2014年商务英语考试中级高频率阅读资料10

　　Issues in the recruitment world

　　In the competitive world of investment banking, good senior executives are not easy to find. So what should the industry's hard-pressed directors do when they need to find senior staff? Increasingly, they decide to call in the headhunters. These are busy and profitable times for the recruitment agencies that dominate the world of executive search and selection.

　　(0) .....They needed new people to revitalise their operations, and the result has been a boom in the recruitment market. Pinnacle, a leading recruitment agency, has helped various UK investment banks to rebuild their entire senior management teams. It is hard to overstate the significance of this. (8)............

　　But now everything has changed, and Pinnacle is not the only major player in the field. Some analysts believe that rival recruitment specialists ALT Associates has a larger share of the market. However, there is little doubt that over its 13-year history, Pinnacle and its chairman, Matthew Edwards, have built up an impressive reputation.

　　Edwards estimates that his company controls between 10 and 15 per cent of the headhunting market for senior investment banking jobs in the UK. (9)............Rather, it is the high-calibre jobs and people that Pinnacle deals with that define the company's success. For example, the company was recently commissioned to find a new chairman for NBS Bank, a vacancy that was one of the most talked about in the banking world.

　　Most HR directors recognise that headhunters such as Pinnacle play a valuable role in the recruitment process.(10)............Some are concerned that a few companies, including Pinnacle, have too much power over high-level recruitment.(11)............As Tim Davidson, HR Director at Cawfield Bank, explains, They can be kingmakers. These are the people who decide who gets a future and who doesn't. If Edwards forms a view about an individual, it can affect their ability to get a particular job. That view could just have been formed on a bad day.' (12)............ Final decisions in the selection process are always taken by his clients, he says, whoever they are.

　　The role of headhunters should not be exaggerated. Many companies never use them. But as top executives are hard to find, there will always be a role for people like Matthew Edwards.

　　A Although others may put it lower, it is important to remember that the company's reputation is not based on market share alone.

　　B Their chief worry is that the headhunters can now make or break managerial careers.

　　C According to Edwards, this is a further indication that the way Pinnacle searches for a candidate tends to favour a certain type of manager.

　　D But this acceptance does not mean they are universally happy, either with the state of the market or with Pinnacle's role within it.

　　E Until a few years ago, even the biggest companies were unlikely to use headhunters to fill more than one or two jobs a year.

　　F Edwards objects to this suggestion, claiming that all he does is find candidates and encourage them to apply for a particular post.

　　G A number of big investment banks recently decided to make changes to their management boards after disappointing end-of-year results.

　　《Issues in the recruitment world》，招聘世界里的话题。围绕猎头公司(headhunter)展开，说明了猎头公司的发展和重要性，以及用人单位对猎头公司的一些疑问。第一段引出话题，说现在正是猎头公司占领市场的时候。接下来几段顺序介绍了猎头市场的发展阶段，从起步阶段(第二段的内容)，到逐步发家(第三段)，当中列举了一个猎头公司的情况加以说明(第四段)，然后第五段介绍了用人单位对猎头公司的一些质疑。最后一段是总的概括。做这种题一定要理清文章的逻辑顺序，从整体上把握文章脉络。

　　第八题，第二段的最后一句。第二段是简单引出猎头公司的起步，起步阶段并没有多少公司认识到猎头公司的重要性，就如第八题前面的一句话所说：It is hard to overstate the significance of this。很难高估这个的重要性，也就是说猎头公司的作用并没有被完全的认识到。后面的空格应该相应的填入猎头公司不太被重视的句子。E选项正好满足这个特点：直到几年前，甚至最大的公司都不可能一年利用猎头公司来填补一两个职位。