road740 wrote:
Based on the % of people who had the first question right, the majority (including myself) had problems with it. Anybody out here who´d like to help?
Let me add my 2 cents for question 1
The question asks about what can be inferred from the passage about th eproductivity level of the engineers.
Let's start by elimination
A. Prior to the 1980's, the productivity levels of the top Indian software firms were exceeded by those of Chinese software firms.
Refer to second para in the passage - It says in mid-80's two Indian firm joined and doubled the output. Nothing is known about priotr to 1980
B. The official language of a country has a large effect on the productivity levels of its software developers
Incorrect as in Para 1 they talked about English benefit for India but the Hong Kong that has more english speaking population but no benefit.
C. During the late 1980's and early 1990's, productivity levels were comparable in China and India.
Based on para 2. let's hold onto this.
D. The greater the number of engineers that a software firm has, the higher a firm's productivity level.
The number of Engineers in a firm is not a discussion or comparision point for author.
E. The amount of human resource investment made by software developers in their firms determines the level of productivity.
We can't say this. Refer to Last line of Para 2. They say that Human resource investment was equal in India an d China. So, this statement is incorrect.
Finally, C is the only otion we can narrow down to.Thanks a lot! Now it makes sense. I didn´t really read "late" 1908s and "early" 1990´s - in my mind I tought "between the 1980s and the 1990s" and this, in my view, was too large of a timespan.
Next time I will read more carefully.