MBAMBA 联考阅读理解应试教联考阅读理解应试教程程

A Course ofA Course of MBA Reading ComprMBA Reading Comprehensionehension

第五节 理解文章中的举例与引用

为了使自己的观点更有说服力、更加明确，作者常常使用一些具体的实例（包括比喻），或引用名人名言、论断或他人的发现。

作者的目的是借以说明自己的观点。

试题设计者往往以此设计问题，成为提问的焦点。

[ 例 21] 2002 年全国 MBA 入学联考英语试题阅读部分第二篇文章

  Suppose you go into a fruiterer’s shop, wanting an apple – you take up one, and on biting it you find it is sour; you look at it, and see that it is hard and green. You take up another one, and that, too, is hard, green, and sour. The shopman offers you a third; but, before biting it, you examine it, and find that it is hard and green, and you immediately say that you will not have it, as it must be sour, like those that you have already tried.

Nothing can be more simple than that, you think; but if you will take the trouble to analyze and trace out into its logical elements that has been done by the mind, you will be greatly surprised. In the first place you have performed the operation of induction. You find that, in two experiences, hardness and greenness in apples went together with sourness. It was so in the first case, and it was confirmed by the second. True, it is a very small basis, but still it is enough from which to make an induction; you generalized the facts, and you expect to find sourness in apples where you get hardness and greenness. You found upon that a general law, that all hard and green apples are sour; and that, so far as it goes, is a perfect induction. Well, having got your natural law in this way, when you are offered another apple which you find it hard and green, you say, “All hard and green apples are sour; this apple is hard and green; therefore, this apple is sour.” That train of reasoning is what logicians call a syllogism ( 三段论法 ), and has all its various parts and terms – its major premises, its minor premises, and conclusion. And, by the help of further reasoning, which, if drawn out, would have to be exhibited in two or three other syllogisms, you arrive at your final determination. “I will

not have that apple.” So that, you see, you have, in the first place, established a law by induction, and upon that you have founded a deduction, and reasoned out the special particular case.

Well now, suppose, having got your conclusion of the law, that at some times afterwards, you are discussing the qualities of apple with a friend; you will say to him, “It is a very curious thing, but I find that all hard and green apples are sour!” Your friend says to you, “But how do you know that?” You at once apply, “Oh, because I have tried them over and over again, and have always found them to be so.” Well, if we were talking science instead of common sense, we should call that an experimental verification. And, if still opposed, you go further, and say, “I have heard from people. In Somersetshire and Devonshire, where a large number of apples are grown, and in London, where many apples are sold and eaten, that they have observed the same thing. It is also found to be the case in Normandy, and in North America. In short, I find it to be the universal experience of mankind wherever attention has been directed to the subject.” Whereupon, your friend, unless he is a very unreasonable man, agrees with you, and is perhaps he does not know he

believes it, that the more extensive verifications have been made, and results of the same kind arrived at – that the more varied the conditions under which the same results are attained, the more certain is the ultimate conclusion, and he disputes the question no further. He sees that the experiment has been tried under all sorts of conditions, as to time, place, and people, with the same result; and he says with you, therefore, that the law you have laid down must be a good one, and he must believe it.

55. Apples are used ____________.

A.     in order to convince the reader that fruit has no intellect

B.      to illustrate the subject of the passage

C.      to give color to the story

D.     to show how foolish logic is

作者主要想解释逻辑上归纳法（ induction) 和演绎法 (deduction) ，作者没有从理论上来解释什么是归纳法和演绎法，而是通过吃苹果这个例子加以解释。因此问题的答案应是选项 B （阐释文章的主题）。

[ 例 22] 2003 年全国 MBA 入学联考英语试题阅读部分第一篇文章

A little more than a century ago, Michael Faraday, the noted British physicist, managed to gain audience with a group of high government officials, to demonstrate an electrochemical principle, in the hope of gaining support for his work.

After observing the demonstrations closely, one of the officials remarked bluntly, “It’s a fascinating demonstration, young man, but just what practical application will come of this?”

“I don’t know,” replied Faraday, “but I do know that 100 years from now you’ll be taxing them.”

From the demonstration of a principle to the marketing of products derived from that principle is often a long, involved series of steps. The speed and effectiveness with which these steps are taken are closely related to the history of management, the art of getting things done. Just as management applies to the wonders that have evolved from Faraday

and other inventors, so it applied some 4,000 years ago to the working of the great Egyptian and Mesopotamian import and export firms… to Hannibal’s remarkable feat of crossing the Alps in 218 B.C. with 90,000 foot soldiers, 12,000 horsemen and a “conveyor belt” of 40 elephants… or to the early Christian Church, with its world-shaking concepts of individual freedom and equality.

These ancient innovators were deeply involved in the problems of authority, divisions of labor, discipline, unity of command, clarity of direction and the other basic factors that are so meaningful to management today. But the real impetus to management as an emerging profession was the Industrial Revolution. Originating in 18th-century England, it was triggered by a series of classic inventions and new processes; among them John Kay’s flying Shuttle in 1733. James Hargreaves’ Spinning Jenny in 1770, Samuel Crompton’s Mule Spinner in 1779 and Edmud Cartwright’s Power Loom in 1785.

51.The anecdote about Michael Faraday indicates that _____________________.

A.      politicians tax everything

B.      people are skeptical about the values of pure research

C.      government should support scientists

D.     he was rejected by his government

 

[ 例 23] 2003 年全国 MBA 入学联考英语试题阅读部分第二篇文章第一段

By education, I mean the influence of the environment upon the individual to produce a permanent change in the habits of behavior, of thought and of attitude. It is in being thus susceptible ( 容易受影响的 ) to the environment that man differs from the animals, and the higher animals from the lower. The lower animals are influenced by the environment but not in the direction of changing their habits. Their instinctive responses are few and fixed by heredity （遗传；继承） . When transferred to an unnatural situation, such an animal is led astray by its instincts. Thus the “ant-lion” whose instinct implies it to bore into loose sand by pushing backwards with abdomen （腹部） , goes backwards on a plate of glass as soon as danger threatens, and endeavors, with the utmost exertions to bore into it. It knows no other mode of flight, “or if such a lonely animal is engaged upon a chain of actions and is interrupted, it either goes on vainly with the remaining actions (as

useless as cultivating an unsown field) or dies in helpless inactivity”. Thus a net-making spider which digs a burrow and rims it with a bastion（堡垒） of gravel and bits of wood, when removed from a half finished home, will not begin again, though it will continue another burrow, even one made with a pencil.

56. What can be inferred from the example of the ant-lion in the first paragraph?

A.  Instincts of animals can lead to unreasonable reactions in strange situation.

B.  When it is engaged in a chain actions it cannot be interrupted.

C.  Environment and heredity are two supplementary factors in the evolution of insects.

D. Along the lines of evolution heredity becomes less and environment more important.

从以上三篇实考试题来看，要解决根据举例和引用设计的问题，考生的切入点应该放在文章主旨大意、某一段作者所表达的观点或要说明的某个问题上。

掌握了篇章的中心议题、作者的某个观点和说明的要点，就能有把握地解决与举例和引用有关的问题。

第三章 阅读理解测试题型及解题技巧

第一节 测试题型

MBA 阅读理解考试的目的是测试考生通过阅读获取信息的能力，要求既理解准确，又有一定的阅读速度。阅读理解试题的题型主要有以下几类：

1 ）主旨题；

2 ）细节题；

3 ）词语释义题；

4 ）推断题；

5 ）是非判断题；

6 ）判断作者观点和态度题。

1)主旨题

主旨题的提问方式主要有：

 

What is the main idea of the passage?

What is the passage mainly about?

What does the passage mainly discuss?

What is the main point the author makes in the passage?

The passage is mainly about _____________.

The best title for the passage is _______________.

The passage could be entitled ___________.

The passage tells us ____________________.

The main idea of the second paragraph is __________.

What would be the most appropriate title for the passage?

Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

What is the purpose of the passage?

The purpose of the passage is ____________.

Which of the following is the author’s main purpose in the passage?

The article is written to explain ________________.

2)细节题

  细节题一般没有固定出题形式，通常是针对回答 what, which, who, when, where 和  how 内容进行试题设计。常见类型有：

… because ____________.

The reason for … is that ______________.

According to the writer, who (what, where, when) ______________?

In what year _______________?

Why is (are) _______________?

What does the example of … illustrate?

The author wants to prove with the example of … that _____________.

The … example implies that ____________________.

The example of … in the paragraph X is used to ________________.

3)词语释义题

这种题型主要针对文章中的某一个词或词组，甚至某一个句子让考生从所给的四个选项中找出与其意思最接近的选项。出题形式主要有：• What is the possible meaning of the word “_________” in Line X, Paragraph X?

• In Line X, the word “______” probably means ____________.

• In Line X, the phrase “___________” probably means __________.

• Which is the probable definition of the word “____________”.

• The first sentence in the third paragraph tells us that __________________.

• The sentence “______________” in the first paragraph implies that ___________.

4)推断题

推断题是阅读理解中难度最大的题型，试题设计者通常就文章的某一句，某一段或整个篇章提出问题。考生不仅要理解句子表面的意思，还要搞清句与句，段与段之间的逻辑关系，从而做出正确的推论。该题型的出题形式有：

It can be inferred from the passage that _______________.

It can be concluded from the passage that ______________.

The passage implies that ______________.

We can see (infer, conclude, learn) from the passage that ____________.

The author implies that ____________.

The first passage implies that ___________.

What conclusion can be drawn from the passage?

What does the passage suggest?

Which does the second paragraph imply that ___________.

Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

What does the paragraph preceding this one probably discuss?

Where would this paragraph most probably be found?

5)是非判断题

是非判断题的出题形式主要有以下几种：

Which of the following is true according to the writer?

Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?

Which of the following statements is NOT mentioned according to the passage?

Which of the following statements is NOT included in the passage?

All of the following is true EXCEPT _____________.

 

6)判断作者观点和态度题

此类题的问题解答难度较大，要求考生根据文章领会作者的态度和观点。题型主要有：

The author of the passage seems to be ____________.

The author’s attitude towards X is __________.

The author’s attitude towards X may best be summarized as one of the following words.

Which of the following the author is most likely to agree with?

What is the author’s opinion about ______________?

What is the tone of the passage?

The tone of the author can best be described as ______________.

The author of the passage seems to be in favor of the idea of ____________?

第二节 解题技巧

一、主旨题

包括文章主旨大意题和段落主旨题。解题时，

1 ）运用略读法找出文章的主题句或段落主题句；

2 ）详读文章和段落的句首（主题句所在的位置）

（注意：不是所有的主题句都在句首，中间和结尾也有可能）；

3 ）留意最后一段和最后一句话（结论、结果、影响、概括之所在）

4 ）“把握篇章结构”，如一篇议论文可分为演绎性和归纳性。演绎性文章主题句多在句首；归纳性文章主题句通常在段尾；

5 ）如篇章没有明确的主题句，则需要全面理解，总结和归纳文章的中心思想（认真阅读各段首句、尾句）；

6 ）排除问题中的干扰项（干扰项涵盖内容过宽或过窄）；

7 ）主旨题往往处于第一题或最后一题，建议先做其他问题。

[ 例 24] 2000 年全国 MBA 入学联考英语试题阅读部分第一篇文章

In recent years many countries of the world have been faced with the problem of how to make their workers more productive. Some experts claim the answer is to make jobs more varied. But do more varied jobs lead to greater productivity? There is evidence to suggest that while variety certainly makes the workers’ life more enjoyable, it does not actually make them work harder. As far as increasing productivity is concerned, then variety is not an important factor.

Other experts feel that giving the workers freedom to do their jobs in their own way is important and there is no doubt that this is true. The problem is that this kind of freedom cannot easily be given in the modern factory with its complicated machinery which must be used in a fixed way. Thus while freedom of choice may be important, there is usually very little that can be done to create it. Another important consideration is how much each worker contributes to the product he is making. In most of factories employers are now experimenting with having many

small production lines rather than one large one, so that each worker contributes more to the production of the cars on his line. It would seem that not only is degree of worker contribution an important factor, but it is also one we can do something about.

To what extent does more money lead to greater productivity? The workers themselves certainly think this important. But perhaps they want more money only because the work they do is so boring. Money just lets them enjoy their spare time more. A similar argument may explain demands for shorter working hours. Perhaps if we succeed in making their jobs more interesting, they will neither want more money, nor will shorter working hours be so important to them.

 

24. In this passage, the author tells us _______________.

A.      How to make the workers more productive.

B.      Impossible factors leading to greater efficiency

C.      To what extent more money leads to greater productivity.

D.     How to make workers’ jobs more interesting

[ 例 25] 2000 年全国 MBA 入学联考英语试题阅读部分第二篇文章

The Internet can make the news more democratic, giving the public a chance to ask questions and seek out facts behind stories and candidates, according to the head of the largest US on-line service.

“But the greatest potential for public participation is still in the future,” Steve Case, Chairman of America On-line, told a recent meeting on Journalism and the Internet sponsored by the Freedom Forum （讨论会） . However, some other experts often say the new technology of computers is changing the face of journalism, giving reporters access to more information and their readers a chance to ask questions and turn to different sources.

“You don’t have to buy a newspaper and be confined to the four corners of that paper any more,” Sam Meddis, on-line technology editor at USA Today, observed about the variety of information available to computer users.

But the experts noted the easy access to the Internet also means anyone can post information for others to see. “ Anyone can say anything they want, whether it’s right or wrong,” said Case. Readers have to determine for themselves who to trust. “In a world of almost infinite voices, respected journalists and respected brand names will probably become more important, not less,” Case said.

The Internet today is about where radio was 80 years ago, or television 50 years ago or cable 25 years ago, he said. But it is growing rapidly because it provides people with fast access to news and a chance to comment on it.

25. The main topic of this passage is _________________.

A.      the development of journalism

B.      the rapid development of the Internet

C.      the effect the Internet has on journalism

D.     the advantages of the Internet

[ 例 26] 2001 年全国 MBA 入学联考英语试题阅读部分第三篇文章

Internet is a vast network of computers that connects many of the world’s businesses, institutions, and individuals. The Internet, which means interconnected network of networks, links tens of thousands of smaller computer networks. These networks transmit huge amounts of information in the form of words, images, and sounds.

The Internet has information on virtually every topic. Network users can search through sources ranging from vast databases to small electronic “bulletin boards”, where users form discussion groups around common interests. Much of the Internet’s traffic consists of messages sent from one computer user to another. These messages are called electronic mail or e-mail. Internet users have electronic addresses that allow them to send and receive e-mail. Other users of the network include obtaining news, joining electronic debates, and playing electronic games. One feature of the Internet, known as the World Wide Web, provides graphics, audio, and video to enhance the information in its documents. These documents cover a vast number of topics.

People usually access the Internet with a device called a modem. Modems connect computers to the network through telephone lines. Much of the Internet operates through worldwide telephone networks of fiber-optic cables. These cables contain hair-thin strands of glass that carry data as pulses of light. They can transmit thousands of times more data than local phone lines, most of which consist of copper wires.

The history of the Internet began in the 1960’s. At that time, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the United States Department of Defense developed a network of computers called ARPAnet. Originally, ARPAnet connected only military and government computer systems. Its purpose was to make these systems secure in the event of a disaster or war. Soon after the creation of ARPAnet, universities and other institutions developed their own computer networks. These networks eventually were merged with ARPAnet to form the Internet. By the 1990’s anyone with a computer, modem, and Internet software could link up to the Internet.

In the future, the Internet will probably grow more sophisticated as computer technology becomes more powerful. Many experts believe the Internet may become part of a larger network called the information superhighway. This network, still under development, would link computers with telephone companies, cable television stations, and other communication systems. People could bank, shop, watch TV, and perform many other activities through the network.

39. This passage is about the ____________ of the Internet.

A. future B. general introduction

C. use D. history

 

[ 例 27] 2002 年全国 MBA 入学联考英语试题阅读部分第一篇文章

Shoppers who have flocked to online stores for their holiday shopping are losing privacy with every mouse click, according to a new report.

The study by the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center scrutinized （仔细审查） privacy policies on 100 of the most popular online shopping sites and compared those policies with a set of basic privacy principles that have come to be known as “fair information practices.”

The group found that none of the 100 sites met all of the basic criteria for privacy protection, which include giving notice of what information is collected and how it is used, offering consumers a choice over whether the information will be used in certain ways, allowing access to data that give consumers a chance to see and correct the information collected, and instituting the kind of security measures that ensure that information won’t fall into the wrong hands.

“This study shows that somebody else, other than Santa, is reading your Christmas list,” said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Media Education, which also worked on the survey.

The online privacy of children is protected by Federal Trade Commission rules, but adults do not share the same degree of privacy protection. The government, like the online shopping industry, favors self-regulation over imposition of further government restrictions on electronic commerce.

Marc Rosenberg, executive director of the privacy group, said the study showed that self-regulations had failed. “We need legislation to enforce fair information practices,” he said, “Consumers are at greater risk than they were in 1997,” when the group released its first report.

The survey also asked whether the 100 sites used “profile-based” advertising, and whether the sites incorporate “cookies” technology, which gives Web sites basic information on visitors. Profiling is the practice of gathering information about consumers’ interests by tracing their movements online. The information is then used to create targeted

advertising on Web sites.

All but 18 of the top shopping sites did display a privacy policy, a major improvement over the early days of electronic commerce, when such policies were scarce. But that did not satisfy the privacy group: “Companies are posting privacy policies, but these policies are not the same thing as fair information practices,” Rosenberg said.

The sites also did not perform well by other measures, the group said. It found that 35 of the sites feature profile-based advertising, and 87 percent use cookies. The group concluded that the policies that were posted “are typically confusing, incomplete, and inconsistent.” The report, “Surfer Beware III: Privacy Policies Without Privacy Protection,” is the third such survey by the group. It called for further development of technologies that help consumers protect their privacy and even anonymity when exploring the Internet.

54. What does the passage mainly talk about?

A.      Marc Rosenberg’s study on self-regulation.

B.      Some online problems found by a privacy group’s study.

C.      Adults and children are different.

D.     Online security measures.

[ 例 28] 2003 年全国 MBA 入学联考英语试题阅读部分第二篇文章

By education, I mean the influence of the environment upon the individual to produce a permanent change in the habits of behavior, of thought and of attitude. It is in being thus susceptible ( 容易受影响的 ) to the environment that man differs from the animals, and the higher animals from the lower. The lower animals are influenced by the environment but not in the direction of changing their habits. Their instinctive responses are few and fixed by heredity ( 遗传；继承 ). When transferred to an unnatural situation, such an animal is led astray by its instincts. Thus the “ant-lion” whose instinct implies it to bore into loose sand by pushing backwards with abdomen ( 腹部 ), goes backwards on a plate of glass as soon as danger threatens, and endeavors, with the utmost exertions to bore into it. It knows no other mode of flight, “or if such a lonely animal is engaged upon a chain of actions and is interrupted, it either goes on vainly with the remaining actions (as useless as cultivating an unsown field) or dies in helpless inactivity”. Thus a net-making spider which digs a burrow and rims it with a bastion( 堡垒 ) of gravel and bits of wood, when removed from a half finished home, will not begin again,

though it will continue another burrow, even one made with a pencil.

Advance in the scale of evolution along such lines as these could only be made by the emergence of creatures with more and more complicated instincts. Such beings we know in the ants and spiders. But another line of advance was destined to open out a much more far-reaching possibility of which we do not see the end perhaps even in man. Habits, instead of being born ready-made (when they are called instincts and not habits at all) were left more and more to the formative influence of the environment, of which the most important factor was the parent who now cared for the young animal during a period of infancy in which vaguer instincts than those of the insects were molded to suit surroundings which might be considerably changed without harm.

This means, one might at first imagine, that gradually heredity becomes less and environment more important. But this is hardly the truth and certainly not the whole truth. For although fixed automatic responses like those of the insect-like creatures are no longer inherited, although selection for purification of that sort is no longer going on, yet

selection for educability is very definitely still of importance. The ability to acquire habits can be conceivably inherited just as much as can definite responses to narrow situations. Besides, since a mechanism – is now, for the first time, created by which the individual (in contradiction to the species) can be fitted to the environment, the latter becomes, in another sense, less not more important. And finally, less not the higher animals who possess the power of changing their environment by engineering feats and the like, a power possessed to some extent even by the beaver ( 海狸 ), and preeminently (卓越地 ) by man. Environment and heredity are in no case exclusive but always supplementary factors.

55. Which of the following is the most suitable title for the passage?

A.      The Evolution of Insects

B.      Environment and Heredity

C.      Education: The Influence of the Environment

D.     The Instincts of Animals

二、细节题

细节题主要是针对文章中的某个局部进行命题。

细节题的出题顺序一般与文章的结构排列一致（也有例外），做题时，按照文章的文脉找答案。

解题步骤：

1 ）寻标。找出题干或各选项中的“路标”词或词组。

“路标”词包括：专有名词、阿拉伯数字、黑体字、括号中的词语等。

如果没有“路标”词，就要在题干中寻找关键词（一般是名词或名词词组）。

2 ）定位。通过查读法将确定好的“路标”词或关键词在文章中定位，确定答题范围。

3 ）匹配。当在文章中找到“路标”词或关键词后，立即停止搜索，将各选项一一与文章定位的内容进行匹配，排除与文章不符的或文章没有的选项，选出与文章相符的选项。

注意：

1 ）答案必须是文章明确指出或可以从文章的逻辑关系中推断出来的选项，不能选择根据自己的经验或常识判断出来的选项。

2 ）正确答案往往是文章某个词或词组的同义替换，与原文用词相同，句法大概一致的选项一般不是答案。

3 ）细节题（包括涉及细节的是非判断题）的选项一般集中在文章的某一处，选项的内容一般呈并列状态。

[ 例 29] 2001 年全国 MBA 入学联考英语试题阅读部分第一篇文章

The stability of the U.S. banking system is maintained by means of supervision and regulation, inspections, deposit insurance, and loans to troubled banks. For over 50 years, these precautions have prevented banking panics. However, there have been some close calls. The collapse of Continental Illinois Bank & Trusted Company of Chicago in 1984 did not bring down the banking system, but it certainly rattled some windows.

In the late 1970s, Continental soared to a leadership position among Midwestern banks. Parts of its growth strategy were risky, however. It made many loans in the energy field, including $1 billion that it took over from Penn Square Bank of Oklahoma City. To obtain the funds it needed to make these loans, Continental relied heavily on short-term borrowing from other banks and large, 30-day certificates of deposit – “hot money”, in banking jargon. At least one Continental officer saw danger signs and wrote a warning memo to her superiors, but the memo went unheeded. Although the Comptroller of the Currency inspected

Continental on a regular basis, it failed to see how serious its problems were going to be.

Penn Square Bank was closed by regulators in July 1982. When energy prices began to slip, most of the $1 billion in loans that Continental had taken over from the smaller banks turned out to be bad. Other loans to troubled companies such as Chrysler, International Harvester, and Braniff looked questionable. Seeing these problems, “hot money” owners began to pull their funds out of Continental.

By the spring of 1984, a run on Continental had begun. In May, the bank had to borrow $3.5 billion from the Fed to replace overnight funds it had lost. But this was not enough. To try to stem the outflow of deposits from Continental, the FDIC agreed to guarantee not just the first $100,000 of each depositor’s money but all of it. Nevertheless, the run continued.

Federal regulators tried hard to find a sound bank that could take over Continental – a common way of rescuing failing banks. But Continental was just too big for anyone to buy. By July, all hope of a private sector

rescue was dashed. Regulators faced a stark choice: Let Continental collapse or take it over themselves.

Letting the bank fail seemed too risky. It was estimated that more than 100 other banks had placed enough funds in Continental to put them at risk if Continental failed. Thus, on a rainy Thursday at the end of July, the FDIC in effect nationalized Continental Illinois at a cost of $4.5 billion. This kept the bank’s doors open and prevented a chain reaction. However, in all but a technical sense. Continental had become the biggest bank failure in U.S. history.

31. In the spring of 1984, Continental experienced ____________.

A. a fast growth period B. a stability period

C. a run D. an oil price

32. By July, all hope of a private sector rescue was ___________.

A. destroyed B. absurd

C. desperate D. damaged

34. Banking panics may be prevented by means of ____________.

A. deposit insurance B. growth strategy

C. long-term borrowing D. warning memo

 

[ 例 30] 2002 年全国 MBA 入学联考英语试题阅读部分第四篇文章

 

The term corporate culture refers to an organization’s value system. Managerial philosophies, workplace practices, and organizational network are included in the concept of corporate culture. Tyson Food’s corporate culture is reflected in the fact that everyone – even CEO Don Tyson – wears tan work clothes on the job.

The corporate culture is typically shaped by the leaders who developed the company and by those who succeed them. One generation of employees passes on a corporate culture to newer employees. Sometimes this is part of formal training; new managers who attend McDonald’s Hamburger University may learn skills in management, but they also pick up the basics of the organization’s corporate culture. Employees can absorb corporate culture through informal contacts as well, by talking with other workers and through their experiences on the job.

Corporate culture has a major impact on the success of an organization. In organizations with strong culture, everyone knows and supports the organizations’ objectives. In those with weak cultures, no clear sense of purpose exists. In fact, the authors of the classic book In Search of Excellence concluded the presence of a strong corporate culture was the single common thread among many diverse but highly successful companies such as General Electric and McDonald’s.

As you can imagine, changing a company’s corporate culture can be very difficult. But some managers try to do just that when they feel the current culture is weak, or when the organization’s objectives change and the old culture no longer fits. Sometimes the competitive situation of a company changes; electric utilities, which once had their profits guaranteed by public regulation, now face capitalist-style competition. Firms that were comfortably competing against other American companies now find themselves fighting competitors from overseas, too.

Management expert Peter Drucker feels that, rather than trying to change culture, managers should focus on changing employees’ habits, as follows:

   Define what results are needed. Specify in measurable terms what the organization (or department, or office) needs to achieve.

    Determine where these results are already being achieved within the current organization. Analyze the departments that are already effective. Find out what they are doing differently from the rest.

   Determine what top management can do to encourage these good results. Drucker suggests that executives openly ask what they can do to help, and then do it.

   Change the reward system – or develop a new one – to recognize these effective habits. When employees realize that the organization really does reward the new approach, they will adopt it much more quickly.

Whether one wants to change an organization’s culture or not, it is important to choose managers and employees whose personal styles fit the organizations’ goals.

64. According to Peter Drucker, when changing employees’ habits, a manager should ___________.

A.  first determine which parts of the organization best meet the corporate culture

B.    first determine what is to be achieved by the corporation

C.  reward all the employees that best know the organization’s corporate culture

D.    restructure the organization

65. According to the passage, in McDonald’s Hamburger University, ____________.

A.  new managers, learn the organization’s corporate culture at length

B. new managers have the chances to know about the organization’s corporate culture

C. new managers spend more time in studying the organization’s corporate culture rather than management skills

D. new managers are usually more interested in learning the management skills

[ 例 31] 2003 年全国 MBA 入学联考英语试题阅读部分第三篇文章第一、二段

 

One of the saddest things about the period in which we live is the growing estrangement(疏远 ) between America and Europe. This may be a surprising discovery to those who are over impressed by the speed with which turbojets can hop from New York to Paris. But to anyone who is aware of what America once meant to English libertarian poets and philosophers, to the young Ibises bitterly excoriating (痛斥 ) European royalty for the murder of Lincoln, to Italian novelists and poets translating the nineteenth century American classics as a demonstration against Fascism, there is something particularly disquieting in the way that the European Left, historically “pro-American” because it identified America with expansive democracy, now punishes America with Europe’s lack of hope in the future.

Although America has obviously not fulfilled the visionary hope entertained for it in the romantic heyday, Americans have, until recently, thought of themselves as an idea, a “proposition” (in Lincoln’s word) set up for the enlightenment and the improvement of mankind. Officially, we live by our original principles; we insist on this boastfully and even inhumanly. And it is precisely this steadfastness to principle that irks ( 使苦恼，使厌烦 ) Europeans who under so many pressures have had to shift and to change, to compromise and to retreat.

60. The writer states that, until recently, Americans thought of their country as a ____________.

A.      source of enlightenment

B.      leader in technological progress

C.      recipient of European heritage

D.     peacemaker

美国人认为自己是一种“思想”或用林肯的话讲，是一个“主张”，这些“思想”、“主张”是为人类启蒙和改善人类生存状况而提出的。

[ 例 32] 2003 年全国 MBA 入学联考英语试题阅读部分第四篇文章前四段

The truly incompetent may never know the depths of their own incompetence, a pair of social psychologists said on Thursday.

“We found again and again that people who perform poorly relative to their peers (同等人 ) tended to think that they did rather well.” Justin Kruger, co-author of a study on the subject, said in a telephone interview.

Kruger and co-author David Dunning found that when it came to a variety of skills – logical reasoning, grammar, even sense of humor – people who essentially were inept (无能的；愚蠢的 ) never realized it, while those who had some ability were self-critical.

It had little to do with innate modesty, Kruger said, but rather with a central paradox: Incompetents lack the basic skills to evaluate their performance realistically. Once they get those skills, they know where they stand, even if that is at the bottom.

63. Why do incompetent people rarely know they are inept?

A.   They are too inept to know what competence is.

B.  They are not skillful at logical reasoning, grammar, and sense of humor.

C.  They lack the basic skills to evaluate their performance realistically.

D.    They have some ability to overcriticize themselves.