imyuva
Could anyone explain the argument? I couldn't understand what is modest renaissance and how two or more corporations linked with less profitability?
Thanks in advance.
Quote:
Transnational cooperation among corporations is experiencing a modest renaissance among United States firms, even though projects undertaken by two or more corporations under a collaborative agreement are less profitable than projects undertaken by a single corporation. The advantage of transnational cooperation is that such joint international projects may allow United States firms to win foreign contracts that they would not otherwise be able to win.
Which of the following is information provided by the passage?
(A) Transnational cooperation involves projects too big for a single corporation to handle.
(B) Transnational cooperation results in a pooling of resources leading to high-quality performance.
(C) Transnational cooperation has in the past been both more common and less common than it is now among United States firms.
(D) Joint projects between United States and foreign corporations are not profitable enough to be worth undertaking.
(E) Joint projects between United States and foreign corporations benefit only those who commission the projects.
A "renaissance", in this context, is a "revival" or "rebirth", and here "modest" means "limited in size, amount, or scope." For example, if I said that soccer is experiencing a modest renaissance in the United States, it would mean that soccer is becoming somewhat more popular and/or successful. It would not mean that soccer has suddenly exploded and become as popular as American football.
Similarly, in this passage, transnational cooperation among corporations is experiencing a "limited revival" among US firms, even though such cooperation usually results in lower profits. The advantage of the cooperation is that it will help US firms win more foreign contracts in the future (contracts that those firms would not have won if they had not cooperated on joint international projects). In other words, cooperating on a project might not be as profitable as doing it on your own, but it will help you win more foreign contracts.
Also, to respond to a much earlier question:
guillemgc
How could a thing be "both more common and less common" at the same time?
Either more common or less common doesn't sound better?
I got confused here with that.
Thank you in advance.
... the key is the use of the present perfect in choice (C): "Transnational cooperation
has in the past been both more common and less common than it is now among United States firms." The action began in the past and is still occurring in the present, which means that there could have been changes over time.
For example, "In the past three years, the British Pound has been worth both more than $1.4 USD and less than $1.4 USD." The price of a British Pound has changed over the course of the past three years. Sometimes it was less than $1.4 USD; sometimes it was more than $1.4 USD.
In choice (C), we are comparing past levels of cooperation to current levels of cooperation. At times, there was less cooperation than there is now; other times, there was more cooperation than there is now.
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