Passage Four Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
Until recently, most American entrepreneurs were men. Discrimination against women in business , the demands of caring for families, and lack of business training had kept[pcct] the number of women entrepreneurs small. Now, however, businesses owned by women account for more than $ 40 billion in annual revenues , and this figure is likely to continue rising throughout the 1980s . What are some of the factors behind this trend ? For one thing , as more women earn advanced degrees in business and enter the corporate world, they are finding obstacles. Women are still excluded from most executive suites(一班人马). Charlotte Taylor, a management consultant, had noted , "In the 1970s women believed if they got an MBA and worked hard , they could become chairman of the board. Now they've found out that isn't going to happen, so they go out on their own. " In the past , most women entrepreneurs worked in women's fields -cosmetics and clothing, for example. But this is changing . Consider ASK Computer Systems, a $ 22-million-a-year computer software business. It was founded in 1973 by Sandra Kurtzig, who was then a housewife with degrees in math and engineering . When Kurtzig founded the business, her first product was software that let weekly newspapers keep tabs (记财目，核查) on their newspaper carriers -and her office was a bedroom at home , with a shoebox under the bed to hold the company's cash . with the newspaper software system , she hired several bright computer-science graduates to develop additional programs . When these were marketed and sold , ASK began to grow. It now has 200employees, and Sandra Kurtzig owns $ 66.9 million of stock. Of course, many women who start their own business fail, just as men often do . They still face hurdles in the business world , especially problems in raising monepy; the banking and finance world is still dominated by men, and old attitudes die hard. Most business owned by women are still quite small.
26.The main idea of this passage is _____. A) women today are better educated than in B) the computer is especially lucrative for women today C) women are better at small businesses than men are D) women today are opening more businesses of their own
27.According to Charlotte Taylor, women in the 1970s ______. A) were unrealistic about their opportunities in business management B) were still more interested in education than business opportunities C) had fewer obstacles in business than they do today D) were unable to work hard enough to succeed in business
28.Mentioning the "shoebox under the bed" in the third paragraph the author wants to______ . A) show the thrift of women in business B) show the resourcefulness of Sandra Kurtzig C) point out that initially the financial resources of Sandra Kurtzig's business were limited D) suggest that the company needed to expand
29.The word "hurdles"(Line2, Para.4) most probably means ______. A) fences B)obstacles C) questions D) small groups
30.According to the passage , businesses operated by women are small because _______. A) women prefer a small, intimate setting to a big one B) women can't deal with money C) women are not able to borrow money easily D) many women fail at large businesses
with the newspaper software system , she hired several bright computer-science graduates to develop additional programs . When these were marketed and sold , ASK began to grow. It now has 200employees, and Sandra Kurtzig owns $ 66.9 million of stock. 
