1. 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.

[参考译文]  美国的经济是以基本的私有企业和市场导向经济为架构的，在这种经济中，消费者很大程度上通过在市场上为那些他们最想要的货品和服务付费来决定什么应该被制造出来。

  2. Thus, in the American economic system it is the demand of individual consumers, coupled with the desire of businessmen to maximize profits and the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes, that together determine what shall be produced and how resources are used to produce it.

[参考译文]    因此，在美国的经济体系中，个体消费者的需求与商人试图最大化其利润的欲望和个人想最大化其收入效用的欲望相结合，一起决定了什么应该被制造，以及资源如何被用来制造它们。

  3. If, on the other hand, producing more of a commodity results in reducing its cost, this will tend to increase the supply offered by seller-producers, which in turn will lower the price and permit more consumers to buy the product.

[参考译文]  另一方面，如果大量制造某种商品导致其成本下降，那么这就有可能增加卖方和制造商能提供的供给，而这也就会反过来降低价格并允许更多的消 费者购买产品。

  4. 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.

[参考译文]  在美国经济中，私有财产的概念不仅包含对生产资源的所有权，也指其他一些特定的权利，如确定一个产品价格和与另一个私人个体(经济单位) 自由签定合同的权利。

  5. At the same time these computers record which hours are busiest and which employers are the most efficient, allowing personnel and staffing assignments to be made accordingly. And they also identify preferred customers for promotional campaigns.

[参考译文]  同时这些计算机记录下哪些时间是最忙的，哪些员工工作效率最高，这样就能相应地做出人员人事安排。而且它们(计算机)也能为促销活动找到那些拥有优先权的顾客。

  6. Numerous other commercial enterprises, from theaters to magazine publishers, from gas and electric utilities to milk processors, bring better and more efficient services to consumers through the use of computers.

[参考译文]  不计其数的其他商业企业，从剧院到杂志出版商，从公用燃气电力设施到牛奶处理厂，都通过计算机的使用给消费者带来更好、更有效率的服务。

  7. Exceptional children are different in some significant way from others of the same age For these children to develop to their full adult potential, their education must be adapted to those differences.

[参考译文]  残疾儿童在许多关键方面都与其同龄人不同。为了让这些孩子发展其全部的成人后的潜能，他们的教育必须适应这些不同。

  8. The great interest in exceptional children shown in public education over the past three decades indicates the strong feeling in our society that all citizens, whatever their special conditions, deserve the opportunity to fully develop their capabilities.

[参考译文]  在过去的30年中，公共教育中显示的对残疾儿童的巨大关注表明了我们社会中的一种中强烈的情绪，那就是所有的公民，不管其情况有多特殊，都应享有充分发展其能力的机会。

  9. It serves directly to assist a rapid distribution of goods at reasonable price, thereby establishing a firm home market and so making it possible to provide for export at competitive prices.

[参考译文]  它(广告)能够直接帮助货物以比较合理的价格被迅速分销出去，因此可以(使公司)建立一个坚固的国内市场，同时也使以具有竞争力的价格提供出口变得可能。

  10. Apart from the fact that twenty-seven acts of Parliament govern the terms of advertising, no regular advertiser dare promote a product that fails to live up to the promise of his advertisements.

[参考译文]  除去议会有27件法案来规范广告的条件，没有任何一个正式的广告商敢于推销一种商品却不能兑现其在广告中的承诺。

  11. If its message were confined merely to information and that in itself would be difficult if not impossible to achieve, for even a detail such as the choice of the color of a shirt is subtly persuasive-advertising wound be so boring that no one wound pay any attention.

[参考译文]  如果其信息只被局限于告知一一就广告而言，如果这不是完全不可能达到的，也是非常难做的，因为即便是一个诸如衬衫的颜色的选择这样的细节都会具有微妙的说服意味，那么广告就会如此地乏味以至于没有人 会关注它。

  12. The workers who gets a promotion, the student whose grades improve, the foreigner who learns a new language-all these are examples of people who have measurable results to show for there efforts.

[参考译文]  得到了升迁的工人们，成绩进步的学生，学会了一门新语言的外国人一 一这些都是那些有可衡量的结果宋显示其努力的人们的例证。

  13. As families move away from their stable community, their friends of many years, their extended family relationships, the informal flow of information is cut off, and with it the confidence that information will be available when needed and will be trustworthy and reliable.

[参考译文]  随着家庭离开他们原来稳定的社区，离开他们多年的朋友和扩展的家庭关系，非正式的信息流动被切断了，随之而去的是对在需要时能获得可靠和值得信赖的信息的信心。

  14. The individual now has more information available than any generation, and the task of finding that one piece of information relevant to his or her specific problem is complicated, time--consuming, and sometimes even overwhelming.

[参考译文]  现在每个人能够得到的信息比任何时代的人都多，而找到与他／她的特定问题相关的那一点信息的任务不仅复杂、耗时，有时甚至令人难以招 。