自学考试《商务英语阅读》随堂试题及答案

　　In this part, there are some reading passages followed by 5 questions or unfinished statements each. For each of them there are four answers marked A, B, C and D. You should decide on the best one according to your understanding.

　　Passage One

　　Bill Gates, the billionaire Microsoft chairman without a single earned university degree, is by his success raising new doubts about the worth of the business world’s favorite academic title: the MBA (Master of Business Administration).

　　The MBA, a 20th-century product, always has borne the mark of lowly commerce and greed (贪婪) on the tree-lined campuses ruled by purer disciplines such as philosophy and literature.

　　But even with the recession apparently cutting into the hiring of business school graduates, about 79,000 people are expected to receive MBAs in 1993. This is nearly 16 times the number of business graduates in 1960, a testimony (宣言) to the widespread assumption that the MBA is vital for young men and women who want to run companies some day.

　　“If you are going into the corporate world it is still a disadvantage not to have one,” said Donald Morrison, professor of marketing and management science. “But in the last five years or so, when someone says, ‘Should I attempt to get an MBA,’ the answer a lot more is: It depends.”

　　The success of Bill Gates and other non-MBAs, such as the late Sam Walton of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., has helped inspire self-conscious debates on business school campuses over the worth of a business degree and whether management skills can be taught.

　　The Harvard Business Review printed a lively, fictional exchange of letters to dramatize complaints about business degree holders.

　　The article called MBA hires “extremely disappointing” and said “MBAs want to move up too fast, they don’t understand politics and people, and they aren’t able to function as part of a team until their third year. But by then, they’re out looking for other jobs.”

　　The problem, most participants in the debate acknowledge, is that the MBA has acquired an aura (光环) of future riches and power far beyond its actual importance and usefulness.

　　Enrollment in business schools exploded in the 1970s and 1980s and created the assumption that no one who pursued a business career could do without one. The growth was fueled by a backlash (反冲) against the anti-business values of the 1960s and by the women’s movement.

　　Business people who have hired or worked with MBAs say those with the degrees often know how to analyze systems but are not so skillful at motivating people. “They don’t get a lot of grounding in the people side of the business,” said James Shaffer, vice-president and principal of the Towers Per-fin management consulting firm.

　　1. According to Paragraph 2, what is the general attitude towards business on campuses dominated by purer disciplines?A

　　A. Scornful

　　B. Appreciative.

　　C. Envious.

　　D. Realistic.

　　2. It seems that the controversy (争辩) over the value of MBA degrees has been fueled mainly by ______.B

　　A. the complaints from various employers

　　B. the success of many non-MBAs

　　C. the criticism from the scientists of purer disciplines

　　D. the poor performance of MBAs at work

　　3. What is the major weakness of MBA holders according to The Harvard Business Review?D

　　A. They are usually serf-centered.

　　B. They are aggressive and greedy.

　　C. They keep complaining about their jobs.

　　D. They are not good at dealing with people.

　　4. From the passage we know that most MBAs ______.D

　　A. can climb the corporate ladder fairly quickly

　　B. quit their jobs once they are familiar with their workmates

　　C. receive salaries that do not match their professional training

　　D. cherish unrealistic expectations about their future

　　5. What is the passage mainly about?C

　　A. Why there is an increased enrollment in MBA programs.

　　B. The necessity of reforming MBA programs in business schools.

　　C. Doubts about the worth of holding an MBA degree.

　　D. A debate held recently on university campuses.

　　Passage Two

　　The relationship between the home and market economies had gone through two distinct stages. Early industrialization began the process of transferring some production processes (e. g. cloth-making, sewing and canning foods) from the home to the marketplace. Although the home economy could still produce these goods, the processes were laborious and the market economy was usually more efficient. Soon the more important second stage was evident --the marketplace began producing goods and services that had never been produced by the home economy, and the home economy was unable to produce them (e. g. electricity and electrical appliances, the automobile, advanced education, sophisticated medical care). In the second stage, the question of whether the home economy was less efficient in producing these new goods and services was irrelevant; if the family were to enjoy these fruits of industrialization, they would have to be obtained in the marketplace. The traditional ways of taking care of these needs in the home such as in nursing the sick, became unacceptable (and, in most serious cases, probably less successful). Just as the appearance of the automobile made the use of the horse drawn carriage illegal and then impractical, and the appearance of television changed the radio from a source of entertainment to a source of background music, so most of the fruits of economic growth did not increase the options available to the home economy to either produce the goods or services or purchase them in the market. Growth brought with it increased variety in consumer goods, but not increased flexibility for the home economy in obtaining these goods and services. Instead, economic growth brought with it increased consumer reliance on the marketplace. In order to consume these new goods and services, the family had to enter the marketplace as wage earners and consumers. The neoclassical (新古典主义的) model that views the family as deciding whether to produce goods and services directly or to purchase them in the marketplace is basically a model of the first stage. It cannot accurately be applied to the second (and current) stage.

　　6. The reason why many production processes were taken over by the marketplace was that ______.D

　　A. it was a necessary step in the process of industrialization

　　B. they depended on electricity available only to the market economy

　　C. it was troublesome to produce such goods in the home

　　D. the marketplace was more efficient with respect to these processes

　　7. It can be seen from the passage that in the second stage ______.B

　　A. some traditional goods and services were not successful when provided by the home economy

　　B. the market economy provided new goods and services never produced by the home economy

　　C. producing traditional foods at home became socially never produced by the home economy

　　D. whether new goods and services were produced by the home economy became irrelevant

　　8. During the second stage, if the family wanted to consume new goods and services, they had to enter the marketplace ______.C

　　A. as wage earners

　　B. both as manufacturers and consumers

　　C. both as workers and purchasers

　　D. as customers

　　9. Economic growth did not make it more flexible for the home economy to obtain the new goods and services because ______.C

　　A. the family was not efficient in production

　　B. it was illegal for the home economy to produce them

　　C. it could not supply them by itself

　　D. the market for these goods and services was limited

　　10. The neoclassical model is basically a model of the first stage, because at this stage ______.A

　　A. The family could rely either on the home economy or the marketplace for the needed goods and services.

　　B. many production processes were being transferred to the marketplace

　　C. consumers relied more and more on the market economy

　　D. the family could decide how to transfer production processes to the marketplace

　　Passage Three

　　As is known to all, the organization and management of wages and salaries are very complicated. Generally speaking, the Account Department is responsible for calculations of pay, while the Personnel Department is interested in discussions with the employees about pay.

　　If a firm wants to adopt a new wage and salary structure, it is essential that the firm should decide on a method of job evaluation and ways of measuring the performance of its employees. In order to be successful, that new pay structure will need agreement between Trade Unions and employers.

　　In job evaluation, all of the requirements of each job are defined in a detailed job description. Each of those requirements is given a value, generally in “points”, which are added together to give a total value for the job. For middle and higher management, a special method is used to evaluate managers on their knowledge of the job, their responsibility, and their ability to solve problems. Because of the difficulty in measuring management work, however, job grades for managers are often decided without reference to an evaluation system based on points.

　　In attempting to design a pay system, the Personnel Department should compare the value of each job with those in the job market. It should also consider economic factors such as the cost of living and the labor supply.

　　It is necessary that payment for a job should vary with any distinctions in the way that job is performed. Where it is simple to measure the work done, as in the work done with the hands, monetary encouragement schemes are often chosen; for indirect workers, where measurement is difficult, methods of additional payments are employed.

　　11. If a company wants its new pay structure to be successful, it is necessary to _______.B

　　A. give the workers extra pay to encourage them

　　B. share the same opinion between the Trade Union and the employers

　　C. consult some problems associated with pay

　　D. adopt a special way to evaluate the performance of its employees

　　12. The methods of additional payments are adopted for indirect workers because __________.C

　　A. they don't have a higher pay

　　B. the firm hasn't enough fund

　　C. the measurement of their work is very difficult

　　D. their work is less important than that of other workers

　　13. What should a firm consider in designing a new pay system?D

　　A. The value of each job alone.

　　B. The method of calculating the pay.

　　C. The requirements of each job.

　　D. The labor supply and the cost of living.

　　14. It can be inferred from the passage that _______.B

　　A. only the Accounts Department is involved in the management of salaries

　　B. different job performances should be given different payments

　　C. an evaluation system based on points is usually used to measure management work

　　D. evaluating management work makes no difference from other work

　　15. The main purpose of this passage is to _______.C

　　A. explain how the performance of a job can be measured in points

　　B. describe the responsibilities of various departments

　　C. tell readers how a firm can succeed in adopting a new pay system

　　D. tell readers how difficult the management work is