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.
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