Passage 3
A famous cliche maintainsthat"the business of business is business". The business of businessis not government, charity or social welfare.nor, the cliche implies, is itmorality.But what does "the business of business"is business mean? Toget some perspective on the question, we must look beyond our own society. Whatwe find is this? what is considerde to be business and its business varies fromsociety to society. In Japan, the business of large corporations is not only toproduce goods but to care for the firm's employees—in effect, to guaranteethem lifetime employment Paternalism is thus part of the business of businessin Japan, in a way that it is not in the United States. In the former SovietUnion, private ownership of the means of production, that is, of companies andfactories, was prohibited by law. Nevertheless, there were in Russia factories,offices, stores, and goods. But business there was state affair, not a privateaffair. What constitutes business varies from society to society. The questionof what business per se is, and what its proper concern is, is a socialquestion, one that must be answered in social context.
In the United States, themandate to business was initially rather simple. People wanted goods to be asplentiful, as good, and as cheap as possible. Those interested in producingthem were given relatively free rein under competitive conditions. Somebusinesses succeeded and grew: others failed. As problems developed,regulations were introduced by law. These laws regulated working conditions,protected children, prevented monopolistic practices, and preserved theenvironment. The regulations frequently represented the moral concerns of theAmerican people. The business of business was, and is, decided by the people ofeach society. What practices are or are not to be tolerated are not eternalgivens, nor are the determinations of what is or is not acceptable toa society.To some extent, the mandate to business also sets the limits to its properactivity, and to what is not socially tolerable. The limits are not set bybusiness or by those who run business, even though some of them act as if theywere.The limits imposed on business and the demands made upon business bysociety are frequently moral ones. A business may ignore the moral demands ofan individual, but it can hardly ignore the moral demands of a whole society,because it is both part of that society and dependent on it, even though itserves society.
There is increasing evidencethat the mandate to business in the United States is changing, and thatbusinesses are increasingly expected to weigh more than financial factors intheir actions. What the business of business is, in fact, is itself a moraldecision, and one that is socially made and implemented. Insofar as business isa part of society, it rightfully has voice in arriving at the socialdeterminatic of what its business is.
From the second paragraph, we may conclude that______.
A、regulations introduced by law were usually based on moral concerns of American people
B、regulations introduced by law were to prevent businesses from failing
C、if business is accepted by the society, it will always remain so
D、people who run businesses can decide what is socially tolerable
【正确答案】：A
【名师解析】:题目答案A正确，因为它直接反映了第二段中提到的内容。在文中指出，随着问题的出现，法律引入了规定，这些规定通常反映了美国人民的道德关切。这些规定包括规范工作条件、保护儿童、防止垄断行为和保护环境。这表明，法律制定的规定不仅仅是为了商业运作的需要，更是基于社会道德标准和公众利益。选项B错误，因为文中并没有提到规定是为了防止企业失败，而是为了解决随着商业发展出现的问题。选项C错误，因为文中提到社会对商业的接受度是可以变化的，不是永远不变的。选项D错误，因为文中明确指出，商业的界限和要求是由社会设定的，而不是由经营商业的人决定的。