GMAT阅读机经：Cost disease 和 music.

2017-08-10 作者： 289阅读

　　1月4日GMAT机经已换，现在为大家整理的最新的1月GMAT阅读机经，这一篇是Cost disease 和 music的文章，分享给大家，希望对大家有所帮助，文中观点仅供参考。

　　一、段落大意

　　P1. 关于艺术和生产力的。生产力发展了，各个行业的成本都降低了，但是艺术就不是这样。比如做表的，机器可以节省很多人力。但是比如做violin的，就没有多大改变。某人B提出了一个theory，叫cost disease。就是认为classical music成本没有随着经济发展大幅增加，因为科技发展可以使得其他生产规模化降低成本，但是每个观众的成本却没有增加……(有逻辑题，说哪一项最像cost disease的应用)一个什么人认为资金在音乐艺术方面投入不够多，然后他的观点立即被否定，否定他主要有两个原因。

　　P2. economist可能同意B的观点，但谁谁不同意。然后提出反驳(典型的新旧观点题), 反驳提出了两点:

　　没有考虑到technology：现在技术发展, 很多老东西的可以被新技术取代。因为new technology的出现，减少了人工成本，使得labor-intensive也没关系了。举例科技发展也使得古典音乐能在更大的礼堂公开演出使得更多的观众得以享受;好像是说资金投入在功放(amplification)上了，如果没有amplification，那么表演者只能表演给更少的人听(这里有考题)。recording和broadcast也是得益于科技发展。/比如drum和amplify，这两个就很好的取代了老的什么，用这个可以节约人成本。 (有题, 正确答案我忘了, 只记得错误答案, 有两个过于绝对, 以偏概全)

　　P3. 另一拨人反对B 因为他没有考虑到higher pay fee to the musicians:一些agents 和administrations使得一些star出场费非常非常高，也使得整个音乐艺术成本增加(有题)。使得这一项商业成为一种什么和什么的混合体，大意好像是市场竞争和个人什么……

　　二、题目

　　Q1. 逻辑题:哪一项最像cost disease的应用?

　　我选了老师教学生

　　…参加文章好像有老师 (本月V34狗主)

　　Q2. 下列哪项是对的? (可以秒选)

　　A. stars 要的钱越来越多

　　B. agent要的钱越来越多了

　　狗主解释：另外三个明显错。我考虑挺久选stars。因为我觉得agent 是帮助star 得到更多的钱，但是没说agent本身能得更多的钱。

　　740 V40狗主：要选歌手要的钱越来越多(确定)。有个干扰选项是经济公司 play a increasing role。这个是错误的，文中没有提到increasing。

　　Q3. 音乐的费用会降下来，如果下列哪项假设成立?

　　E，说free market的。

　　狗主解释：确定。最后一段明确说了现在不是free market。

　　Q4. 如果没有amplification，那么表演者只能表演给更少的人听(这里有考题)。

　　Q5. Orchestra and drum用来说明什么?

　　这在第二段，是反驳者的观点，大意说B忽略了technology吸引了更多的人群，从而降低了音乐会的成本(有个选项就是这个意思，不一定是这道题的选项)。乐队削减人数只剩Orchestra and drum as performers。我想不起来选项了。但是第二段有原话一模一样，考虑下此话的目的即可。

　　Q6. 第二段类比题。

　　三个选项无关的严重，可以剩2. 但剩的2就不是与原段特别相似。第二段主要意思就是，反驳者批评B忽略了technology吸引了更多的人群，从而降低了音乐会的成本

　　三、备注

　　1)考点集中在一,二段

　　2)本月740狗主补充描述：

　　第一段讲有一派学者提出了 cost disease这个理论，说是有些产业的生产力并没有提高(labor intensive的行业)但是这个行业的总体工资水平却提高了很多。原因是其他行业科技进步，使得labor的生产力提到，工资提高，带动这些labor intensive行业的工资提高(否则这些人就会转行)。cost diease这个理论运用到music行业。

　　第二段说作者出来说，这个解释是错误的。因为广播电视的出现以及amplifier的运用使得music的成本大大降低。另外这个cost disease有一个假设是各个行业是完全竞争的。但music行业却不是，这个行业被几个有影响的歌手和agent控制，他们可以charge很高的价格。

　　四、参考阅读

　　Baumol&aposs cost disease (also known as the Baumol Effect) is a phenomenon described by William J. Baumol and William G. Bowen in the 1960s. It involves a rise of salaries in jobs that have experienced no increase of labor productivity in response to rising salaries in other jobs which did experience such labor productivity growth. This goes against the theory in classical economics that wages are always closely tied to labor productivity changes.

　　The rise of wages in jobs without productivity gains is caused by the necessity to compete for employees with jobs that did experience gains and hence can naturally pay higher salaries, just as classical economics predicts. For instance, if the music industry pays its musicians 19th century style salaries, the musicians may decide to quit and get a job at an automobile factory where salaries are commensurate to high labor productivity. Hence, musicians&apos salaries are increased not due to labor productivity increases in the music industry, but rather due to productivity and wage increases in other industries.

　　The original study was conducted for the performing arts sector. Baumol and Bowen pointed out that the same number of musicians are needed to play a Beethoven string quartet today as were needed in the 1800s; that is, the productivity of Classical music performance has not increased. On the other hand, wages of musicians (as well as in all other professions) have increased greatly since the 19th century.

　　In a range of businesses, such as the car manufacturing sector and the retail sector, workers are continually getting more productive due to technological innovations to their tools and equipment. In contrast, in some labor-intensive sectors that rely heavily on human interaction or activities, such as nursing, education, or the performing arts there is little or no growth in productivity over time. As with the string quartet example, it takes nurses the same amount of time to change a bandage, or college professors the same amount of time to mark an essay, in 2006 as it did in 1966.

　　Baumol&aposs cost disease is often used to describe the lack of growth in productivity in public services such as public hospitals and state colleges. Since many public administration activities are heavily labor-intensive there is little growth in productivity over time. As a result growth in the GDP will generate little more resources to be spent in public sector. Thus public sector production is more depended on taxation level than growth in the GDP.

　　在这篇关于Cost disease 和 music的GMAT阅读机经，给出了文章的主旨，篇章结构，段落大意以及相关题目，考生可以有选择的看看，最后祝大家都能考出好成绩。