商务英语阅读试卷

商务英语阅读试卷 一、 阅读理解Reading comprehension(每题2分，共20分) A、In many ways, today’s business environment has changed qualitatively since the late 1980s. The end of the Cold War radically altered the very nature of the world’s politics and economics. In just a few short years, globalization has started a variety of trends with profound consequences: the opening of markets, true global competition, widespread deregulation (解除政府对„„的控制) of industry, and an abundance of accessible capital. We have experienced both the benefits and risks of a truly global economy, with both Wall Street and Main Street (平民百姓) feeling the pains of economic disorder half a world away. At the same time, we have fully entered the Information Age, Starting breakthroughs in information technology have irreversibly altered the ability to conduct business unconstrained by the traditional limitations of time or space. Today, it’s almost impossible to imagine a world without intranets, e-mail, and portable computers. With stunning speed, the Internet is profoundly changing the way we work, shop, do business, and communicate. As a consequence, we have truly entered the Post-Industrial economy. We are rapidly shifting from an economy based on manufacturing and commodities to one that places the greatest value on information, services, support, and distribution. That shift, in turn, place an unprecedented premium on “knowledge workers,” a new class of wealthy, educated, and mobile people who view themselves as free agents in a seller’s market. Beyond the realm of information technology, the accelerated pace of technological change in virtually every industry has created entirely new business, wiped out others, and produced a Pervasive( 广泛的) demand for continuous innovation. New product, process ,and distribution technologies provide powerful levers for creating competitive value. More companies are learning the importance of destructive technologies-----innovations that hold the potential to make a product line, or even an entire business segment, virtually outdated. Another major trend has been the fragmentation of consumer and business markets. There’s a growing appreciation that superficially similar groups of customers may have very different preferences in terms of what they want to buy and how they want to buy it. Now, new technology makes it easier, faster ,and cheaper to identify and serve targeted micro-markets in ways that were physically impossible or prohibitively expensive in the past. Moreover, the trend feeds on itself, a business’s ability to serve sub-markets fuels customers’ appetites for more and more specialized offerings. 1. According to the first paragraph, the chances in the business environment in the past decades can be attributed to __________. A) technological advances B) worldwide economic disorder C) the fierce competition in industry D) the globalization of economy 2. what idea does the author want to convey in the second paragraph ? A) The rapid development of information technology has taken businessmen by surprise B) Information technology has removed the restrictions of time and space in business transactions C) The Internet, intranets, e-mail, and portable computers have penetrated every corner of the world. D) The way we do business today has brought about startling breakthroughs in information technology. 3. If a business wants to thrive in the Post-Industrial economy__________ A) it has to invest more capital in the training of free agents to operate in a seller’s market B) it should try its best to satisfy the increasing demands of mobile knowledgeable people C) it should not overlook the importance of information, services, support, and distribution D) it has to provide each of its employees with the latest information about the changing market 4. In the author’s view, destructive technologies are innovations which _________ A) can eliminate an entire business segment B) demand a radical change in providing services C) may destroy the potential of a company to make any profit D) call for continuous improvement in ways of doing business 5. With the fragmentation of consumer and business markets ______________ A) an increasing number of companies have disintegrated B) manufacturers must focus on one special product to remain competitive in the market 1 C) it is physically impossible and prohibitively expensive to do business in the old way D) businesses have to meet individual customers’ specific needs in order to succeed . B、You’re in trouble if you have to buy your own brand-name prescription drugs. Over the past decade, prices leaped by more than double the inflation rate. Treatments for chronic conditions can easily top ,2,000 a month-no wonder that one in four Americans can’s afford to fill their prescriptions. The solution? A hearty chorus of “O Canada.” North of the border, where price controls reign, those same brand-name drugs cost 50% to 80% less.The Canadian option is fast becoming a political wake-up call,“If our neighbors can buy drugs at reasonable prices, why can’t we?” Even to whisper that thought provokes anger. “Un-American!”And-the propagandists’ trump card (王牌)—“Wreck our brilliant health-care system.” Super-size drug prices, they claim, fund the research that sparks the next generation of wonder drugs. No sky-high drug price today, no cure for cancer tomorrow. So shut up and pay up.Common sense tells you that’s a false alternative. The reward for finding. Say, a cancer cure is so huge that no one’s going to hang it up. Nevertheless, if Canada-level pricing came to the United States, the industry’s profit margins would drop and the pace of new-drug development would slow. Here lies the American dilemma. Who is all this splendid medicine for? Should our health-care system continue its drive toward the best of the best, even though rising numbers of patients can’t afford it? Or should we direct our wealth toward letting everyone in on today’s level of care? Measured by saved lives, the latter is almost certainly the better course. To defend their profits, the drug companies have warned Canadian wholesalers and pharmacies(药房) not to sell to Americans by mail, and are cutting back supplies to those who dare.Meanwhile, the administration is playing the fear card. Officials from the Food and Drug Administration will argue that Canadian drugs might be fake, mishandled, or even a potential threat to life. Do bad drugs fly around the Internet? Sure-and the more we look, the more we’ll find, But I haven’t heard of any raging epidemics among the hundreds of thousands of people buying cross-border.Most users of prescription drugs don’s worry about costs a lot. They’re sheltered by employee insurance, owing just a $20 co-pay. The financial blows rain, instead, on the uninsured, especially the chronically ill who need expensive drugs to live, This group will still include middle-income seniors on Medicare, who’ll have to dig deeply into their pockets before getting much from the new drug benefit that starts in 2006. 6. What is said about the consequence of the rocketing drug prices in the U.S.? A) A quarter of Americans can’t afford their prescription drugs. B) Many Americans can’t afford to see a doctor when they fall ill. C) Many Americans have to go to Canada to get medical treatment. D) The inflation rate has been more than doubled over the years. 7. It can be inferred that America can follow the Canadian model and curb its soaring drug prices by _____. A) encouraging people to buy prescription drugs online B) extending medical insurance to all its citizens C) importing low-price prescription drugs from Canada D) exercising price control on brand-name drugs 8. How do propagandists argue for the U.S. drug pricing policy? A) Low prices will affect the quality of medicines in America. B) High prices are essential to funding research on new drugs. C) Low prices will bring about the anger of drug manufacturers. D) High-price drugs are indispensable in curing chronic diseases. 9. What should be the priority of America’s health-care system according to the author? A) To resolve the dilemma in the health-care system. B) To maintain America’s lead in the drug industry. C) To allow the vast majority to enjoy its benefits. D) To quicken the pace of new drug development. 10. What are American drug companies doing to protect their high profits? A) Labeling drugs bought from Canada as being fakes. B) Threatening to cut back funding for new drug research. C) Reducing supplies to uncooperative Canadian pharmacies. D) Attributing the raging epidemics to the ineffectiveness of Canadian drugs. 二、快速阅读Skimming and scanning(每题2分，共10分) 2 One of the major producers of athletic footwear, with 2002 sales of over $10 billion, is a company called Nike, with corporate headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. Forbes magazine identified Nike’s president, Philip Knight, as the 53rd-richest man in the world in 2004. But Nike has not always been a large multimillion-dollar organization. In fact, Knight started the company by selling shoes from the back of his car at track meets. In the late 1950s Philip Knight was a middle-distance runner on the University of Oregon track team, coached by Bill Bowerman.One of the top track coaches in the U.S.,Bowerman was also known for experimenting with the design of running shoes in an attempt to make them lighter and more shock-absorbent. After attending Oregon, Knight moved on to do graduate work at Stanford University; his MBA thesis was on marketing athletic shoes. Once he received his degree, Knight traveled to Japan to contact the Onitsuka Tiger Company, a manufacturer of athletic shoes. Knight convinced the company’s officials of the potential for its product in the U.S. In 1963 he received his first shipment of Tiger shoes, 200 pairs in total. In 1964, Knight and Bowerman contributed $500 each to from Blue Ribbon Sports, the predecessor of Nike. In the first few years, Knight distributed shoes out of his car at local track meets. The first employees hired by Knight were former college athletes. The company did not have the money to hire “experts”, and there was no established athletic footwear industry in North America from which to recruit those knowledgeable in the field. In its early years the organization operated in an unconventional manner that characterized its innovative and entrepreneurial approach to the industry. Communication was informal; people discussed ideas and issues in the hallways, on a run, or over a beer. There was little task differentiation. There were no job descriptions, rigid reporting systems, or detailed rules and regulations. The team spirit and shared values of the athletes on Bowerman’s teams carried over and provided the basis for the collegial style of management that characterized the early years of Nikes. 1. While serving as a track coach, Bowerman tried to design running shoes that were . 2. During his visit to Japan, Knight convinced the officials of the Onitsuka Tiger Company that its product would have . 3. Blue Ribbon Sports was unable to hire experts due to the absence of in North America. 4. In the early years of Nike, communication within the company was usually carried out . 5. What qualities of Bowerman’s teams formed the basis of Nike’s early management style? . 三、名词解释Define the following terms(每题3分，共30分) 1.SME 2.Job rotation 3.Curriculum Vitae 4.FedEx 5.Pay-for-performance (PFP) 6.Stock market 7.Comparative costs 8.CIF 9.Transferable L/C 10.Game Theory 四、回答问题Answer the following questions(共10分) Do You Really Need An MBA? Thinking of getting an MBA? You're in good company. Across the U.S., business schools turn out more than 100,000 MBAs a year. But is the investment of time and money (tuition ranges from $20,000 for two years at a lesser known institution to $100,000 at a highly ranked one) worth it? One of the most high profile -- and perhaps surprising -- critics of MBA programs is Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. Pfeffer and Stanford doctoral student Christina Fong conducted a controversial study, which concluded that with the exception of the most elite programs, there is little evidence having an MBA or earning high marks in business school correlate with career success. Other skeptics point to the many successful CEOs and entrepreneurs who never attended business school -- or even finished college, for that matter. Well-known college dropouts include: Michael Dell (Dell), Larry Ellison (Oracle), Sir Richard Branson (Virgin), Steve Jobs (Apple), and Microsoft's Bill Gates (OK, Harvard, but still a drop-out!). Still that doesn't prove that those who have MBAs aren't better off than they would be otherwise. True, people can succeed without an MBA, but many use it to go further than they otherwise could. Lynn Ronchetto, a graduate of Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, says going back for her masters degree in management was the best decisions she's ever made. Ronchetto worked for five years at a financial services firm 3 before deciding to pursue her degree while working full-time. Since graduating, her options have expanded greatly. Today she is an administrator at New York Presbyterian Hospital. "There's no question that the network you develop and the credential you come away with opens doors ... employers assume that someone who managed to get into an elite school - and pay the tuition - is talented and motivated," Ronchetto says. "But the biggest advantages are the skills you learn and your ability to add value to the organization you work for in a number of capacities." "The global corporate community clearly wants the skills MBAs have to offer," says David Wilson, CEO and president of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) in McClean, Virginia. "An MBA is recognized worldwide as a currency of intellectual capital, and its value will increase as the economy improves and businesses grow." According to GMAC's 2003 survey of business school graduates, 67 percent rate the overall value of their MBA as "excellent" or "outstanding," 22 percent rate it "good," 9 percent say it's "fair," while just 2 percent rate it "poor." In addition, the MBAs surveyed say they've found the most important benefits of the degree to be the opportunities to improve personally, gain a desired credential, and enhance their career options. "While MBAs can no longer expect instant gratification in terms of salaries, perks and positions that are open to them, in the long-run, an MBA still offers a terrific rate of return," Wilson adds. There is no way to accurately measure what an MBA degree adds to a person's earning potential or the effects it has on his or her ability to advance into upper management. However, it is widely accepted that an MBA is a must-have for industries such as consulting and that in a competitive market it can give you a leg up. "An MBA is great, but it's no substitute for real world experience," says Portland-based human resources expert Lori Kocon. "While it certainly won't hurt your chances for getting hired or for advancement, an MBA alone - even from Harvard - doesn't open doors the way it once did. "Whether an MBA would pay off for you depends on a lot of factors including the industry, company and job you are targeting, as well as how artfully you apply what you learn. It can definitely give you an edge, but you need to go into it with realistic expectations and realize that in the end, an MBA is worth what you make of it." 1.What is Jeffrey Pfeffer’s opinion about MBA programs? Does he think having an MBA is close related to success?(3分) 2.Can MBA substitute for work experience? Why? Find the answer first in the passage and then think it over on your own(4分) 3.After reading the whole passage, what is your own attitude towards MBA? (3分) 五、翻译Translate the following sentences into Chinese(每题5分，共30分) 1、The bank had doubled profits in the past year via a string of successful mergers, but on Apr. 21 it reported that its securities portfolio had unrealized losses of nearly $131 million. 2、Many underestimate the cost of local staff. Chinese graduates often have an inflated view of their own, complain some foreign managers. Multinationals are also competing for talent with China’s domestic companies, which need to improve the quality of their people as their markets open to foreign rivals. 3、Alternatively, advertisers can choose to use “spokescharacters”. Owens-Corning has used the Pink Panther for nearly 20 years to endorse its insulation products, and Metropolitan Life has used the Peanuts gang to promote its insurance policies. Another way advertisers protect themselves is by using deceased celebrities. Through the wonders of technology, television viewers see screen legends John Wayne pitching Coors beer and Fred Astaire dancing with a Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner. 4、A fairly obvious cultural divide that has been much studied is the one between, on the one hand, the countries of North America and north-west Europe, where management is largely based on analysis, rationality, logic and systems, and, on the other, the Latin cultures of southern Europe and South America, where personal relations, intuition, emotion and sensitivity are of much greater importance. 5、Game theory has been used by economists to study the interaction of oligopolies, on-management disputes; countries trade policies, international environmental agreements, reputations, and a host of other situations. 6、Slowly but surely, consumers are leaving malls to shop on-line, often in their pajamas at 11 PM. And anyone who doubts the potential power of the e-commerce juggernaut hasn’t grasped the advantage for both consumers and businesses. 4