WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS WOULD BE THE MOST LIKELY TO BEGIN T...

54: Which of the following statements would be the most likely to begin the paragraph

immediately following the passage?

A. Water has the ability to erode land

B. Droughts and flooding are two types of disasters associated with water

C. Another remarkably property of ice is its strength

D. Magnesium is widely used in metallurgical processes

Read the following passage and blacken the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to

indicate the correct answer for each of the questions.

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 Doppelt Gray, an official 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 of the woman 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 excluded from most executive suites. Charlotte Taylor, a management consultant, had

noted, "In the 1970s women believed if they got an MBA and 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-

million-a-year computer 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 carriers-and 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 now 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 situation is changing; there are

likely to be many more Sandra Kurtzigs in the years ahead.