The American economic system is organized around a basically private-enterprise, market-oriented economy in which consumers largely determine what shall be produced by spending their money in the marketplace for those goods and services that they want most. Private businessmen, striving to make profits, produce these goods and services in competition with other businessmen; and the profit motive, operating under competitive pressures, largely determines how these goods and services are produced. (47)Thus, in the American economic system it is the demand of individual consumers, coupled with the desire of businessmen to maximize profits and the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes that together determine what shall be produced and how resources are used to produce it.
(48)An important factor in a market-oriented economy is the mechanism by which consumer demands can be expressed and responded to by producers. In the American economy, this mechanism is provided by a price system, a process in which prices rise and fall in response to relative demands of consumers and supplies offered by seller-producers. If the product is in short supply relative to the demand, the price will be bid up and some consumers will be eliminated from the market. (49)If, on the other hand, producing more of a commodity results in reducing its cost, this will tend to increase the supply offered by seller-producers, which in turn will lower the price and permit more consumers to buy the product. Thus, price is the regulating mechanism in the American economic system.
The important factor in a private-enterprise economy is that individuals are allowed to own productive resources (private property), and they are permitted to hire labor, gain control over natural resources, and produce goods and services for sale at a profit. (50)In the American economy, the concept of private property embraces not only the ownership of productive resources but also certain rights, including the right to determine the price of a product or to make a free contract with another private individual.
参考答案：[译文] 因此，在美国的经济体系中，个体消费者的需求，加上商人追求利润最大化的欲望和消费者个人对收入最大化的欲望，一起决定了厂家应该生产什么和如何利用资源来进行生产。
解析： 本句是一个强调句，主干是it is...that...，被强调的部分有三个：the demand of individual consumers，the desire of businessmen to maximize profits和the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes，其中coupled with和and起连接作用。在that引导的部分中，determine作谓语，后面的两个宾语从句what shall be produced和how resources are used to produce it都是determine的宾语。
[词汇] individual consumers(个体消费者)，这里individual用作形容词，是个体的，个人的。individual也可以用作名词，表示个人，个体，后面的individuals就是名词用法。maximize使……最大化，反义词为minimize将……最小化。
| 可接受的翻译 | 不可接受的翻译 |
| the demand of individual consumers：个体消费者的需求 | the demand of individual consumers：一个消费者的要求 |
| coupled with：加上，外加 | coupled with：成双成对的 |
| maximize：使……最大化 | maximize：取得 |
例1：因此，在美国的经济体系中，个体消费者的需求，加上商人追求利润最大化的欲望和消费者个人对收入最大化的欲望，一起决定了厂家应该生产什么和如何利用资源来进行生产。
例2：这样，在美国的经济系统中，个人消费者的要求，商人追求利润最大化的愿望和消费者个人对收入最大化的愿望，共同决定了应该生产什么和如何使用资源生产。
例3：这样，在美国的经济系统中，一个消费者的要求，商人最大化利润的想法和个人最大化收入的想法，合起来决定了什么应该被生产和如何使用资源生产。
例4：这样，在美国经济系统中，它是一个消费者的要求，成双成对的商人的想法最大化利润和个人的想法最大化他们的收入，决定了什么应该被生产和怎样资源被利用来生产它。
例5：这样，在美国经济系统中，它是一个消费者的要求，成双成对的商人的想法取得利润和个人的想法取得他们的收入决定了什么应该被生产和怎样资源被利用来生产它。
