一、Part Ⅱ Listening Comprehension
1、Question 1 is based on the news report you have just heard.
A、The majority of drivers prefer to drive and park themselves.
B、Human drivers become easily distracted or tired while driving.
C、Most drivers feel uncertain about the safety of self-driving cars.
D、Most drivers have test driven cars with automatic braking features.
2、Question 2 is based on the news report you have just heard.
A、Their drivers would feel safe after getting used to the automatic features.
B、They would be unpopular with drivers who only trust their own skills.
C、Their increased comfort levels have boosted their sales.
D、They are not actually as safe as automakers advertise.
3、Question 3 is based on the news report you have just heard.
A、Thefts of snowmobile dogs in Alaska.
B、A series of injuries to snowmobile drivers.
C、Attacks on some Iditarod Race competitors.
D、A serious accident in the Alaska sports event.
4、Question 4 is based on the news report you have just heard.
A、He stayed behind to look after his injured dogs.
B、He has won the Alaska Iditarod Race four times.
C、He received a minor injury in the Iditarod Race.
D、He has quit the competition in Alaska for good.
5、Question 5 is based on the news report you have just heard.
A、It sank into the sea due to overloading.
B、It ran into Nicaragua’s Big Corn Island.
C、It disappeared between two large islands.
D、It turned over because of strong winds.
6、Question 6 is based on the news report you have just heard.
A、13.
B、25.
C、30.
D、32.
7、Question 7 is based on the news report you have just heard.
A、He has helped with the rescue effort.
B、He is being investigated by the police.
C、He was drowned with the passengers.
D、He is among those people missing.
8、Question 8 is based on the conversation you have just heard.
A、At a shopping centre.
B、At a community college.
C、At an accountancy firm.
D、At an IT company.
9、Question 9 is based on the conversation you have just heard.
A、Helping out with data input.
B、Arranging interviews.
C、Sorting application forms.
D、Making phone calls.
10、Question 10 is based on the conversation you have just heard.
A、He enjoys using computers.
B、He needs the money badly.
C、He wants to work in the city centre.
D、He has relevant working experience.
11、Question 11 is based on the conversation you have just heard.
A、Purchase some business suits.
B、Learn some computer language.
C、Improve his programming skills.
D、Review some accountancy terms.
12、Question 12 is based on the conversation you have just heard.
A、They are keen on high technology.
B、They are poor at technology skills.
C、They often listen to National Public Radio.
D、They feel superior in science and technology.
13、Question 13 is based on the conversation you have just heard.
A、Japanese.
B、Germans.
C、Poles.
D、Americans.
14、Question 14 is based on the conversation you have just heard.
A、Emailing.
B、Texting.
C、Science.
D、Literary.
15、Question 15 is based on the conversation you have just heard.
A、It is undergoing a drastic reform.
B、It lays emphasis on creative thinking.
C、It has much room for improvement.
D、It prioritizes training of practical skills.
16、Question 16 is based on the passage you have just heard.
A、They have small roots.
B、They grow white flowers.
C、They taste like apples.
D、They come from Central Africa.
17、Question 17 is based on the passage you have just heard.
A、They turned from white to purple in color.
B、They became popular on the world market.
C、They became an important food for humans.
D、They began to look like modern-day carrots.
18、Question 18 is based on the passage you have just heard.
A、They were found quite nutritious.
B、There were serious food shortages.
C、People discovered their medical value.
D、Farm machines helped lower their prices.
19、Question 19 is based on the passage you have just heard.
A、She could update her family any time she liked.
B、She could call up her family whenever she liked.
C、She could locate her friends wherever they were.
D、She could download as many pictures as she liked.
20、Question 20 is based on the passage you have just heard.
A、She liked to inform her friends about her success.
B、She enjoyed reading her friends’ status updates.
C、She felt quite popular among them.
D、She felt she was a teenager again.
21、Question 21 is based on the passage you have just heard.
A、She could barely respond to all her 500 Facebook friends.
B、She spent more time updating her friends than her family.
C、She could barely balance Facebook updates and her work.
D、She didn’t seem to be doing as well as her Facebook friends.
22、Question 22 is based on the passage you have just heard.
A、They have strong muscles.
B、They live a longer life than horses.
C、They eat much less in winter.
D、They can work longer than donkeys.
23、Question 23 is based on the passage you have just heard.
A、It was a pet of a Spanish king.
B、It was bought by George Washington.
C、It was brought over from Spain.
D、It was donated by a U.S. Ambassador.
24、Question 24 is based on the passage you have just heard.
A、They met and exchanged ideas on animal breeding.
B、They participated in a mule-driving competition.
C、They showed and traded animals in the market.
D、They fed mules with the best food they could find.
25、Question 25 is based on the passage you have just heard.
A、The wider use of horses.
B、The arrival of tractors.
C、A shrinking animal trade.
D、A growing donkey population.
二、Part III Reading Comprehension
The method for making beer has changed over time. Hops (啤酒花), for example, which give many a modern beer its bitter flavor, are a (26) _____ recent addition to the beverage. This was first mentioned in reference to brewing in the ninth century. Now, researchers have found a (27)_____ingredient in residue (残留物) from 5000-year-old beer brewing equipment. While excavating two pits at a site in the central plains of China, scientists discovered fragments from pots and vessels. The different shapes of the containers (28)_____they were used to brew, filter, and store beer. They may be ancient “beer-making tools,” and the earliest (29)_____evidence of beer brewing in China, the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. To (30)_____ that theory, the team examined the yellowish, dried (31)_____ inside the vessels. The majority of the grains, about 80%, were from cereal crops like barley (大麦), and about 10% were bits of roots, (32)_____ lily, which would have made the beer sweeter, the scientists say. Barley was an unexpected find: the crop was domesticated in Western Eurasia and didn’t become a (33)_____food in central China until about 2000 years ago, according to the researchers. Based on that timing, they indicate barley may have (34)_____in the region not as food, but as (35)_____ material for beer brewing.
26、(1)
A、exclusively
B、remains
C、staple
D、inform
E、test
F、reached
G、suggest
H、surprising
I、resources
J、including
K、direct
L、arrived
M、relatively
N、consuming
O、raw
The method for making beer has changed over time. Hops (啤酒花), for example, which give many a modern beer its bitter flavor, are a (26) _____ recent addition to the beverage. This was first mentioned in reference to brewing in the ninth century. Now, researchers have found a (27)_____ingredient in residue (残留物) from 5000-year-old beer brewing equipment. While excavating two pits at a site in the central plains of China, scientists discovered fragments from pots and vessels. The different shapes of the containers (28)_____they were used to brew, filter, and store beer. They may be ancient “beer-making tools,” and the earliest (29)_____evidence of beer brewing in China, the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. To (30)_____ that theory, the team examined the yellowish, dried (31)_____ inside the vessels. The majority of the grains, about 80%, were from cereal crops like barley (大麦), and about 10% were bits of roots, (32)_____ lily, which would have made the beer sweeter, the scientists say. Barley was an unexpected find: the crop was domesticated in Western Eurasia and didn’t become a (33)_____food in central China until about 2000 years ago, according to the researchers. Based on that timing, they indicate barley may have (34)_____in the region not as food, but as (35)_____ material for beer brewing.
27、(2)
A、exclusively
B、remains
C、staple
D、inform
E、test
F、reached
G、suggest
H、surprising
I、resources
J、including
K、direct
L、arrived
M、relatively
N、consuming
O、raw
The method for making beer has changed over time. Hops (啤酒花), for example, which give many a modern beer its bitter flavor, are a (26) _____ recent addition to the beverage. This was first mentioned in reference to brewing in the ninth century. Now, researchers have found a (27)_____ingredient in residue (残留物) from 5000-year-old beer brewing equipment. While excavating two pits at a site in the central plains of China, scientists discovered fragments from pots and vessels. The different shapes of the containers (28)_____they were used to brew, filter, and store beer. They may be ancient “beer-making tools,” and the earliest (29)_____evidence of beer brewing in China, the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. To (30)_____ that theory, the team examined the yellowish, dried (31)_____ inside the vessels. The majority of the grains, about 80%, were from cereal crops like barley (大麦), and about 10% were bits of roots, (32)_____ lily, which would have made the beer sweeter, the scientists say. Barley was an unexpected find: the crop was domesticated in Western Eurasia and didn’t become a (33)_____food in central China until about 2000 years ago, according to the researchers. Based on that timing, they indicate barley may have (34)_____in the region not as food, but as (35)_____ material for beer brewing.
28、(3)
A、exclusively
B、remains
C、staple
D、inform
E、test
F、reached
G、suggest
H、surprising
I、resources
J、including
K、direct
L、arrived
M、relatively
N、consuming
O、raw
The method for making beer has changed over time. Hops (啤酒花), for example, which give many a modern beer its bitter flavor, are a (26) _____ recent addition to the beverage. This was first mentioned in reference to brewing in the ninth century. Now, researchers have found a (27)_____ingredient in residue (残留物) from 5000-year-old beer brewing equipment. While excavating two pits at a site in the central plains of China, scientists discovered fragments from pots and vessels. The different shapes of the containers (28)_____they were used to brew, filter, and store beer. They may be ancient “beer-making tools,” and the earliest (29)_____evidence of beer brewing in China, the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. To (30)_____ that theory, the team examined the yellowish, dried (31)_____ inside the vessels. The majority of the grains, about 80%, were from cereal crops like barley (大麦), and about 10% were bits of roots, (32)_____ lily, which would have made the beer sweeter, the scientists say. Barley was an unexpected find: the crop was domesticated in Western Eurasia and didn’t become a (33)_____food in central China until about 2000 years ago, according to the researchers. Based on that timing, they indicate barley may have (34)_____in the region not as food, but as (35)_____ material for beer brewing.
29、(4)
A、exclusively
B、remains
C、staple
D、inform
E、test
F、reached
G、suggest
H、surprising
I、resources
J、including
K、direct
L、arrived
M、relatively
N、consuming
O、raw
The method for making beer has changed over time. Hops (啤酒花), for example, which give many a modern beer its bitter flavor, are a (26) _____ recent addition to the beverage. This was first mentioned in reference to brewing in the ninth century. Now, researchers have found a (27)_____ingredient in residue (残留物) from 5000-year-old beer brewing equipment. While excavating two pits at a site in the central plains of China, scientists discovered fragments from pots and vessels. The different shapes of the containers (28)_____they were used to brew, filter, and store beer. They may be ancient “beer-making tools,” and the earliest (29)_____evidence of beer brewing in China, the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. To (30)_____ that theory, the team examined the yellowish, dried (31)_____ inside the vessels. The majority of the grains, about 80%, were from cereal crops like barley (大麦), and about 10% were bits of roots, (32)_____ lily, which would have made the beer sweeter, the scientists say. Barley was an unexpected find: the crop was domesticated in Western Eurasia and didn’t become a (33)_____food in central China until about 2000 years ago, according to the researchers. Based on that timing, they indicate barley may have (34)_____in the region not as food, but as (35)_____ material for beer brewing.
30、(5)
A、exclusively
B、remains
C、staple
D、inform
E、test
F、reached
G、suggest
H、surprising
I、resources
J、including
K、direct
L、arrived
M、relatively
N、consuming
O、raw
The method for making beer has changed over time. Hops (啤酒花), for example, which give many a modern beer its bitter flavor, are a (26) _____ recent addition to the beverage. This was first mentioned in reference to brewing in the ninth century. Now, researchers have found a (27)_____ingredient in residue (残留物) from 5000-year-old beer brewing equipment. While excavating two pits at a site in the central plains of China, scientists discovered fragments from pots and vessels. The different shapes of the containers (28)_____they were used to brew, filter, and store beer. They may be ancient “beer-making tools,” and the earliest (29)_____evidence of beer brewing in China, the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. To (30)_____ that theory, the team examined the yellowish, dried (31)_____ inside the vessels. The majority of the grains, about 80%, were from cereal crops like barley (大麦), and about 10% were bits of roots, (32)_____ lily, which would have made the beer sweeter, the scientists say. Barley was an unexpected find: the crop was domesticated in Western Eurasia and didn’t become a (33)_____food in central China until about 2000 years ago, according to the researchers. Based on that timing, they indicate barley may have (34)_____in the region not as food, but as (35)_____ material for beer brewing.
31、(6)
A、exclusively
B、remains
C、staple
D、inform
E、test
F、reached
G、suggest
H、surprising
I、resources
J、including
K、direct
L、arrived
M、relatively
N、consuming
O、raw
The method for making beer has changed over time. Hops (啤酒花), for example, which give many a modern beer its bitter flavor, are a (26) _____ recent addition to the beverage. This was first mentioned in reference to brewing in the ninth century. Now, researchers have found a (27)_____ingredient in residue (残留物) from 5000-year-old beer brewing equipment. While excavating two pits at a site in the central plains of China, scientists discovered fragments from pots and vessels. The different shapes of the containers (28)_____they were used to brew, filter, and store beer. They may be ancient “beer-making tools,” and the earliest (29)_____evidence of beer brewing in China, the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. To (30)_____ that theory, the team examined the yellowish, dried (31)_____ inside the vessels. The majority of the grains, about 80%, were from cereal crops like barley (大麦), and about 10% were bits of roots, (32)_____ lily, which would have made the beer sweeter, the scientists say. Barley was an unexpected find: the crop was domesticated in Western Eurasia and didn’t become a (33)_____food in central China until about 2000 years ago, according to the researchers. Based on that timing, they indicate barley may have (34)_____in the region not as food, but as (35)_____ material for beer brewing.
32、(7)
A、exclusively
B、remains
C、staple
D、inform
E、test
F、reached
G、suggest
H、surprising
I、resources
J、including
K、direct
L、arrived
M、relatively
N、consuming
O、raw
The method for making beer has changed over time. Hops (啤酒花), for example, which give many a modern beer its bitter flavor, are a (26) _____ recent addition to the beverage. This was first mentioned in reference to brewing in the ninth century. Now, researchers have found a (27)_____ingredient in residue (残留物) from 5000-year-old beer brewing equipment. While excavating two pits at a site in the central plains of China, scientists discovered fragments from pots and vessels. The different shapes of the containers (28)_____they were used to brew, filter, and store beer. They may be ancient “beer-making tools,” and the earliest (29)_____evidence of beer brewing in China, the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. To (30)_____ that theory, the team examined the yellowish, dried (31)_____ inside the vessels. The majority of the grains, about 80%, were from cereal crops like barley (大麦), and about 10% were bits of roots, (32)_____ lily, which would have made the beer sweeter, the scientists say. Barley was an unexpected find: the crop was domesticated in Western Eurasia and didn’t become a (33)_____food in central China until about 2000 years ago, according to the researchers. Based on that timing, they indicate barley may have (34)_____in the region not as food, but as (35)_____ material for beer brewing.
33、(8)
A、exclusively
B、remains
C、staple
D、inform
E、test
F、reached
G、suggest
H、surprising
I、resources
J、including
K、direct
L、arrived
M、relatively
N、consuming
O、raw
The method for making beer has changed over time. Hops (啤酒花), for example, which give many a modern beer its bitter flavor, are a (26) _____ recent addition to the beverage. This was first mentioned in reference to brewing in the ninth century. Now, researchers have found a (27)_____ingredient in residue (残留物) from 5000-year-old beer brewing equipment. While excavating two pits at a site in the central plains of China, scientists discovered fragments from pots and vessels. The different shapes of the containers (28)_____they were used to brew, filter, and store beer. They may be ancient “beer-making tools,” and the earliest (29)_____evidence of beer brewing in China, the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. To (30)_____ that theory, the team examined the yellowish, dried (31)_____ inside the vessels. The majority of the grains, about 80%, were from cereal crops like barley (大麦), and about 10% were bits of roots, (32)_____ lily, which would have made the beer sweeter, the scientists say. Barley was an unexpected find: the crop was domesticated in Western Eurasia and didn’t become a (33)_____food in central China until about 2000 years ago, according to the researchers. Based on that timing, they indicate barley may have (34)_____in the region not as food, but as (35)_____ material for beer brewing.
34、(9)
A、exclusively
B、remains
C、staple
D、inform
E、test
F、reached
G、suggest
H、surprising
I、resources
J、including
K、direct
L、arrived
M、relatively
N、consuming
O、raw
The method for making beer has changed over time. Hops (啤酒花), for example, which give many a modern beer its bitter flavor, are a (26) _____ recent addition to the beverage. This was first mentioned in reference to brewing in the ninth century. Now, researchers have found a (27)_____ingredient in residue (残留物) from 5000-year-old beer brewing equipment. While excavating two pits at a site in the central plains of China, scientists discovered fragments from pots and vessels. The different shapes of the containers (28)_____they were used to brew, filter, and store beer. They may be ancient “beer-making tools,” and the earliest (29)_____evidence of beer brewing in China, the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. To (30)_____ that theory, the team examined the yellowish, dried (31)_____ inside the vessels. The majority of the grains, about 80%, were from cereal crops like barley (大麦), and about 10% were bits of roots, (32)_____ lily, which would have made the beer sweeter, the scientists say. Barley was an unexpected find: the crop was domesticated in Western Eurasia and didn’t become a (33)_____food in central China until about 2000 years ago, according to the researchers. Based on that timing, they indicate barley may have (34)_____in the region not as food, but as (35)_____ material for beer brewing.
35、(10)
A、exclusively
B、remains
C、staple
D、inform
E、test
F、reached
G、suggest
H、surprising
I、resources
J、including
K、direct
L、arrived
M、relatively
N、consuming
O、raw
Team Spirit
【A】Teams have become the basic building blocks of organisations. Recruitment advertisements routinely call for “team players”. Business schools grade their students in part on their performance in group projects. Office managers knock down walls to encourage team building. Teams are as old as civilisation, of course: even Jesus had 12 co-workers. But a new report by Deloitte, “Global Human Capital Trends”, based on a survey of more than 7,000 executive in over 130 countries, suggests that the fashion for teamwork has reached a new high. Almost half of those surveyed said their companies were either in the middle of restructuring or about to embark on (开始) it; and for the most part , restructuring meant putting more emphasis on teams.
【B】 Companies are abandoning conventional functional departments and organising employees into cross-disciplinary teams that focus on particular products, problems or customers. These teams are gaining more power to run their own affairs. They are also spending more time working with each other rather than reporting upwards. Deloitte argues that a new organizational form is on the rise: a network of teams is replacing the conventional hierarchy (等级体制).
【C】 The fashion for teams is driven by a sense that the old way of organising people is too rigid for both the modern marketplace and the expectations of employees. Technological innovation places greater value on agility (灵活性). John Chambers, chairman of Cisco System Inc., a worldwide leader in electronics products, says that “we compete against market transitions (过渡), not competitors. Product transitions used to take five or seven years; now they take one or two.” Digital technology also makes it easier for people to co-ordinate their activities without resorting to hierarchy. The “millennials” (千禧一代) who will soon make up half the workforce in rich countries were raised from nursery school onwards to work in groups.
【D】The fashion for teams is also spreading from the usual corporate suspects (such as GE and IBM) to some more unusual ones. The Cleveland Clinic, a hospital operator, has reorganised its medical staff into teams to focus on particular treatment areas: consultants, nurses and others collaborate closely instead of being separated by specialty (专业的) and rank. The US Army has gone the same way. In his book, Team of Teams, General Stanley McChrystal describes how the army’s hierarchical structure hindered its operations during the early stages of Iraq war. His solution was to learn something from the rebels it was fighting: decentralizing authority to self-organising teams.
【E】 A good rule of thumb is that as soon as generals and hospital administrators jump on a management bandwagon（追随一种管理潮流）, it is time to ask questions. Leigh Thompson of Kellogg School of Management in Illinois warns that, “Teams are not always the answer—teams may provide insight, creativity and knowledge in a way that a person working independently cannot; but teamwork may also lead to confusion, delay and poor decision-making.” The late Richard Hackman of Harvard University once argued, “I have no question that when you have a team, the possibility exists that it will generate magic, producing something extraordinary… But don’t count on it.”
【F】 Hackman（who died in 2013）noted that teams are hindered by problems of co-ordination and motivation that chip away at the benefits of collaboration. High-flyers（能干的人）who are forced to work in teams may be undervalued and free-riders empowered. Group-think may be unavoidable. In a study of 120 teams of senior executives, he discovered that less than 10% of their supposed members agreed on who exactly was on the team. If it is hard enough to define a team’s membership, agreeing on its purpose is harder still.
【G】 Profound changes in the workforce are making teams trickier to manage. Teams work best if their members have a strong common culture. This is hard to achieve when, as is now the case in many big firms, a large proportion of staff are temporary contractors. Teamwork improves with time: America’s National Transportation Safety Board found that 73% of the incidents in its civil-aviation database occurred on a crew’s first day of flying together. However, as Amy Edmondson of Harvard points out, organisations increasingly use “team” as a verb rather than a noun: they form teams for specific purposes and then quickly disband them.
【H】 The least that can be concluded from this research is that companies need to think harder about managing teams. They need to rid their minds of sentimentalism（感情用事）: the most successful teams have leaders who are able to set an overall direction and take immediate action. They need to keep teams small and focused: giving in to pressure to be more “inclusive” is a guarantee of dysfunction. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s boss, says that “If I see more than two pizzas for lunch, the team is too big.” They need to immunise teams against group-think: Hackman argued that the best ones contain “deviant”（离经叛道者）who are willing to do something that may be upsetting to others.
【I】 A new study of 12,000 workers in 17 countries by Steelcase, a furniture-maker which also does consulting, finds that the best way to ensure employees are “engaged” is to give them more control over where and how they do their work—which may mean liberating them from having to do everything in collaboration with others.
【J】 However, organisations need to learn something bigger than how to manage teams better: they need to be in the habit of asking themselves whether teams are the best tools for the job. Team-building skills are in short supply: Deloitte reports that only 12% of the executives they contacted feel they understand the way people work together in the networks and only 21% feel confident in their ability to build cross-functional teams. Loosely managed teams can become hotbeds of distraction—employees routinely complain that they can’t get their work done because they are forced to spend too much time in meetings or compelled to work in noisy offices. Even in the age of open-plan offices and social networks some work is best left to the individual.
36、36. Successful team leaders know exactly where the team should go and are able to take prompt action.
A、A
B、B
C、C
D、D
E、E
F、F
G、G
H、H
I、I
J、J
Team Spirit
【A】Teams have become the basic building blocks of organisations. Recruitment advertisements routinely call for “team players”. Business schools grade their students in part on their performance in group projects. Office managers knock down walls to encourage team building. Teams are as old as civilisation, of course: even Jesus had 12 co-workers. But a new report by Deloitte, “Global Human Capital Trends”, based on a survey of more than 7,000 executive in over 130 countries, suggests that the fashion for teamwork has reached a new high. Almost half of those surveyed said their companies were either in the middle of restructuring or about to embark on (开始) it; and for the most part , restructuring meant putting more emphasis on teams.
【B】 Companies are abandoning conventional functional departments and organising employees into cross-disciplinary teams that focus on particular products, problems or customers. These teams are gaining more power to run their own affairs. They are also spending more time working with each other rather than reporting upwards. Deloitte argues that a new organizational form is on the rise: a network of teams is replacing the conventional hierarchy (等级体制).
【C】 The fashion for teams is driven by a sense that the old way of organising people is too rigid for both the modern marketplace and the expectations of employees. Technological innovation places greater value on agility (灵活性). John Chambers, chairman of Cisco System Inc., a worldwide leader in electronics products, says that “we compete against market transitions (过渡), not competitors. Product transitions used to take five or seven years; now they take one or two.” Digital technology also makes it easier for people to co-ordinate their activities without resorting to hierarchy. The “millennials” (千禧一代) who will soon make up half the workforce in rich countries were raised from nursery school onwards to work in groups.
【D】The fashion for teams is also spreading from the usual corporate suspects (such as GE and IBM) to some more unusual ones. The Cleveland Clinic, a hospital operator, has reorganised its medical staff into teams to focus on particular treatment areas: consultants, nurses and others collaborate closely instead of being separated by specialty (专业的) and rank. The US Army has gone the same way. In his book, Team of Teams, General Stanley McChrystal describes how the army’s hierarchical structure hindered its operations during the early stages of Iraq war. His solution was to learn something from the rebels it was fighting: decentralizing authority to self-organising teams.
【E】 A good rule of thumb is that as soon as generals and hospital administrators jump on a management bandwagon（追随一种管理潮流）, it is time to ask questions. Leigh Thompson of Kellogg School of Management in Illinois warns that, “Teams are not always the answer—teams may provide insight, creativity and knowledge in a way that a person working independently cannot; but teamwork may also lead to confusion, delay and poor decision-making.” The late Richard Hackman of Harvard University once argued, “I have no question that when you have a team, the possibility exists that it will generate magic, producing something extraordinary… But don’t count on it.”
【F】 Hackman（who died in 2013）noted that teams are hindered by problems of co-ordination and motivation that chip away at the benefits of collaboration. High-flyers（能干的人）who are forced to work in teams may be undervalued and free-riders empowered. Group-think may be unavoidable. In a study of 120 teams of senior executives, he discovered that less than 10% of their supposed members agreed on who exactly was on the team. If it is hard enough to define a team’s membership, agreeing on its purpose is harder still.
【G】 Profound changes in the workforce are making teams trickier to manage. Teams work best if their members have a strong common culture. This is hard to achieve when, as is now the case in many big firms, a large proportion of staff are temporary contractors. Teamwork improves with time: America’s National Transportation Safety Board found that 73% of the incidents in its civil-aviation database occurred on a crew’s first day of flying together. However, as Amy Edmondson of Harvard points out, organisations increasingly use “team” as a verb rather than a noun: they form teams for specific purposes and then quickly disband them.
【H】 The least that can be concluded from this research is that companies need to think harder about managing teams. They need to rid their minds of sentimentalism（感情用事）: the most successful teams have leaders who are able to set an overall direction and take immediate action. They need to keep teams small and focused: giving in to pressure to be more “inclusive” is a guarantee of dysfunction. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s boss, says that “If I see more than two pizzas for lunch, the team is too big.” They need to immunise teams against group-think: Hackman argued that the best ones contain “deviant”（离经叛道者）who are willing to do something that may be upsetting to others.
【I】 A new study of 12,000 workers in 17 countries by Steelcase, a furniture-maker which also does consulting, finds that the best way to ensure employees are “engaged” is to give them more control over where and how they do their work—which may mean liberating them from having to do everything in collaboration with others.
【J】 However, organisations need to learn something bigger than how to manage teams better: they need to be in the habit of asking themselves whether teams are the best tools for the job. Team-building skills are in short supply: Deloitte reports that only 12% of the executives they contacted feel they understand the way people work together in the networks and only 21% feel confident in their ability to build cross-functional teams. Loosely managed teams can become hotbeds of distraction—employees routinely complain that they can’t get their work done because they are forced to spend too much time in meetings or compelled to work in noisy offices. Even in the age of open-plan offices and social networks some work is best left to the individual.
37、37. Decentralisation of authority was also found to be more effective in military operations.
A、A
B、B
C、C
D、D
E、E
F、F
G、G
H、H
I、I
J、J
Team Spirit
【A】Teams have become the basic building blocks of organisations. Recruitment advertisements routinely call for “team players”. Business schools grade their students in part on their performance in group projects. Office managers knock down walls to encourage team building. Teams are as old as civilisation, of course: even Jesus had 12 co-workers. But a new report by Deloitte, “Global Human Capital Trends”, based on a survey of more than 7,000 executive in over 130 countries, suggests that the fashion for teamwork has reached a new high. Almost half of those surveyed said their companies were either in the middle of restructuring or about to embark on (开始) it; and for the most part , restructuring meant putting more emphasis on teams.
【B】 Companies are abandoning conventional functional departments and organising employees into cross-disciplinary teams that focus on particular products, problems or customers. These teams are gaining more power to run their own affairs. They are also spending more time working with each other rather than reporting upwards. Deloitte argues that a new organizational form is on the rise: a network of teams is replacing the conventional hierarchy (等级体制).
【C】 The fashion for teams is driven by a sense that the old way of organising people is too rigid for both the modern marketplace and the expectations of employees. Technological innovation places greater value on agility (灵活性). John Chambers, chairman of Cisco System Inc., a worldwide leader in electronics products, says that “we compete against market transitions (过渡), not competitors. Product transitions used to take five or seven years; now they take one or two.” Digital technology also makes it easier for people to co-ordinate their activities without resorting to hierarchy. The “millennials” (千禧一代) who will soon make up half the workforce in rich countries were raised from nursery school onwards to work in groups.
【D】The fashion for teams is also spreading from the usual corporate suspects (such as GE and IBM) to some more unusual ones. The Cleveland Clinic, a hospital operator, has reorganised its medical staff into teams to focus on particular treatment areas: consultants, nurses and others collaborate closely instead of being separated by specialty (专业的) and rank. The US Army has gone the same way. In his book, Team of Teams, General Stanley McChrystal describes how the army’s hierarchical structure hindered its operations during the early stages of Iraq war. His solution was to learn something from the rebels it was fighting: decentralizing authority to self-organising teams.
【E】 A good rule of thumb is that as soon as generals and hospital administrators jump on a management bandwagon（追随一种管理潮流）, it is time to ask questions. Leigh Thompson of Kellogg School of Management in Illinois warns that, “Teams are not always the answer—teams may provide insight, creativity and knowledge in a way that a person working independently cannot; but teamwork may also lead to confusion, delay and poor decision-making.” The late Richard Hackman of Harvard University once argued, “I have no question that when you have a team, the possibility exists that it will generate magic, producing something extraordinary… But don’t count on it.”
【F】 Hackman（who died in 2013）noted that teams are hindered by problems of co-ordination and motivation that chip away at the benefits of collaboration. High-flyers（能干的人）who are forced to work in teams may be undervalued and free-riders empowered. Group-think may be unavoidable. In a study of 120 teams of senior executives, he discovered that less than 10% of their supposed members agreed on who exactly was on the team. If it is hard enough to define a team’s membership, agreeing on its purpose is harder still.
【G】 Profound changes in the workforce are making teams trickier to manage. Teams work best if their members have a strong common culture. This is hard to achieve when, as is now the case in many big firms, a large proportion of staff are temporary contractors. Teamwork improves with time: America’s National Transportation Safety Board found that 73% of the incidents in its civil-aviation database occurred on a crew’s first day of flying together. However, as Amy Edmondson of Harvard points out, organisations increasingly use “team” as a verb rather than a noun: they form teams for specific purposes and then quickly disband them.
【H】 The least that can be concluded from this research is that companies need to think harder about managing teams. They need to rid their minds of sentimentalism（感情用事）: the most successful teams have leaders who are able to set an overall direction and take immediate action. They need to keep teams small and focused: giving in to pressure to be more “inclusive” is a guarantee of dysfunction. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s boss, says that “If I see more than two pizzas for lunch, the team is too big.” They need to immunise teams against group-think: Hackman argued that the best ones contain “deviant”（离经叛道者）who are willing to do something that may be upsetting to others.
【I】 A new study of 12,000 workers in 17 countries by Steelcase, a furniture-maker which also does consulting, finds that the best way to ensure employees are “engaged” is to give them more control over where and how they do their work—which may mean liberating them from having to do everything in collaboration with others.
【J】 However, organisations need to learn something bigger than how to manage teams better: they need to be in the habit of asking themselves whether teams are the best tools for the job. Team-building skills are in short supply: Deloitte reports that only 12% of the executives they contacted feel they understand the way people work together in the networks and only 21% feel confident in their ability to build cross-functional teams. Loosely managed teams can become hotbeds of distraction—employees routinely complain that they can’t get their work done because they are forced to spend too much time in meetings or compelled to work in noisy offices. Even in the age of open-plan offices and social networks some work is best left to the individual.
38、38. In many companies, the conventional form of organisation is giving way to a network of teams.
A、A
B、B
C、C
D、D
E、E
F、F
G、G
H、H
I、I
J、J
Team Spirit
【A】Teams have become the basic building blocks of organisations. Recruitment advertisements routinely call for “team players”. Business schools grade their students in part on their performance in group projects. Office managers knock down walls to encourage team building. Teams are as old as civilisation, of course: even Jesus had 12 co-workers. But a new report by Deloitte, “Global Human Capital Trends”, based on a survey of more than 7,000 executive in over 130 countries, suggests that the fashion for teamwork has reached a new high. Almost half of those surveyed said their companies were either in the middle of restructuring or about to embark on (开始) it; and for the most part , restructuring meant putting more emphasis on teams.
【B】 Companies are abandoning conventional functional departments and organising employees into cross-disciplinary teams that focus on particular products, problems or customers. These teams are gaining more power to run their own affairs. They are also spending more time working with each other rather than reporting upwards. Deloitte argues that a new organizational form is on the rise: a network of teams is replacing the conventional hierarchy (等级体制).
【C】 The fashion for teams is driven by a sense that the old way of organising people is too rigid for both the modern marketplace and the expectations of employees. Technological innovation places greater value on agility (灵活性). John Chambers, chairman of Cisco System Inc., a worldwide leader in electronics products, says that “we compete against market transitions (过渡), not competitors. Product transitions used to take five or seven years; now they take one or two.” Digital technology also makes it easier for people to co-ordinate their activities without resorting to hierarchy. The “millennials” (千禧一代) who will soon make up half the workforce in rich countries were raised from nursery school onwards to work in groups.
【D】The fashion for teams is also spreading from the usual corporate suspects (such as GE and IBM) to some more unusual ones. The Cleveland Clinic, a hospital operator, has reorganised its medical staff into teams to focus on particular treatment areas: consultants, nurses and others collaborate closely instead of being separated by specialty (专业的) and rank. The US Army has gone the same way. In his book, Team of Teams, General Stanley McChrystal describes how the army’s hierarchical structure hindered its operations during the early stages of Iraq war. His solution was to learn something from the rebels it was fighting: decentralizing authority to self-organising teams.
【E】 A good rule of thumb is that as soon as generals and hospital administrators jump on a management bandwagon（追随一种管理潮流）, it is time to ask questions. Leigh Thompson of Kellogg School of Management in Illinois warns that, “Teams are not always the answer—teams may provide insight, creativity and knowledge in a way that a person working independently cannot; but teamwork may also lead to confusion, delay and poor decision-making.” The late Richard Hackman of Harvard University once argued, “I have no question that when you have a team, the possibility exists that it will generate magic, producing something extraordinary… But don’t count on it.”
【F】 Hackman（who died in 2013）noted that teams are hindered by problems of co-ordination and motivation that chip away at the benefits of collaboration. High-flyers（能干的人）who are forced to work in teams may be undervalued and free-riders empowered. Group-think may be unavoidable. In a study of 120 teams of senior executives, he discovered that less than 10% of their supposed members agreed on who exactly was on the team. If it is hard enough to define a team’s membership, agreeing on its purpose is harder still.
【G】 Profound changes in the workforce are making teams trickier to manage. Teams work best if their members have a strong common culture. This is hard to achieve when, as is now the case in many big firms, a large proportion of staff are temporary contractors. Teamwork improves with time: America’s National Transportation Safety Board found that 73% of the incidents in its civil-aviation database occurred on a crew’s first day of flying together. However, as Amy Edmondson of Harvard points out, organisations increasingly use “team” as a verb rather than a noun: they form teams for specific purposes and then quickly disband them.
【H】 The least that can be concluded from this research is that companies need to think harder about managing teams. They need to rid their minds of sentimentalism（感情用事）: the most successful teams have leaders who are able to set an overall direction and take immediate action. They need to keep teams small and focused: giving in to pressure to be more “inclusive” is a guarantee of dysfunction. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s boss, says that “If I see more than two pizzas for lunch, the team is too big.” They need to immunise teams against group-think: Hackman argued that the best ones contain “deviant”（离经叛道者）who are willing to do something that may be upsetting to others.
【I】 A new study of 12,000 workers in 17 countries by Steelcase, a furniture-maker which also does consulting, finds that the best way to ensure employees are “engaged” is to give them more control over where and how they do their work—which may mean liberating them from having to do everything in collaboration with others.
【J】 However, organisations need to learn something bigger than how to manage teams better: they need to be in the habit of asking themselves whether teams are the best tools for the job. Team-building skills are in short supply: Deloitte reports that only 12% of the executives they contacted feel they understand the way people work together in the networks and only 21% feel confident in their ability to build cross-functional teams. Loosely managed teams can become hotbeds of distraction—employees routinely complain that they can’t get their work done because they are forced to spend too much time in meetings or compelled to work in noisy offices. Even in the age of open-plan offices and social networks some work is best left to the individual.
39、39. Members of poorly managed teams are easily distracted from their work.
A、A
B、B
C、C
D、D
E、E
F、F
G、G
H、H
I、I
J、J
Team Spirit
【A】Teams have become the basic building blocks of organisations. Recruitment advertisements routinely call for “team players”. Business schools grade their students in part on their performance in group projects. Office managers knock down walls to encourage team building. Teams are as old as civilisation, of course: even Jesus had 12 co-workers. But a new report by Deloitte, “Global Human Capital Trends”, based on a survey of more than 7,000 executive in over 130 countries, suggests that the fashion for teamwork has reached a new high. Almost half of those surveyed said their companies were either in the middle of restructuring or about to embark on (开始) it; and for the most part , restructuring meant putting more emphasis on teams.
【B】 Companies are abandoning conventional functional departments and organising employees into cross-disciplinary teams that focus on particular products, problems or customers. These teams are gaining more power to run their own affairs. They are also spending more time working with each other rather than reporting upwards. Deloitte argues that a new organizational form is on the rise: a network of teams is replacing the conventional hierarchy (等级体制).
【C】 The fashion for teams is driven by a sense that the old way of organising people is too rigid for both the modern marketplace and the expectations of employees. Technological innovation places greater value on agility (灵活性). John Chambers, chairman of Cisco System Inc., a worldwide leader in electronics products, says that “we compete against market transitions (过渡), not competitors. Product transitions used to take five or seven years; now they take one or two.” Digital technology also makes it easier for people to co-ordinate their activities without resorting to hierarchy. The “millennials” (千禧一代) who will soon make up half the workforce in rich countries were raised from nursery school onwards to work in groups.
【D】The fashion for teams is also spreading from the usual corporate suspects (such as GE and IBM) to some more unusual ones. The Cleveland Clinic, a hospital operator, has reorganised its medical staff into teams to focus on particular treatment areas: consultants, nurses and others collaborate closely instead of being separated by specialty (专业的) and rank. The US Army has gone the same way. In his book, Team of Teams, General Stanley McChrystal describes how the army’s hierarchical structure hindered its operations during the early stages of Iraq war. His solution was to learn something from the rebels it was fighting: decentralizing authority to self-organising teams.
【E】 A good rule of thumb is that as soon as generals and hospital administrators jump on a management bandwagon（追随一种管理潮流）, it is time to ask questions. Leigh Thompson of Kellogg School of Management in Illinois warns that, “Teams are not always the answer—teams may provide insight, creativity and knowledge in a way that a person working independently cannot; but teamwork may also lead to confusion, delay and poor decision-making.” The late Richard Hackman of Harvard University once argued, “I have no question that when you have a team, the possibility exists that it will generate magic, producing something extraordinary… But don’t count on it.”
【F】 Hackman（who died in 2013）noted that teams are hindered by problems of co-ordination and motivation that chip away at the benefits of collaboration. High-flyers（能干的人）who are forced to work in teams may be undervalued and free-riders empowered. Group-think may be unavoidable. In a study of 120 teams of senior executives, he discovered that less than 10% of their supposed members agreed on who exactly was on the team. If it is hard enough to define a team’s membership, agreeing on its purpose is harder still.
【G】 Profound changes in the workforce are making teams trickier to manage. Teams work best if their members have a strong common culture. This is hard to achieve when, as is now the case in many big firms, a large proportion of staff are temporary contractors. Teamwork improves with time: America’s National Transportation Safety Board found that 73% of the incidents in its civil-aviation database occurred on a crew’s first day of flying together. However, as Amy Edmondson of Harvard points out, organisations increasingly use “team” as a verb rather than a noun: they form teams for specific purposes and then quickly disband them.
【H】 The least that can be concluded from this research is that companies need to think harder about managing teams. They need to rid their minds of sentimentalism（感情用事）: the most successful teams have leaders who are able to set an overall direction and take immediate action. They need to keep teams small and focused: giving in to pressure to be more “inclusive” is a guarantee of dysfunction. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s boss, says that “If I see more than two pizzas for lunch, the team is too big.” They need to immunise teams against group-think: Hackman argued that the best ones contain “deviant”（离经叛道者）who are willing to do something that may be upsetting to others.
【I】 A new study of 12,000 workers in 17 countries by Steelcase, a furniture-maker which also does consulting, finds that the best way to ensure employees are “engaged” is to give them more control over where and how they do their work—which may mean liberating them from having to do everything in collaboration with others.
【J】 However, organisations need to learn something bigger than how to manage teams better: they need to be in the habit of asking themselves whether teams are the best tools for the job. Team-building skills are in short supply: Deloitte reports that only 12% of the executives they contacted feel they understand the way people work together in the networks and only 21% feel confident in their ability to build cross-functional teams. Loosely managed teams can become hotbeds of distraction—employees routinely complain that they can’t get their work done because they are forced to spend too much time in meetings or compelled to work in noisy offices. Even in the age of open-plan offices and social networks some work is best left to the individual.
40、40. Teamwork is most effective when team members share the same culture.
A、A
B、B
C、C
D、D
E、E
F、F
G、G
H、H
I、I
J、J
Team Spirit
【A】Teams have become the basic building blocks of organisations. Recruitment advertisements routinely call for “team players”. Business schools grade their students in part on their performance in group projects. Office managers knock down walls to encourage team building. Teams are as old as civilisation, of course: even Jesus had 12 co-workers. But a new report by Deloitte, “Global Human Capital Trends”, based on a survey of more than 7,000 executive in over 130 countries, suggests that the fashion for teamwork has reached a new high. Almost half of those surveyed said their companies were either in the middle of restructuring or about to embark on (开始) it; and for the most part , restructuring meant putting more emphasis on teams.
【B】 Companies are abandoning conventional functional departments and organising employees into cross-disciplinary teams that focus on particular products, problems or customers. These teams are gaining more power to run their own affairs. They are also spending more time working with each other rather than reporting upwards. Deloitte argues that a new organizational form is on the rise: a network of teams is replacing the conventional hierarchy (等级体制).
【C】 The fashion for teams is driven by a sense that the old way of organising people is too rigid for both the modern marketplace and the expectations of employees. Technological innovation places greater value on agility (灵活性). John Chambers, chairman of Cisco System Inc., a worldwide leader in electronics products, says that “we compete against market transitions (过渡), not competitors. Product transitions used to take five or seven years; now they take one or two.” Digital technology also makes it easier for people to co-ordinate their activities without resorting to hierarchy. The “millennials” (千禧一代) who will soon make up half the workforce in rich countries were raised from nursery school onwards to work in groups.
【D】The fashion for teams is also spreading from the usual corporate suspects (such as GE and IBM) to some more unusual ones. The Cleveland Clinic, a hospital operator, has reorganised its medical staff into teams to focus on particular treatment areas: consultants, nurses and others collaborate closely instead of being separated by specialty (专业的) and rank. The US Army has gone the same way. In his book, Team of Teams, General Stanley McChrystal describes how the army’s hierarchical structure hindered its operations during the early stages of Iraq war. His solution was to learn something from the rebels it was fighting: decentralizing authority to self-organising teams.
【E】 A good rule of thumb is that as soon as generals and hospital administrators jump on a management bandwagon（追随一种管理潮流）, it is time to ask questions. Leigh Thompson of Kellogg School of Management in Illinois warns that, “Teams are not always the answer—teams may provide insight, creativity and knowledge in a way that a person working independently cannot; but teamwork may also lead to confusion, delay and poor decision-making.” The late Richard Hackman of Harvard University once argued, “I have no question that when you have a team, the possibility exists that it will generate magic, producing something extraordinary… But don’t count on it.”
【F】 Hackman（who died in 2013）noted that teams are hindered by problems of co-ordination and motivation that chip away at the benefits of collaboration. High-flyers（能干的人）who are forced to work in teams may be undervalued and free-riders empowered. Group-think may be unavoidable. In a study of 120 teams of senior executives, he discovered that less than 10% of their supposed members agreed on who exactly was on the team. If it is hard enough to define a team’s membership, agreeing on its purpose is harder still.
【G】 Profound changes in the workforce are making teams trickier to manage. Teams work best if their members have a strong common culture. This is hard to achieve when, as is now the case in many big firms, a large proportion of staff are temporary contractors. Teamwork improves with time: America’s National Transportation Safety Board found that 73% of the incidents in its civil-aviation database occurred on a crew’s first day of flying together. However, as Amy Edmondson of Harvard points out, organisations increasingly use “team” as a verb rather than a noun: they form teams for specific purposes and then quickly disband them.
【H】 The least that can be concluded from this research is that companies need to think harder about managing teams. They need to rid their minds of sentimentalism（感情用事）: the most successful teams have leaders who are able to set an overall direction and take immediate action. They need to keep teams small and focused: giving in to pressure to be more “inclusive” is a guarantee of dysfunction. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s boss, says that “If I see more than two pizzas for lunch, the team is too big.” They need to immunise teams against group-think: Hackman argued that the best ones contain “deviant”（离经叛道者）who are willing to do something that may be upsetting to others.
【I】 A new study of 12,000 workers in 17 countries by Steelcase, a furniture-maker which also does consulting, finds that the best way to ensure employees are “engaged” is to give them more control over where and how they do their work—which may mean liberating them from having to do everything in collaboration with others.
【J】 However, organisations need to learn something bigger than how to manage teams better: they need to be in the habit of asking themselves whether teams are the best tools for the job. Team-building skills are in short supply: Deloitte reports that only 12% of the executives they contacted feel they understand the way people work together in the networks and only 21% feel confident in their ability to build cross-functional teams. Loosely managed teams can become hotbeds of distraction—employees routinely complain that they can’t get their work done because they are forced to spend too much time in meetings or compelled to work in noisy offices. Even in the age of open-plan offices and social networks some work is best left to the individual.
41、41. According to a report by Deloitte, teamwork is becoming increasingly popular among companies.
A、A
B、B
C、C
D、D
E、E
F、F
G、G
H、H
I、I
J、J
Team Spirit
【A】Teams have become the basic building blocks of organisations. Recruitment advertisements routinely call for “team players”. Business schools grade their students in part on their performance in group projects. Office managers knock down walls to encourage team building. Teams are as old as civilisation, of course: even Jesus had 12 co-workers. But a new report by Deloitte, “Global Human Capital Trends”, based on a survey of more than 7,000 executive in over 130 countries, suggests that the fashion for teamwork has reached a new high. Almost half of those surveyed said their companies were either in the middle of restructuring or about to embark on (开始) it; and for the most part , restructuring meant putting more emphasis on teams.
【B】 Companies are abandoning conventional functional departments and organising employees into cross-disciplinary teams that focus on particular products, problems or customers. These teams are gaining more power to run their own affairs. They are also spending more time working with each other rather than reporting upwards. Deloitte argues that a new organizational form is on the rise: a network of teams is replacing the conventional hierarchy (等级体制).
【C】 The fashion for teams is driven by a sense that the old way of organising people is too rigid for both the modern marketplace and the expectations of employees. Technological innovation places greater value on agility (灵活性). John Chambers, chairman of Cisco System Inc., a worldwide leader in electronics products, says that “we compete against market transitions (过渡), not competitors. Product transitions used to take five or seven years; now they take one or two.” Digital technology also makes it easier for people to co-ordinate their activities without resorting to hierarchy. The “millennials” (千禧一代) who will soon make up half the workforce in rich countries were raised from nursery school onwards to work in groups.
【D】The fashion for teams is also spreading from the usual corporate suspects (such as GE and IBM) to some more unusual ones. The Cleveland Clinic, a hospital operator, has reorganised its medical staff into teams to focus on particular treatment areas: consultants, nurses and others collaborate closely instead of being separated by specialty (专业的) and rank. The US Army has gone the same way. In his book, Team of Teams, General Stanley McChrystal describes how the army’s hierarchical structure hindered its operations during the early stages of Iraq war. His solution was to learn something from the rebels it was fighting: decentralizing authority to self-organising teams.
【E】 A good rule of thumb is that as soon as generals and hospital administrators jump on a management bandwagon（追随一种管理潮流）, it is time to ask questions. Leigh Thompson of Kellogg School of Management in Illinois warns that, “Teams are not always the answer—teams may provide insight, creativity and knowledge in a way that a person working independently cannot; but teamwork may also lead to confusion, delay and poor decision-making.” The late Richard Hackman of Harvard University once argued, “I have no question that when you have a team, the possibility exists that it will generate magic, producing something extraordinary… But don’t count on it.”
【F】 Hackman（who died in 2013）noted that teams are hindered by problems of co-ordination and motivation that chip away at the benefits of collaboration. High-flyers（能干的人）who are forced to work in teams may be undervalued and free-riders empowered. Group-think may be unavoidable. In a study of 120 teams of senior executives, he discovered that less than 10% of their supposed members agreed on who exactly was on the team. If it is hard enough to define a team’s membership, agreeing on its purpose is harder still.
【G】 Profound changes in the workforce are making teams trickier to manage. Teams work best if their members have a strong common culture. This is hard to achieve when, as is now the case in many big firms, a large proportion of staff are temporary contractors. Teamwork improves with time: America’s National Transportation Safety Board found that 73% of the incidents in its civil-aviation database occurred on a crew’s first day of flying together. However, as Amy Edmondson of Harvard points out, organisations increasingly use “team” as a verb rather than a noun: they form teams for specific purposes and then quickly disband them.
【H】 The least that can be concluded from this research is that companies need to think harder about managing teams. They need to rid their minds of sentimentalism（感情用事）: the most successful teams have leaders who are able to set an overall direction and take immediate action. They need to keep teams small and focused: giving in to pressure to be more “inclusive” is a guarantee of dysfunction. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s boss, says that “If I see more than two pizzas for lunch, the team is too big.” They need to immunise teams against group-think: Hackman argued that the best ones contain “deviant”（离经叛道者）who are willing to do something that may be upsetting to others.
【I】 A new study of 12,000 workers in 17 countries by Steelcase, a furniture-maker which also does consulting, finds that the best way to ensure employees are “engaged” is to give them more control over where and how they do their work—which may mean liberating them from having to do everything in collaboration with others.
【J】 However, organisations need to learn something bigger than how to manage teams better: they need to be in the habit of asking themselves whether teams are the best tools for the job. Team-building skills are in short supply: Deloitte reports that only 12% of the executives they contacted feel they understand the way people work together in the networks and only 21% feel confident in their ability to build cross-functional teams. Loosely managed teams can become hotbeds of distraction—employees routinely complain that they can’t get their work done because they are forced to spend too much time in meetings or compelled to work in noisy offices. Even in the age of open-plan offices and social networks some work is best left to the individual.
42、42. Some team members find it hard to agree on questions like membership and the team’s purpose.
A、A
B、B
C、C
D、D
E、E
F、F
G、G
H、H
I、I
J、J
Team Spirit
【A】Teams have become the basic building blocks of organisations. Recruitment advertisements routinely call for “team players”. Business schools grade their students in part on their performance in group projects. Office managers knock down walls to encourage team building. Teams are as old as civilisation, of course: even Jesus had 12 co-workers. But a new report by Deloitte, “Global Human Capital Trends”, based on a survey of more than 7,000 executive in over 130 countries, suggests that the fashion for teamwork has reached a new high. Almost half of those surveyed said their companies were either in the middle of restructuring or about to embark on (开始) it; and for the most part , restructuring meant putting more emphasis on teams.
【B】 Companies are abandoning conventional functional departments and organising employees into cross-disciplinary teams that focus on particular products, problems or customers. These teams are gaining more power to run their own affairs. They are also spending more time working with each other rather than reporting upwards. Deloitte argues that a new organizational form is on the rise: a network of teams is replacing the conventional hierarchy (等级体制).
【C】 The fashion for teams is driven by a sense that the old way of organising people is too rigid for both the modern marketplace and the expectations of employees. Technological innovation places greater value on agility (灵活性). John Chambers, chairman of Cisco System Inc., a worldwide leader in electronics products, says that “we compete against market transitions (过渡), not competitors. Product transitions used to take five or seven years; now they take one or two.” Digital technology also makes it easier for people to co-ordinate their activities without resorting to hierarchy. The “millennials” (千禧一代) who will soon make up half the workforce in rich countries were raised from nursery school onwards to work in groups.
【D】The fashion for teams is also spreading from the usual corporate suspects (such as GE and IBM) to some more unusual ones. The Cleveland Clinic, a hospital operator, has reorganised its medical staff into teams to focus on particular treatment areas: consultants, nurses and others collaborate closely instead of being separated by specialty (专业的) and rank. The US Army has gone the same way. In his book, Team of Teams, General Stanley McChrystal describes how the army’s hierarchical structure hindered its operations during the early stages of Iraq war. His solution was to learn something from the rebels it was fighting: decentralizing authority to self-organising teams.
【E】 A good rule of thumb is that as soon as generals and hospital administrators jump on a management bandwagon（追随一种管理潮流）, it is time to ask questions. Leigh Thompson of Kellogg School of Management in Illinois warns that, “Teams are not always the answer—teams may provide insight, creativity and knowledge in a way that a person working independently cannot; but teamwork may also lead to confusion, delay and poor decision-making.” The late Richard Hackman of Harvard University once argued, “I have no question that when you have a team, the possibility exists that it will generate magic, producing something extraordinary… But don’t count on it.”
【F】 Hackman（who died in 2013）noted that teams are hindered by problems of co-ordination and motivation that chip away at the benefits of collaboration. High-flyers（能干的人）who are forced to work in teams may be undervalued and free-riders empowered. Group-think may be unavoidable. In a study of 120 teams of senior executives, he discovered that less than 10% of their supposed members agreed on who exactly was on the team. If it is hard enough to define a team’s membership, agreeing on its purpose is harder still.
【G】 Profound changes in the workforce are making teams trickier to manage. Teams work best if their members have a strong common culture. This is hard to achieve when, as is now the case in many big firms, a large proportion of staff are temporary contractors. Teamwork improves with time: America’s National Transportation Safety Board found that 73% of the incidents in its civil-aviation database occurred on a crew’s first day of flying together. However, as Amy Edmondson of Harvard points out, organisations increasingly use “team” as a verb rather than a noun: they form teams for specific purposes and then quickly disband them.
【H】 The least that can be concluded from this research is that companies need to think harder about managing teams. They need to rid their minds of sentimentalism（感情用事）: the most successful teams have leaders who are able to set an overall direction and take immediate action. They need to keep teams small and focused: giving in to pressure to be more “inclusive” is a guarantee of dysfunction. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s boss, says that “If I see more than two pizzas for lunch, the team is too big.” They need to immunise teams against group-think: Hackman argued that the best ones contain “deviant”（离经叛道者）who are willing to do something that may be upsetting to others.
【I】 A new study of 12,000 workers in 17 countries by Steelcase, a furniture-maker which also does consulting, finds that the best way to ensure employees are “engaged” is to give them more control over where and how they do their work—which may mean liberating them from having to do everything in collaboration with others.
【J】 However, organisations need to learn something bigger than how to manage teams better: they need to be in the habit of asking themselves whether teams are the best tools for the job. Team-building skills are in short supply: Deloitte reports that only 12% of the executives they contacted feel they understand the way people work together in the networks and only 21% feel confident in their ability to build cross-functional teams. Loosely managed teams can become hotbeds of distraction—employees routinely complain that they can’t get their work done because they are forced to spend too much time in meetings or compelled to work in noisy offices. Even in the age of open-plan offices and social networks some work is best left to the individual.
43、43. Some scholars think teamwork may not always be reliable, despite its potential to work wonders.
A、A
B、B
C、C
D、D
E、E
F、F
G、G
H、H
I、I
J、J
Team Spirit
【A】Teams have become the basic building blocks of organisations. Recruitment advertisements routinely call for “team players”. Business schools grade their students in part on their performance in group projects. Office managers knock down walls to encourage team building. Teams are as old as civilisation, of course: even Jesus had 12 co-workers. But a new report by Deloitte, “Global Human Capital Trends”, based on a survey of more than 7,000 executive in over 130 countries, suggests that the fashion for teamwork has reached a new high. Almost half of those surveyed said their companies were either in the middle of restructuring or about to embark on (开始) it; and for the most part , restructuring meant putting more emphasis on teams.
【B】 Companies are abandoning conventional functional departments and organising employees into cross-disciplinary teams that focus on particular products, problems or customers. These teams are gaining more power to run their own affairs. They are also spending more time working with each other rather than reporting upwards. Deloitte argues that a new organizational form is on the rise: a network of teams is replacing the conventional hierarchy (等级体制).
【C】 The fashion for teams is driven by a sense that the old way of organising people is too rigid for both the modern marketplace and the expectations of employees. Technological innovation places greater value on agility (灵活性). John Chambers, chairman of Cisco System Inc., a worldwide leader in electronics products, says that “we compete against market transitions (过渡), not competitors. Product transitions used to take five or seven years; now they take one or two.” Digital technology also makes it easier for people to co-ordinate their activities without resorting to hierarchy. The “millennials” (千禧一代) who will soon make up half the workforce in rich countries were raised from nursery school onwards to work in groups.
【D】The fashion for teams is also spreading from the usual corporate suspects (such as GE and IBM) to some more unusual ones. The Cleveland Clinic, a hospital operator, has reorganised its medical staff into teams to focus on particular treatment areas: consultants, nurses and others collaborate closely instead of being separated by specialty (专业的) and rank. The US Army has gone the same way. In his book, Team of Teams, General Stanley McChrystal describes how the army’s hierarchical structure hindered its operations during the early stages of Iraq war. His solution was to learn something from the rebels it was fighting: decentralizing authority to self-organising teams.
【E】 A good rule of thumb is that as soon as generals and hospital administrators jump on a management bandwagon（追随一种管理潮流）, it is time to ask questions. Leigh Thompson of Kellogg School of Management in Illinois warns that, “Teams are not always the answer—teams may provide insight, creativity and knowledge in a way that a person working independently cannot; but teamwork may also lead to confusion, delay and poor decision-making.” The late Richard Hackman of Harvard University once argued, “I have no question that when you have a team, the possibility exists that it will generate magic, producing something extraordinary… But don’t count on it.”
【F】 Hackman（who died in 2013）noted that teams are hindered by problems of co-ordination and motivation that chip away at the benefits of collaboration. High-flyers（能干的人）who are forced to work in teams may be undervalued and free-riders empowered. Group-think may be unavoidable. In a study of 120 teams of senior executives, he discovered that less than 10% of their supposed members agreed on who exactly was on the team. If it is hard enough to define a team’s membership, agreeing on its purpose is harder still.
【G】 Profound changes in the workforce are making teams trickier to manage. Teams work best if their members have a strong common culture. This is hard to achieve when, as is now the case in many big firms, a large proportion of staff are temporary contractors. Teamwork improves with time: America’s National Transportation Safety Board found that 73% of the incidents in its civil-aviation database occurred on a crew’s first day of flying together. However, as Amy Edmondson of Harvard points out, organisations increasingly use “team” as a verb rather than a noun: they form teams for specific purposes and then quickly disband them.
【H】 The least that can be concluded from this research is that companies need to think harder about managing teams. They need to rid their minds of sentimentalism（感情用事）: the most successful teams have leaders who are able to set an overall direction and take immediate action. They need to keep teams small and focused: giving in to pressure to be more “inclusive” is a guarantee of dysfunction. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s boss, says that “If I see more than two pizzas for lunch, the team is too big.” They need to immunise teams against group-think: Hackman argued that the best ones contain “deviant”（离经叛道者）who are willing to do something that may be upsetting to others.
【I】 A new study of 12,000 workers in 17 countries by Steelcase, a furniture-maker which also does consulting, finds that the best way to ensure employees are “engaged” is to give them more control over where and how they do their work—which may mean liberating them from having to do everything in collaboration with others.
【J】 However, organisations need to learn something bigger than how to manage teams better: they need to be in the habit of asking themselves whether teams are the best tools for the job. Team-building skills are in short supply: Deloitte reports that only 12% of the executives they contacted feel they understand the way people work together in the networks and only 21% feel confident in their ability to build cross-functional teams. Loosely managed teams can become hotbeds of distraction—employees routinely complain that they can’t get their work done because they are forced to spend too much time in meetings or compelled to work in noisy offices. Even in the age of open-plan offices and social networks some work is best left to the individual.
44、44. To ensure employees’ commitment, it is advisable to give them more flexibility as to where and how they work.
A、A
B、B
C、C
D、D
E、E
F、F
G、G
H、H
I、I
J、J
Team Spirit
【A】Teams have become the basic building blocks of organisations. Recruitment advertisements routinely call for “team players”. Business schools grade their students in part on their performance in group projects. Office managers knock down walls to encourage team building. Teams are as old as civilisation, of course: even Jesus had 12 co-workers. But a new report by Deloitte, “Global Human Capital Trends”, based on a survey of more than 7,000 executive in over 130 countries, suggests that the fashion for teamwork has reached a new high. Almost half of those surveyed said their companies were either in the middle of restructuring or about to embark on (开始) it; and for the most part , restructuring meant putting more emphasis on teams.
【B】 Companies are abandoning conventional functional departments and organising employees into cross-disciplinary teams that focus on particular products, problems or customers. These teams are gaining more power to run their own affairs. They are also spending more time working with each other rather than reporting upwards. Deloitte argues that a new organizational form is on the rise: a network of teams is replacing the conventional hierarchy (等级体制).
【C】 The fashion for teams is driven by a sense that the old way of organising people is too rigid for both the modern marketplace and the expectations of employees. Technological innovation places greater value on agility (灵活性). John Chambers, chairman of Cisco System Inc., a worldwide leader in electronics products, says that “we compete against market transitions (过渡), not competitors. Product transitions used to take five or seven years; now they take one or two.” Digital technology also makes it easier for people to co-ordinate their activities without resorting to hierarchy. The “millennials” (千禧一代) who will soon make up half the workforce in rich countries were raised from nursery school onwards to work in groups.
【D】The fashion for teams is also spreading from the usual corporate suspects (such as GE and IBM) to some more unusual ones. The Cleveland Clinic, a hospital operator, has reorganised its medical staff into teams to focus on particular treatment areas: consultants, nurses and others collaborate closely instead of being separated by specialty (专业的) and rank. The US Army has gone the same way. In his book, Team of Teams, General Stanley McChrystal describes how the army’s hierarchical structure hindered its operations during the early stages of Iraq war. His solution was to learn something from the rebels it was fighting: decentralizing authority to self-organising teams.
【E】 A good rule of thumb is that as soon as generals and hospital administrators jump on a management bandwagon（追随一种管理潮流）, it is time to ask questions. Leigh Thompson of Kellogg School of Management in Illinois warns that, “Teams are not always the answer—teams may provide insight, creativity and knowledge in a way that a person working independently cannot; but teamwork may also lead to confusion, delay and poor decision-making.” The late Richard Hackman of Harvard University once argued, “I have no question that when you have a team, the possibility exists that it will generate magic, producing something extraordinary… But don’t count on it.”
【F】 Hackman（who died in 2013）noted that teams are hindered by problems of co-ordination and motivation that chip away at the benefits of collaboration. High-flyers（能干的人）who are forced to work in teams may be undervalued and free-riders empowered. Group-think may be unavoidable. In a study of 120 teams of senior executives, he discovered that less than 10% of their supposed members agreed on who exactly was on the team. If it is hard enough to define a team’s membership, agreeing on its purpose is harder still.
【G】 Profound changes in the workforce are making teams trickier to manage. Teams work best if their members have a strong common culture. This is hard to achieve when, as is now the case in many big firms, a large proportion of staff are temporary contractors. Teamwork improves with time: America’s National Transportation Safety Board found that 73% of the incidents in its civil-aviation database occurred on a crew’s first day of flying together. However, as Amy Edmondson of Harvard points out, organisations increasingly use “team” as a verb rather than a noun: they form teams for specific purposes and then quickly disband them.
【H】 The least that can be concluded from this research is that companies need to think harder about managing teams. They need to rid their minds of sentimentalism（感情用事）: the most successful teams have leaders who are able to set an overall direction and take immediate action. They need to keep teams small and focused: giving in to pressure to be more “inclusive” is a guarantee of dysfunction. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s boss, says that “If I see more than two pizzas for lunch, the team is too big.” They need to immunise teams against group-think: Hackman argued that the best ones contain “deviant”（离经叛道者）who are willing to do something that may be upsetting to others.
【I】 A new study of 12,000 workers in 17 countries by Steelcase, a furniture-maker which also does consulting, finds that the best way to ensure employees are “engaged” is to give them more control over where and how they do their work—which may mean liberating them from having to do everything in collaboration with others.
【J】 However, organisations need to learn something bigger than how to manage teams better: they need to be in the habit of asking themselves whether teams are the best tools for the job. Team-building skills are in short supply: Deloitte reports that only 12% of the executives they contacted feel they understand the way people work together in the networks and only 21% feel confident in their ability to build cross-functional teams. Loosely managed teams can become hotbeds of distraction—employees routinely complain that they can’t get their work done because they are forced to spend too much time in meetings or compelled to work in noisy offices. Even in the age of open-plan offices and social networks some work is best left to the individual.
45、45. Product transitions take much less time now than in the past.
A、A
B、B
C、C
D、D
E、E
F、F
G、G
H、H
I、I
J、J
Shoppers in the UK are spending less money on toilet paper to save money, research has shown.
Penny-pinching UK consumers choose cheaper products from discounters such as Aldi and Lidl rather than luxury alternatives.
This has wiped 6% off the value of the soft tissue paper market in the UK. It has shrunk from £1,19 billion in 2011 to £1,12 billion in 2015, according to a new report from market research company Mintel. Furthermore, the future of the market looks far from rosy, with sales expected to fall further to £1,11 billion in 2016.
In the last year alone, despite an increase in the UK population and a subsequent rise in the number of households, sales of toilet paper fell by 2%, with the average household reducing their toilet roll spending from £43 in 2014 to £41 in 2015.
Overall, almost three in five people say they try to limit their usage of paper—including facing tissue and kitchen roll—to save money. “Strength, softness and thickness remain the leading indicators of toilet paper quality, with just a small proportion of consumers preferring more luxurious alternatives, such as those with flower patterns or perfume,” said Mintel analyst Jack Duckett. “These extra features are deemed unnecessary by the majority of shoppers, which probably reflects how these types of products are typically more expensive than regular toilet paper, even when on special offer.”
While consumers are spending less on toilet paper, they remain fussy—in theory at least—when it comes to paper quality. Top of Britons’s toilet paper wish list is softness (57%) followed by strength (45%) and thickness (36%).
One in 10 buyers rank toilet rolls made from recycled paper among their top considerations, highlighting how overall the environment is much less of a consideration for shoppers than product quality. In a challenge for manufactures, 81% of paper product users said they would consider buying recycled toilet tissue if it were comparable in quality to standard paper.
46、46. The market sales of toilet paper have decreased because .
A、Britons have cut their spending on it
B、its prices have gone up over the years
C、its quality has seen marked improvement
D、Britons have developed the habit of saving
Shoppers in the UK are spending less money on toilet paper to save money, research has shown.
Penny-pinching UK consumers choose cheaper products from discounters such as Aldi and Lidl rather than luxury alternatives.
This has wiped 6% off the value of the soft tissue paper market in the UK. It has shrunk from £1,19 billion in 2011 to £1,12 billion in 2015, according to a new report from market research company Mintel. Furthermore, the future of the market looks far from rosy, with sales expected to fall further to £1,11 billion in 2016.
In the last year alone, despite an increase in the UK population and a subsequent rise in the number of households, sales of toilet paper fell by 2%, with the average household reducing their toilet roll spending from £43 in 2014 to £41 in 2015.
Overall, almost three in five people say they try to limit their usage of paper—including facing tissue and kitchen roll—to save money. “Strength, softness and thickness remain the leading indicators of toilet paper quality, with just a small proportion of consumers preferring more luxurious alternatives, such as those with flower patterns or perfume,” said Mintel analyst Jack Duckett. “These extra features are deemed unnecessary by the majority of shoppers, which probably reflects how these types of products are typically more expensive than regular toilet paper, even when on special offer.”
While consumers are spending less on toilet paper, they remain fussy—in theory at least—when it comes to paper quality. Top of Britons’s toilet paper wish list is softness (57%) followed by strength (45%) and thickness (36%).
One in 10 buyers rank toilet rolls made from recycled paper among their top considerations, highlighting how overall the environment is much less of a consideration for shoppers than product quality. In a challenge for manufactures, 81% of paper product users said they would consider buying recycled toilet tissue if it were comparable in quality to standard paper.
47、47. What does the author think of the future of the tissue paper market in the UK?
A、It will expand in time.
B、It will remain gloomy.
C、It will experience ups and downs.
D、It will recover as population grows.
Shoppers in the UK are spending less money on toilet paper to save money, research has shown.
Penny-pinching UK consumers choose cheaper products from discounters such as Aldi and Lidl rather than luxury alternatives.
This has wiped 6% off the value of the soft tissue paper market in the UK. It has shrunk from £1,19 billion in 2011 to £1,12 billion in 2015, according to a new report from market research company Mintel. Furthermore, the future of the market looks far from rosy, with sales expected to fall further to £1,11 billion in 2016.
In the last year alone, despite an increase in the UK population and a subsequent rise in the number of households, sales of toilet paper fell by 2%, with the average household reducing their toilet roll spending from £43 in 2014 to £41 in 2015.
Overall, almost three in five people say they try to limit their usage of paper—including facing tissue and kitchen roll—to save money. “Strength, softness and thickness remain the leading indicators of toilet paper quality, with just a small proportion of consumers preferring more luxurious alternatives, such as those with flower patterns or perfume,” said Mintel analyst Jack Duckett. “These extra features are deemed unnecessary by the majority of shoppers, which probably reflects how these types of products are typically more expensive than regular toilet paper, even when on special offer.”
While consumers are spending less on toilet paper, they remain fussy—in theory at least—when it comes to paper quality. Top of Britons’s toilet paper wish list is softness (57%) followed by strength (45%) and thickness (36%).
One in 10 buyers rank toilet rolls made from recycled paper among their top considerations, highlighting how overall the environment is much less of a consideration for shoppers than product quality. In a challenge for manufactures, 81% of paper product users said they would consider buying recycled toilet tissue if it were comparable in quality to standard paper.
48、48. What does Jack Duckett say about toilet paper?
A、Special offers would promote its sales.
B、Consumers are loyal to certain brands.
C、Luxurious features add much to the price.
D、Consumers have a variety to choose from.
Shoppers in the UK are spending less money on toilet paper to save money, research has shown.
Penny-pinching UK consumers choose cheaper products from discounters such as Aldi and Lidl rather than luxury alternatives.
This has wiped 6% off the value of the soft tissue paper market in the UK. It has shrunk from £1,19 billion in 2011 to £1,12 billion in 2015, according to a new report from market research company Mintel. Furthermore, the future of the market looks far from rosy, with sales expected to fall further to £1,11 billion in 2016.
In the last year alone, despite an increase in the UK population and a subsequent rise in the number of households, sales of toilet paper fell by 2%, with the average household reducing their toilet roll spending from £43 in 2014 to £41 in 2015.
Overall, almost three in five people say they try to limit their usage of paper—including facing tissue and kitchen roll—to save money. “Strength, softness and thickness remain the leading indicators of toilet paper quality, with just a small proportion of consumers preferring more luxurious alternatives, such as those with flower patterns or perfume,” said Mintel analyst Jack Duckett. “These extra features are deemed unnecessary by the majority of shoppers, which probably reflects how these types of products are typically more expensive than regular toilet paper, even when on special offer.”
While consumers are spending less on toilet paper, they remain fussy—in theory at least—when it comes to paper quality. Top of Britons’s toilet paper wish list is softness (57%) followed by strength (45%) and thickness (36%).
One in 10 buyers rank toilet rolls made from recycled paper among their top considerations, highlighting how overall the environment is much less of a consideration for shoppers than product quality. In a challenge for manufactures, 81% of paper product users said they would consider buying recycled toilet tissue if it were comparable in quality to standard paper.
49、49. What do we learn about Britons concerning toilet paper?
A、They are particular about the quality of toilet paper.
B、They emphasize the strength of toilet paper the most.
C、They prefer cheap toilet paper to recycled toilet paper.
D、They reject using toilet paper with unnecessary features.
Shoppers in the UK are spending less money on toilet paper to save money, research has shown.
Penny-pinching UK consumers choose cheaper products from discounters such as Aldi and Lidl rather than luxury alternatives.
This has wiped 6% off the value of the soft tissue paper market in the UK. It has shrunk from £1,19 billion in 2011 to £1,12 billion in 2015, according to a new report from market research company Mintel. Furthermore, the future of the market looks far from rosy, with sales expected to fall further to £1,11 billion in 2016.
In the last year alone, despite an increase in the UK population and a subsequent rise in the number of households, sales of toilet paper fell by 2%, with the average household reducing their toilet roll spending from £43 in 2014 to £41 in 2015.
Overall, almost three in five people say they try to limit their usage of paper—including facing tissue and kitchen roll—to save money. “Strength, softness and thickness remain the leading indicators of toilet paper quality, with just a small proportion of consumers preferring more luxurious alternatives, such as those with flower patterns or perfume,” said Mintel analyst Jack Duckett. “These extra features are deemed unnecessary by the majority of shoppers, which probably reflects how these types of products are typically more expensive than regular toilet paper, even when on special offer.”
While consumers are spending less on toilet paper, they remain fussy—in theory at least—when it comes to paper quality. Top of Britons’s toilet paper wish list is softness (57%) followed by strength (45%) and thickness (36%).
One in 10 buyers rank toilet rolls made from recycled paper among their top considerations, highlighting how overall the environment is much less of a consideration for shoppers than product quality. In a challenge for manufactures, 81% of paper product users said they would consider buying recycled toilet tissue if it were comparable in quality to standard paper.
50、50. What can we infer from the last paragraph?
A、More and more Britons buy recycled toilet paper to protect the environment.
B、Toilet paper manufacturers are facing a great challenge in promoting its sales.
C、Toilet paper manufacturers compete with one another to improve product quality.
D、Environmental protection is not much of a concern when Britons buy toilet paper.
“One of the reasons I find this topic very interesting is because my mom was a smoker when I was younger,” says Lindson-Hawley, who studies tobacco and health at the University of Oxford.
By studying about 700 adult smokers, she found out that her mom quit the right way—by stopping abruptly and completely.
In her study, participants were randomly (随机地) assigned to two groups. One had to quit abruptly on a given day, going from about a pack a day to zero. The other cut down gradually over the course of two weeks. People in both groups used nicotine (尼古丁) patches before they quit, in addition to a second form of nicotine replacement, like gum or spray. They also had talk therapy with a nurse before and after quit day.
Six month out, more people who had quit abruptly had stuck with it—more than one-fifth of them, compared to about one-seventh in the other group. Although these numbers appear low, it is much higher than if people try without support.
And the quit rates were particularly convincing given that before the study started, most of the people had said they’d rather cut down gradually before quitting. “If you are training for a marathon, you wouldn’t expect to turn up and just be able to run it. And I think people see that for smoking as well. They think, ‘Well, if I gradually reduce, it’s like practice.’ ”says Lindson-Hawley. But that wasn’t the case. Instead of giving people practice, the gradual reduction likely gave them cravings (瘾) and withdrawal symptoms before they even reached quit day, which could be why fewer people in that group actually made it to that point. “Regardless of your stated preference, if you’re ready to quit, quitting abruptly is more effective,” says Dr. Gabriela Ferreira. “When you can quote a specific number like a fifth of the patients were able to quit, that’s compelling. It gives them the encouragement, I think, to really go for it,” Ferreira says.
People rarely manage to quit the first time they try. But at least she says, they can maximize the odds of success.
51、51. What does Lindson-Hawley say about her mother?
A、She quit smoking with her daughter’s help.
B、She succeeded in quitting smoking abruptly.
C、She was also a researcher of tobacco and health.
D、She studied the smoking patterns of adult smokers.
“One of the reasons I find this topic very interesting is because my mom was a smoker when I was younger,” says Lindson-Hawley, who studies tobacco and health at the University of Oxford.
By studying about 700 adult smokers, she found out that her mom quit the right way—by stopping abruptly and completely.
In her study, participants were randomly (随机地) assigned to two groups. One had to quit abruptly on a given day, going from about a pack a day to zero. The other cut down gradually over the course of two weeks. People in both groups used nicotine (尼古丁) patches before they quit, in addition to a second form of nicotine replacement, like gum or spray. They also had talk therapy with a nurse before and after quit day.
Six month out, more people who had quit abruptly had stuck with it—more than one-fifth of them, compared to about one-seventh in the other group. Although these numbers appear low, it is much higher than if people try without support.
And the quit rates were particularly convincing given that before the study started, most of the people had said they’d rather cut down gradually before quitting. “If you are training for a marathon, you wouldn’t expect to turn up and just be able to run it. And I think people see that for smoking as well. They think, ‘Well, if I gradually reduce, it’s like practice.’ ”says Lindson-Hawley. But that wasn’t the case. Instead of giving people practice, the gradual reduction likely gave them cravings (瘾) and withdrawal symptoms before they even reached quit day, which could be why fewer people in that group actually made it to that point. “Regardless of your stated preference, if you’re ready to quit, quitting abruptly is more effective,” says Dr. Gabriela Ferreira. “When you can quote a specific number like a fifth of the patients were able to quit, that’s compelling. It gives them the encouragement, I think, to really go for it,” Ferreira says.
People rarely manage to quit the first time they try. But at least she says, they can maximize the odds of success.
52、52. What kind of support did smokers receive to quit smoking in Lindson-Hawley’s study?
A、They were given physical training.
B、They were looked after by physicians.
C、They were encouraged by psychologists.
D、They were offered nicotine replacements.
“One of the reasons I find this topic very interesting is because my mom was a smoker when I was younger,” says Lindson-Hawley, who studies tobacco and health at the University of Oxford.
By studying about 700 adult smokers, she found out that her mom quit the right way—by stopping abruptly and completely.
In her study, participants were randomly (随机地) assigned to two groups. One had to quit abruptly on a given day, going from about a pack a day to zero. The other cut down gradually over the course of two weeks. People in both groups used nicotine (尼古丁) patches before they quit, in addition to a second form of nicotine replacement, like gum or spray. They also had talk therapy with a nurse before and after quit day.
Six month out, more people who had quit abruptly had stuck with it—more than one-fifth of them, compared to about one-seventh in the other group. Although these numbers appear low, it is much higher than if people try without support.
And the quit rates were particularly convincing given that before the study started, most of the people had said they’d rather cut down gradually before quitting. “If you are training for a marathon, you wouldn’t expect to turn up and just be able to run it. And I think people see that for smoking as well. They think, ‘Well, if I gradually reduce, it’s like practice.’ ”says Lindson-Hawley. But that wasn’t the case. Instead of giving people practice, the gradual reduction likely gave them cravings (瘾) and withdrawal symptoms before they even reached quit day, which could be why fewer people in that group actually made it to that point. “Regardless of your stated preference, if you’re ready to quit, quitting abruptly is more effective,” says Dr. Gabriela Ferreira. “When you can quote a specific number like a fifth of the patients were able to quit, that’s compelling. It gives them the encouragement, I think, to really go for it,” Ferreira says.
People rarely manage to quit the first time they try. But at least she says, they can maximize the odds of success.
53、53. How does Dr. Gabriela Ferreira view the result of Lindson-Hawley’s experiment?
A、It is idealized.
B、It is unexpected.
C、It is encouraging.
D、It is misleading.
“One of the reasons I find this topic very interesting is because my mom was a smoker when I was younger,” says Lindson-Hawley, who studies tobacco and health at the University of Oxford.
By studying about 700 adult smokers, she found out that her mom quit the right way—by stopping abruptly and completely.
In her study, participants were randomly (随机地) assigned to two groups. One had to quit abruptly on a given day, going from about a pack a day to zero. The other cut down gradually over the course of two weeks. People in both groups used nicotine (尼古丁) patches before they quit, in addition to a second form of nicotine replacement, like gum or spray. They also had talk therapy with a nurse before and after quit day.
Six month out, more people who had quit abruptly had stuck with it—more than one-fifth of them, compared to about one-seventh in the other group. Although these numbers appear low, it is much higher than if people try without support.
And the quit rates were particularly convincing given that before the study started, most of the people had said they’d rather cut down gradually before quitting. “If you are training for a marathon, you wouldn’t expect to turn up and just be able to run it. And I think people see that for smoking as well. They think, ‘Well, if I gradually reduce, it’s like practice.’ ”says Lindson-Hawley. But that wasn’t the case. Instead of giving people practice, the gradual reduction likely gave them cravings (瘾) and withdrawal symptoms before they even reached quit day, which could be why fewer people in that group actually made it to that point. “Regardless of your stated preference, if you’re ready to quit, quitting abruptly is more effective,” says Dr. Gabriela Ferreira. “When you can quote a specific number like a fifth of the patients were able to quit, that’s compelling. It gives them the encouragement, I think, to really go for it,” Ferreira says.
People rarely manage to quit the first time they try. But at least she says, they can maximize the odds of success.
54、54.The idea of “a marathon” (Line 2. Para. 5) illustrates the popular belief that quitting smoking .
A、is something few can accomplish
B、needs some practice first
C、requires a lot of patience
D、is a challenge at the beginning
“One of the reasons I find this topic very interesting is because my mom was a smoker when I was younger,” says Lindson-Hawley, who studies tobacco and health at the University of Oxford.
By studying about 700 adult smokers, she found out that her mom quit the right way—by stopping abruptly and completely.
In her study, participants were randomly (随机地) assigned to two groups. One had to quit abruptly on a given day, going from about a pack a day to zero. The other cut down gradually over the course of two weeks. People in both groups used nicotine (尼古丁) patches before they quit, in addition to a second form of nicotine replacement, like gum or spray. They also had talk therapy with a nurse before and after quit day.
Six month out, more people who had quit abruptly had stuck with it—more than one-fifth of them, compared to about one-seventh in the other group. Although these numbers appear low, it is much higher than if people try without support.
And the quit rates were particularly convincing given that before the study started, most of the people had said they’d rather cut down gradually before quitting. “If you are training for a marathon, you wouldn’t expect to turn up and just be able to run it. And I think people see that for smoking as well. They think, ‘Well, if I gradually reduce, it’s like practice.’ ”says Lindson-Hawley. But that wasn’t the case. Instead of giving people practice, the gradual reduction likely gave them cravings (瘾) and withdrawal symptoms before they even reached quit day, which could be why fewer people in that group actually made it to that point. “Regardless of your stated preference, if you’re ready to quit, quitting abruptly is more effective,” says Dr. Gabriela Ferreira. “When you can quote a specific number like a fifth of the patients were able to quit, that’s compelling. It gives them the encouragement, I think, to really go for it,” Ferreira says.
People rarely manage to quit the first time they try. But at least she says, they can maximize the odds of success.
55、55. What happens when people try to quit smoking gradually?
A、They find it even more difficult.
B、They are simply unable to make it.
C、They show fewer withdrawal symptoms.
D、They feel much less pain in the process.
三、Part IV Translation
56、珠江是华南一大河系，流经广州市，是中国第三长的河流，仅次于长江和黄河。珠江三角洲（delta）是中国最发达的地区之一，面积约11 000平方公里。它在面积和人口方面也是世界上最大的城市聚集区。珠江三角洲九个最大城市共有5 700多万人口。上世纪70年代末中国改革开放以来，珠江三角洲已成为中国和世界主要经济区域和制造中心之一。
参考答案：
全文普通版：The Zhujiang River is a great river system of southern China and flows through Guangzhou City. It is the third longest river in China and ranks only after the Changjiang River and the Yellow River. The Zhujiang River Delta is one of the most developed regions in China with an area of about 11,000 square kilometers. On the aspect of size and population, it is the biggest urban concentration in the world. The nine biggest cities in the Zhujiang River Delta have a combined population of over 57 million. Since the China’s reform and opening-up from late 1970s, the Zhujiang River Delta has become one of the main economic zones and the main manufacture centers in China and the world.
全文高配版：The Zhujiang River, flowing through Guangzhou City, is an extensive river system of southern China and the third longest river in China, ranking only after the Changjiang River and the Yellow River. The Zhujiang River Delta is one of the most developed regions in China with an area of about 11,000 square kilometers. It is the largest urban area in the world in both size and population. The nine biggest cities in the Zhujiang River Delta have a population of over 57 million in total. Since the China’s reform and opening-up from late 1970s, the Zhujiang River Delta has become one of the major economic zones and the leading manufacture centers in China and the world.
四、Part I Writing
57、Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an advertisement on your campus website to sell a bicycle you used at college. Your advertisement may include its brand, specifications/features, condition and price, and your contact information. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.
参考答案：
Used Bicycle for Sale
June 17, 2017
As a senior student, I have to face the approaching graduation and I determine to sell my used bicycle through our campus website. Your visit is expected at any time.
The bike is branded by GIANT, a highly respected producer in bicycle manufacturing industry, and sold by its authorized seller. All the parts of the bike, like seat, wheels and handlebar, have a good condition. The bike can be used in many purposes including tripping, shopping, bringing you to the library and so on. Without the bicycle, I would never see the sunrise of our beautiful city and I might delay much time on going to library. The bicycle renders enormous help during my studying in our university. The price of the bike is 500 RMB. I share too much valuable time with the bike. The bicycle is bound to bring you a vivid life and save you a lot of time.
If you are interested in it and want any further information, please feel free to contact me at 13680000000 or peter666@163.com.
【参考译文】
售卖二手自行车
2017年6月17日
作为一名大四学生，本人即将毕业，现欲出售一辆二手自行车，你可随时浏览商品信息。
这辆自行车的品牌是捷安特，由授权卖家销售。自行车所有零部件，诸如车座、车轮、车把，均运行良好。这辆车可满足你的各种需求，包括但不限于外出旅行、平时购物和前往图书馆的短途出行。若没有这辆自行车，我可能会错过无数次这个城市的美丽日出，耽误许多去图书馆的路上时间。这辆车为我的大学生活提供了极大的帮助。此自行车售价500元人民币。我与这辆自行车度过了无数珍贵的时光，相信它也能带给你丰富的生活经历并帮你节省很多时间。
如果你对此感兴趣并想要了解更多信息，欢迎致电13680000000或邮件联系peter666@163.com。
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