Passage One
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.
In 1985 when a Japan Air Lines (JAL) jet crashed, its president, Yasumoto Takagi, called each victim’s family to apologize, and then promptly resigned. And in 1987, when a subsidiary of Toshiba sole sensitive military technology to the former Soviet Union, the chairman of Toshiba gave up his post.
These executive actions, which Toshiba calls “the highest form of apology,” may seem bizarre to US managers. No one at Boeing resigned after the JAL crash, which may have been caused by a faulty Boeing repair.
The difference between the two business cultures centers around different definitions of delegation.
While US executives give both responsibility and authority to their employees, Japanese executives delegate only authority—the responsibility is still theirs. Although the subsidiary that sold the sensitive technology to the Soviets had its own management, the Toshiba top executives said they “must take personal responsibility for not creating an atmosphere throughout the Toshiba group that would make such activity unthinkable, even in an independently run subsidiary.”
Such acceptance of community responsibility is not unique to businesses in Japan. School principals in Japan have resigned when their students committed major crimes after school hours.
Even if they do not quit, Japanese executives will often accept primary responsibility in other ways, such as taking the first pay cut when a company gets into financial trouble. Such personal sacrifices, even if they are largely symbolic, help to create the sense of community and employee loyalty that is crucial to the Japanese way of doing business.
Harvard Business School professor George Lodge calls the ritual acceptance of blame “almost a feudal (封建的) way of purging (清除) the community of dishonor,” and to some in the United States, such resignations look cowardly. However, in an era in which both business and governmental leaders seem particularly good at evading responsibility, many US managers would probably welcome an infusion (灌输) of the Japanese sense of responsibility. If, for instance, US automobile company executives offered to reduce their own salaries before they asked their workers to take pay cuts, negotiations would probably take on a very different character.
21. Why did the chairman of Toshiba resign his position in 1987?
A) Because in Japan, the leakage of a state secret to Russians is a grave crime.
B) Because he had been under attack for shifting responsibility to his subordinates.
C) Because in Japan, the chief executive of a corporation is held responsible for the mistake made by its subsidiaries.
D) Because he had been accused of being cowardly towards crises that were taking place in his corporation.（C）
22. According to the passage if you want to be a good manager in Japan, you have to ________.
A) apologize promptly for your subordinates’ mistakes
B) be skillful in accepting blames from customers
C) make symbolic sacrifices whenever necessary
D) create a strong sense of company loyalty（A）
23. What’s Professor George Lodge’s attitude towards the resignations of Japanese corporate leaders?
A) Sympathetic.
B) Biased.
C) Critical.
D) Approving.（C）
24. Which of the following statements is TRUE?
A) Boeing had nothing to do with the JAL air crash in 1985.
B) American executives consider authority and responsibility inseparable.
C) School principals bear legal responsibility for students’ crimes.
D) Persuading employees to take pay cuts doesn’t help solve corporate crises.（B）
25. The passage is mainly about ________.
A) resignation as an effective way of dealing with business crises
B) the importance of delegating responsibility to employees
C) ways of evading responsibility in times of crises
D) the difference between two business cultures
Passage Two
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
As machines go, the car is not terribly noisy, nor terribly polluting, nor terribly dangerous; and on all those dimensions it has become better as the century has grown older. The main problem is its prevalence, and the social costs that ensue from the use by everyone of something that would be fairly harmless if, say, only the rich were to use it. It is a price we pay for equality.
Before becoming too gloomy, it is worth recalling why the car has been arguably the most successful and popular product of the whole of the past 100 years—and remains so. The story begins with the environmental improvement it brought in the 1900s. In New York city in 1900, according to the Car Culture, a 1975 book by J. Flink, a historian, horses deposited 2.5 million pounds of manure (粪) and 60,000 gallons of urine (尿) every day. Every year, the city authorities had to remove an average of 15,000 dead horses from the streets, it made cars smell of roses.
Cars were also wonderfully flexible. The main earlier solution to horse pollution and traffic jams was the electric trolley bus (电车). But that required fixed overhead wires, and rails and platforms, which were expensive, ugly, and inflexible. The car could go from any A to any B, and allowed towns to develop in all directions with low-density housing, rather than just being concentrated along the trolley or rail lines. Rural areas benefited too, for they became less remote.
However, since pollution became a concern in the 1950s, experts have predicted—wrongly—that the car boom was about to end. In his book Mr. Flink argued that by 1973 the American market had become saturated, at one car for every 2.25 people, and so had the markets of Japan and Western Europe (because of land shortages). Environmental worries and diminishing oil reserves would prohibit mass car use anywhere else.
He was wrong. Between 1970 and 1990, whereas America’s population grew by 23%, the number of cars on its roads grew by 60%. There is now one car for every 1.7 people there, one for every 2.1 in Japan, one for every 5.3 in Britain. Around 550 million cars are already on the roads, not to mention all the trucks and mocorcyeles, and about 50 million new ones are made each year worldwide. Will it go on? Undoubtedly, because people want it to.
26. As is given in the first paragraph, the reason why the car has become a problem is that ________.
A) poor people can’t afford it
B) it is too expensive to maintain
C) too many people are using it
D) it causes too many road accidents（B）
27. According to the passage, the car started to gain popularity because ________.
A) it didn’t break down as easily as a horse
B) it had a comparatively pleasant odor
C) it caused less pollution than horses
D) it brightened up the gloomy streets（C）
28. What impact did the use of cars have on society?
A) People were compelled to leave downtown areas.
B) People were able to live in less crowded suburban areas.
C) Business along trolley and rail lines slackened.
D) City streets were free of ugly overhead wires.（B）
29. Mr. Flink argued in his book that cars would not be widely used in other countries because ________.
A) the once booming car market has become saturated
B) traffic jams in those countries are getting more and more serious
C) expensive motorways are not available in less developed countries
D) people worry about pollution and the diminishing oil resources（D）
30. What’s wrong with Mr. Flink’s prediction?
A) The use of automobiles has kept increasing worldwide.
B) New generations of cars are virtually pollution free.
C) The population of America has not increased as fast.
D) People’s environmental concerns are constantly increasing.
Passage Three
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.
Crying is hardly an activity encouraged by society. Tears, be they of sorrow, anger, or joy, typically make Americans feel uncomfortable and embarrassed. The shedder of tears is likely to apologize, even when a devastating (毁灭性的) tragedy was the provocation. The observer of tears is likely to do everything possible to put an end to the emotional outpouring. But judging from recent studies of crying behavior, links between illness and crying and the chemical composition of tears, both those responses to tears are often inappropriate and may even be counterproductive.
Humans are the only animals definitely known to shed emotional tears. Since evolution has given rise to few, if any, purposeless physiological responses, it is logical to assume that crying has one or more functions that enhance survival.
Although some observers have suggested that crying is a way to elicit assistance from others (as a crying baby might from its mother), the shedding of tears is hardly necessary to get help. Vocal cries would have been quite enough, more likely than tears to gain attention. So, it appears, there must be something special about tears themselves.
Indeed, the new studies suggest that emotional tears may play a direct role in alleviating stress. University of Minnesota researchers who are studying the chemical composition of tears have recently isolated two important chemicals from emotional tears. Both chemicals are found only in tears that are shed in response to emotion. Tears shed because of exposure to cut onion would contain no such substance.
Researchers at several other institutions are investigating the usefulness of tears as a means of diagnosing human ills and monitoring drugs.
At Tulane University’s Teat Analysis Laboratory Dr. Peter Kastl and his colleagues report that they can use tears to detect drug abuse and exposure to medication (药物), to determine whether a contact lens fits properly of why it may be uncomfortable, to study the causes of “dry eye” syndrome and the effects of eye surgery, and perhaps even to measure exposure to environmental pollutants.
At Columbia University Dr. Liasy Faris and colleagues are studying tears for clues to the diagnosis of diseases away from the eyes. Tears can be obtained painlessly without invading the body and only tiny amounts are needed to perform highly refined analyses.
31. It is known from the first paragraph that ________.
A) shedding tears gives unpleasant feelings to American
B) crying may often imitate people or even result in tragedy
C) crying usually wins sympathy from other people
D) one who sheds tears in public will be blamed（A）
32. What does “both those responses to tears” (Line 5, Para, 1) refer to?
A) Crying out of sorrow and shedding tears for happiness.
B) The embarrassment and unpleasant sensation of the observers.
C) The tear shedder’s apology and the observer’s effort to stop the crying.
D) Linking illness with crying and finding the chemical composition of tears.（C）
33. “Counterproductive” (Lines 5, Para, 1) very probably means “________”.
A) having no effect at all
B) leading to tension
C) producing disastrous impact
D) harmful to health（D）
34. What does the author say about crying?
A) It is a pointless physiological response to the environment.
B) It must have a role to play in man’s survival.
C) It is meant to get attention and assistance.
D) It usually produces the desired effect.（B）
35. What can be inferred from the new studies of tears?
A) Emotional tears have the function of reducing stress.
B) Exposure to excessive medication may increase emotional tears.
C) Emotional tears can give rise to “dry eye” syndrome in some cases.
D) Environmental pollutants can induce the shedding of emotional tears.
Passage Four
Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.
It is no secret among athletes that in order to improve performance you’ve got to work hard.
However, hard training breaks you down and makes you weaker, it is rest that makes you stronger.
Improvement only occurs during the rest period following hard training. This adaptation is accomplished by improving efficiency of the heart and certain systems within the muscle cells.
During recovery periods these systems build to greater levels to compensate for the stress that you have applied. The result is that you are now at a higher level of performance.
If sufficient rest is not included in a training program, imbalance between excess training and inadequate rest will occur, and performance will decline. The “overtraining syndrome (综合症)” is the name given to the collection of emotional, behavioral, and physical symptoms due to overtraining that has persisted for weeks to months. It is marked by cumulative exhaustion that persists even after recovery periods.
The most common symptom is fatigue. This may limit workouts and may be present at rest. The athletes may also become moody, easily imitated, have altered sleep patterns, become depressed, or lose the competitive desire and enthusiasm for the sport. Some will report decreased appetite and weight loss. Physical symptoms include persistent muscular soreness, increased frequency of viral (病毒性的) illnesses, and increased incidence of injuries.
The treatment for the overtraining syndrome is rest. The longer the overtraining has occurred, the more rest required, therefore, early detection is very important. If the overtraining has only occurred for a short period of time (e.g. 3-4 weeks) then interrupting training for 3-5 days is usually sufficient rest. It is important that the factors that lead to overtraining be identified and corrected. Otherwise, the overtraining syndrome is likely to recur. The overtraining syndrome should be considered in any athlete who manifests symptoms of prolonged fatigue and whose performance has leveled off or decreased. It is important to exclude any underlying illness that may be responsible for the fatigue.
36. The first paragraph of the passage tells us that ________.
A) the harder an athlete trains, the better his performance will be
B) rest after vigorous training improves an athlete’s performance
C) strict systematic training is essential to an athlete’s top performance
D) improvement of an athlete’s performance occurs in the course of training（B）
37. By “overtraining” the author means ________.
A) a series of physical symptoms that occur after training
B) undue emphasis on the importance of physical exertion
C) training that is not adequately compensated for by rest
D) training that has exceeded an athlete’s emotional limits（C）
38. What does the passage tell us about the “overtraining” syndrome?
A) It occurs when athletes lose interest in sports.
B) It appears right after a hard training session.
C) The fatigue it results in is unavoidable in the athlete’s training process.
D) It manifests itself in fatigue which lingers even after a recovery period.（D）
39. What does the phrase “level off” (Line 5, Para. 4) most probably mean?
A) Slow down.
B) Become dull.
C) Stop improving.
D) Be on the decline.（C）
40. The author advises at the end of the passage that ________.
A) overtraining syndrome should be treated as a serious illness
B) overtraining syndrome should be prevented before it occurs
C) an athlete with overtraining syndrome should take a lengthy rest
D) illness causing fatigue should not be mistaken for overtraining syndrome
参考答案
21. C 22. A 23. C 24. B 25. D
26. B 27. C 28. B 29. D 30. A
31. A 32. C 33. D 34. B 35. A
36. B 37. C 38. D 39. C 40. D