the women entrepreneur”. What are some of the factors behind this trend? For one thing, as more women earn advanced degrees in business and enter the corporate world, they are finding obstacles. Women are still excuded from most executive suites. Charlotte Taylor, a management consultant, had noted, “In the 1970s, women believed if they got an MBA anf worked hard, they could become chairman of the board. Now they’ve found out that isn’t going to happen, so they go out on their own.”
In the past, most women entrepreneurs worked in “women’s” fields: cosmetics and clothing, for example. But this is changing. Consider ASK Computer Systems, a $22-milliona-year computar software business. It was founded in 1973 by Sandra Kurtzig, who was then a housewife with degrees in math and engineering. When Kurtzig founded the business, her first product was software that let weekly newspapers keep tabs on their newspaper carrier sand her office was a bedroom at home, with a shoebox under the bed to hold the company’s cash. After she succeeded with the newspaper software system, she hired several bright computer-science graduates to develop additional programs. When these were marketed and sold, ASK began to grow. It niw has 200 employees, and Sandra Kurtzig owns $66.9 million of stock.
Of course, many women who start their own businesses fail, just as men often do. They still face hurdles in the business world, especially problems in raising money; the banking and finance world is still dominated by men, and old attitudes die hard. Most businesses owned by women are still quite small. But the situations is changing; there are likely to be many more Sandra Kurtzigs in the years ahead.
What is the main idea of this passage?
A. Women today are better educated than is the past, marking them more attractive to the business world.
B. The computer is especially lucrative for women today.
C. Women are better at small business of their own.
D. Women today are opening more business of their own
Đáp án D
Đề: Ý chính của bài đọc là gì?
A. Phụ nữ ngày nay được giáo dục tốt hơn trước đây, khiên họ trở nên thu hút hơn đối với giới kinh doanh.
B. Máy tính đặc biệt hữu ích cho phụ nữ ngày nay.
C. Phụ nữ giỏi kinh doanh nhỏ hơn là đàn ông.
D. Phụ nữ ngày nay đang tự kinh doanh/tự mở doanh nghiệp nhiều hơn.
Dựa vào câu 3: “Now, however, businesses owned by women account for more than $40 billion in annual revenues, and this figure is likely to continue rising throughout the 1990s.”
(Tuy nhiên, ngày nay, các doanh nghiệp được sở hữu bởi phụ nữ chiếm hơn 40 tỷ đô-la trong doanh thu hằng năm, và con số này nhiều khả năng sẽ tiếp tục tăng xuyên suốt thập niên 90.)