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 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 1990s. As Carolyn Doppelt Gray, an official of the Small Business Administration, has noted, "The 1970s was the decade of women entering management, and the 1980s turned out to be the decade of the woman entrepreneur". 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. 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 on their newspaper carriers-and her office was a bedroom at home, with a shoebox under the bed to hold the company's cash. After she succeeded 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 200 employees, and Sandra Kurtzig owns $66.9 million of stock.

   Of course, many women who start their own businesses fail, just as men often do. They still face hurdles in the business world, especially problems in raising money; the banking and finance world is still dominated by men, and old attitudes die hard. Most businesses owned by women are still quite small. But the situation is changing; there are likely to be many more Sandra Kurtzigs in the years ahead.

It can be inferred from the passage that the author believes that business operated by women are small because ___________.

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• When education first reached women, they were _______.

• What does “they” refer to?

• In the United States, Thanksgiving is ______.

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• Who were the subjects of the study?

• The expression get out of hand is closest in meaning to_________.

• The Asiatic lion ............

• The word “they” in bold in paragraph 2 refers to ...............

• The word “means” in the passage most closely means ______.

• The word “reluctant” in the third paragraph can best be replaced by ............

• The phrase “casts off” is closest in meaning to ..........

• The word “it” refers to __________.

• Nowadays, there are ...............

• According to the passage, today’s Thanksgiving ..........

• Who called the apelike creatures 'Sasquatch'?

• M.L. was ................. by the atmosphere in which he grew up.

• The word “them” means .......

• In what year did Melville’s book about his experiences as a cabin boy appear?

• The word “flawed” in line 14 is closest in meaning to .............

• When we apologize, ..............

• It can be inferred from the passage that if a person remembers a piece of information for two days, this is probably ............