The questions in this group are based on the content of a passage. After reading the passage, choose the best answer to each question. Answer all questions following the passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in the passage.
The collapse of the stock "bubble" of Internet-related companies in 2000-2001 has resulted in more than its fair share of analysis, hand-wringing, and finger-pointing. A panel discussion at a recent Technology Today conference in Santa Monica produced a heated debate between two former luminaries of the dot.corn world: investment banker Pat Verhofen and Sue Mickelson, founder and CEO of Internet retailer Frizbeez.com.
Verhofen fired the opening shot by placing blame for the collapse of Internet stocks on the shoulders of Internet entrepreneurs who aggressively promoted ideas without viable business models. These entrepreneurs were both irresponsible and deceptive, Verhofen argued, to take investors’
A. Despite widespread public opinion that the sun revolves around the earth, Galileo Galilei published findings showing that the earth revolved around the sun; he later retracted this assertion as a result of pressure from the Church.
B. A tobacco company chose to market cigarettes to children despite widespread public opinion that such marketing is unethical; over the following decade, the company expanded its share of the tobacco market.
C. A home electronics company devoted substantial development resources to eight-track audio technology despite widespread industry opinion that cassette tapes were the wave of the future; eight-tracks were soon replaced by cassette tapes, which in turn were replaced by compact disks.
D. A newspaper chose to publish a story that government lawyers said it could not print; the newspaper won its case against the government lawyers in a federal court, and the writer of the story won a Pulitzer Prize.
E. A computer company initiated research into manufacturing a computer for home use when widespread public opinion held that computers could be useful only for large corporations or government agencies; personal home computers became a multibillion-dollar market.
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