Although Thomas Edison created the technologies behind three major 21st century industries electrical power，recorded music and movies—his greatest invention may have been the modern method of inventing．He basically came up with the modern system of research and development．Edison was not the only scientist doing research in his garage but someone who gathered around him a team of creative scientific minds．Edison’s 1aboratories were the forerunners（先驱）of Apple，Google and Microsoft．
Yet for a11 his scientific gifts，he was no Steve Jobs or Bill Gates．He once said，“Anything that won’ t sell，I don’ t want to invent．” But Edison，unlike Jobs or Gates，had no real sense of what the public wanted or how to change his discoveries into products that might sell．It took him years to understand that the phonograph（留声机）was not a business tool but an entertainment invention．He helped create movies but resisted the idea that people might want to go into a theater to watch one．
We chose Edison this year because we need his example now more than ever．Though we live in a time of great reformation，the U．S．is in danger of losing its advantage in science and technology．American investment（投资）in research and development has not increased as a percentage of GDP since the mid一1980s，while the government’ s share has been dropping．And this is at a time when China is rapidly increasing its money on research and development．The U．S．was once among the 1eading nations．Now it ranks near the bottom of the 23 nations that collect such data．We hope that Edison’ s story might not only encourage reformation but also inspire more
young Americans to study science and engineering．
小题1:The first paragraph is mainly about .
A．the number of Edison’ s great inventions
B．Edison’ s special personal characters
C．Edi son’ s modern system of research
D．Apple．Google and Microsoft and their forerunners小题2:Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A．A11 the things Edison invented sold well．
B．Edison wanted to invent things that sold well．
C．Edison’ s inventions were not valuable for being unpopular．
D．Edison had a gift for changing his discoveries into best sellers.小题3:The author’ s main purpose is to ．
A．inform US of the danger the USA is in
B．get young Americans to study science
C．be in honor of Edison for his contributions
D．tell US how important Edison’ s inventions are小题4:We can infer from the text that ．
A．the USA is no 10nger advanced in science and technology
B．the USA falls behind China in research and inventions
C．more and more young Americans will be interested in science
D．China is spending more and more money on research and development
