In business, there’s a speed difference: It’s the difference between how importa
题型：不详难度：来源：
In business, there’s a speed difference: It’s the difference between how important a firm’s leaders say speed is to their competitive(竞争的) strategy(策略) and how fast the company actually moves.The difference is important regardless of industry and company size. Companies fearful of losing their competitive advantage spend much time and money looking for ways to pick up the speed.
In our study of 343 businesses, the companies that chose to go, go, go to try to gain an edge ended up with lower sales and operating incomes than those that paused at key moments to make sure they were on the right track.What"s more, the firms that “slowed down to speed up” improved their top and bottom lines, averaging 40% higher sales and 52% higher operating incomes over a three-year period.
How did they disobey the laws of business physics, taking more time than competitors yet performing better? They thought differently about what “slower” and “faster” mean.Firms sometimes fail to understand the difference between operational speed (moving quickly) and strategic speed (reducing the time it takes to deliver value)．Simply increasing the speed of production, for example, may be one way to try to reduce the speed difference.But that often leads to reduced value over time, in the form of lower-quality products and services.
In our study, higher-performing companies with strategic speed always made changes when necessary. They became more open to ideas and discussion.They encouraged new ways of thinking.And they allowed time to look back and learn.By contrast (相比而言), performance suffered at firms that moved fast all the time, paid too much attention to improving efficiency, stuck to tested methods, didn"t develop team spirit among their employees, and had little time thinking
about changes.
Strategic speed serves as a kind of leadership.Teams that regularly take time to get things right, rather than plough ahead full bore, are more successful in meeting their business goals.That kind of strategy must come from the top.
小题1:What does the underlined part “gain an edge” in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．Increase the speed. | B．Reach the limit. | | C．Get an advantage. | D．Set a goal. |
小题2:The underlined part “the laws of business physics” in Paragraph 3 means ________.| A．spending more time and performing worse | | B．spending more time and performing better | | C．spending less time and performing worse | | D．spending less time and performing better |
小题3:What can we learn from the text?| A．How fast a firm moves depends on how big it is. | | B．How competitive a firm is depends on what it produces. | | C．Firms guided by strategic speed take time to make necessary changes. | | D．Firms guided by operational speed take time to develop necessary team spirit. |
小题4:Which could be the best title for the text?| A．Improve quality? Serve better. | B．Deliver value? Plough ahead. | | C．Reduce time? Move faster. | D．Need speed? Slow down. |
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答案
小题1:C
小题2:D
小题3:C
小题4:D |
解析
试题分析：这是一篇议论文，主要讲述在商场上的竞争策略；有些公司减缓速度以更好地发展，花费的时间多却获得更好收效。
小题1:词义理解题。原句是go to try to gain an edge ended up with lower sales and operating incomes，所以gain an edge的意思是与收入降低相反，即获得优势。所以选C
小题2:推断题。根据第三段开头的 disobey the laws of business physics，可以推断出laws of business physics强调快速高成果，与那些以慢速获胜的公司不同，在短时间内做得更好，所以选D
小题3:主旨大意题。文章主要议论了策略性减速的优点，而且根据最后一段Teams that regularly take time to get things right可以看出公司改变需要时间，所以选C
小题4:标题选择题。根据文章的大意可以确认标题应当与slow和speed有关，所以D是更恰当的标题。 |
举一反三
Some people believe that a Robin Hood is at work，others that a wealthy person simply wants to distribute (分配) his or her fortune before dying. But the donator who started sending envelopes with cash to deserving causes，accompanied by an article from the local paper, has made a northern German city believe in fairytales (童话).
The first envelope was sent to a victim support group. It contained €10, 000 with a cutting from the Braunschiveiger Zeitung about how the group supported a woman who was robbed of her handbag; similar plain white anonymous (匿名) envelopes, each containing €10, 000, then arrived at a kindergarten and a church.
The envelopes keep coming, and; so far at least €190, 000 has been distributed. Last month, one of them was sent to the newspaper’s own office. It came after a story it published about Tom, a 14-year-old boy who was severely disabled in a swimming accident. The receptionist at the Braunschiveiger Zeitung opened an anonymous white envelope to find 20 notes of € 500 inside with a copy of the article. The name of the family was underlined.
“I was driving when I heard the news," Claudia Neumann, the boy"s mother, told Der Spiegel magazine. “I had to park on the side of the road; I was speechless."
The money will be used to make the entrance to their house wheelchair-accessible and for a course of treatment that their insurance company refused to pay for.
"For someone to act so selflessly, for this to happen in such a society in which everyone thinks of himself, was astonishing," Mrs. Neumann said. Her family wonder whether the donator is a Robin Hood character, taking from banks to give to the needy.
Henning Noske，the editor of the Braunschiveiger Zeitung, said: "Maybe it is an old person who is about to die. We just do not know." However, he has told his reporters not to look for the city"s hero, for fear that discovery may stop the donations.
小题1:The Braunschiveiger Zeitung is the name of ______.| A．a church | B．a bank | C．a newspaper | D．a magazine |
小题2:Which of the following is TRUE about the donation to Tom?| A．The donation amounted to €190, 000. | | B．The donation was sent directly to his house. | | C．The money will be used for his education. | | D．His mother felt astonished at the donation. |
小题3:It can be inferred from the passage that _____.| A．the donator is a rich old man | | B．the donation will continue to come | | C．the donation comes from the newspaper | | D．the donator will soon be found out |
小题4: What would be the best title for the passage?| A．Money Is Raised by the Newspaper. | | B．Newspaper Distributes Money to the Needy. | | C．Unknown Hero Spreads Love in Envelopes | | D．Robin Hood Returns to the City |
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Women turn to online shopping
Women have jumped ahead of men for the first time in using the Internet to do their holiday shopping，according to a study published last week in the US.
For years men have been more likely to shop on the Internet than women，but during the 2004 holiday season 58 percent of those making online purchases were women.
“It shows how mainstream the Internet is becoming”，said Lee Rainie，a director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project group，which carried out the study.
Rainie said it was only a matter of time before women shoppers caught up with men. This is because women traditionally make decisions about spending.
Users were more likely to shop online to save time. Internet users between the ages of 18 and 29 were responsible for some of the most dramatic（显著的）increases in the online gift-buying population this time around.
However，three-quarters of the US Internet users did not buy holiday gifts online in 2004．They worried about credit card security，or just compared online prices with off-line prices，then dashed off to the shops to get the best deals.
“But even if shoppers don’t buy online，websites are becoming promotion tools for stores，”said Dan Hess，vice president of Comscore Networks Inc．Hess said that actually most stores’ websites can make shoppers fully believe the security of their credit card numbers. And most are able to ensure that gifts arrive on time.
“It’s all about making the shopping experience more efficient，more reliable and more comfortable，” Hess said.
小题1:Which of the following statements is true?| A．There were fewer women online shoppers than men in 2004． | | B．Most of the Internet users between the ages of 18 and 29 are women. | | C．People in the US were more likely to buy gifts online. | | D．More women shopped online than men in 2004. |
小题2:From the passage we can infer that________.| A．men usually decide how to spend money in the family | | B．women usually decide what to buy in the family | | C．the Internet is used in all the shops. | | D．more and more shops will sell their goods online. |
小题3:What can we know from the passage?| A．American people only buy gifts in holidays. | | B．Shopping online is fun for women. | | C．Shopping off-line provides better service. | | D．Young people like to do gift-shopping online. |
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Although being famous might sound like a dream come true, today’s stars, feeling like zoo animals, face pressures that few of us can imagine. They are at the center of much of the world’s attention. Paparazzi (狗仔队) camp outside their homes, cameras ready. Tabloids (小报) publish thrilling stories about their personal lives. Just imagine not being able to do anything without being photographed or interrupted for a signature.
According to psychologist Christina Villarreal, celebrities — famous people — worry constantly about their public appearance. Eventually, they start to lose track of who they really are, seeing themselves the way their fans imagine them, not as the people they were before everyone knew their names. “Over time,” Villarreal says, “they feel separated and alone.”
The phenomenon of tracking celebrities has been around for ages. In the 4th century B.C., painters followed Alexander the Great into battle, hoping to picture his victories for his admirers. When Charles Dickens visited America in the 19th century, his sold-out readings attracted thousands of fans, leading him to complain (抱怨) about his lack of privacy. Tabloids of the 1920s and 1930s ran articles about film-stars in much the same way that modern tabloids and websites do.
Being a public figure today, however, is a lot more difficult than it used to be. Superstars cannot move about without worrying about photographers with modern cameras. When they say something silly or do something ridiculous, there is always the Internet to spread the news in minutes and keep their “story” alive forever.
If fame is so troublesome, why aren’t all celebrities running away from it? The answer is that there are still ways to deal with it. Some stars stay calm by surrounding themselves with trusted friends and family or by escaping to remote places away from big cities. They focus not on how famous they are but on what they love to do or whatever made them famous in the first place.
Sometimes a few celebrities can get a little justice. Still, even stars who enjoy full justice often complain about how hard their lives are. They are tired of being famous already.
小题1:It can be learned from the passage that stars today________________.| A．are often misunderstood by the public | | B．can no longer have their privacy protected | | C．spend too much on their public appearance | | D．care little about how they have come into fame |
小题2:What is the main idea of Paragraph3?| A．Great heroes of the past were generally admired. | | B．Works of popular writers often have a lot of readers. | | C．Well-known actors are usually targets of tabloids. | | D．The problem faced by celebrities has a long history. |
小题3:What makes it much harder to be a celebrity today?| A．Availability of modern media. | | B．Inadequate social recognition. | | C．Lack of favorable chances. | | D．Huge population of fans. |
小题4:What is author’s attitude toward modern celebrity?| A．Sincere. | B．Skeptical. | C．Disapproving | D．Sympathetic. |
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Last night I drove a long way (about 500 km) to return home. It was late and I was driving fast because I wanted to get home as soon as possible. So several times when I was driving behind a slow-moving truck on a narrow road, I wanted to shout at the driver ahead.
Then I came to a crossroad with a traffic light. As I drove near, it turned red. I stopped my car at once. I looked left，right and behind. I found no cars or persons — I was alone on the road. The person who would come to the crossroad was at least a mile away in any direction. Certainly going through the light would cause no danger. I could pass the traffic light. But strangely enough, I just stopped there, waiting for several minutes until the light went green. I asked myself why I refused to run the light. Surely it was unnecessary for me to be afraid of danger or being fined (罚款), because there were no cars or police around at all. But I remained waiting until the light changed.
When I finally got home, it was near midnight. My wife had fallen asleep. The question of why I stopped for that light came back to me again, because I stopped another two times for the red lights as “special” as the first one. I stopped, not because of the law, but because it was a good habit I had developed. In fact, we were used to doing something right just because we have made obeying the rules a good habit. We do it just because we should do it. I thought if another man met with the same thing, he would make the same choice. I believed so. And I could be trusted (信任) by others. I believed that everyone would and could control (控制) himself/herself well. It was amazing that we trusted each other to do the right things, wasn’t it?
小题1:When the author drove behind the slow-moving truck, he felt ____.| A．confused but happy | B．sleepy and tired | C．excited but tired | D．angry and worried |
小题2:Who made the author stopped at the crossroad?| A．A policeman. | B．The author’s wife. | C．The author himself. | D．Another driver. |
小题3:The author waited until the light went green because ____.| A．running the light would make him fined | B．he was afraid to cause an accident | | C．he was prevented by the passers-by | D．he was used to obeying traffic rules |
小题4:The author is a person who ____.| A．believes others easily | B．can control himself well | | C．treats others very unfriendly | D．is very experienced in driving |
小题5: We can infer from the passage that ____.| A．running the light could help the author get home earlier | | B．the author’s wife was angry because he got home late | | C．the truck driver in front of the author might be drunk | | D．it was very necessary to have very strict traffic rules |
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The evidence for harmony may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly-held image of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.
An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious than it has ever been in the past. “We were surprised by just how positive today’s young people seem to be about their families,” said one member of the research team. “They’re expected to be rebellious （叛逆的） and selfish but actually they have other things on their minds; they want a car and material goods, and they worry about whether school is serving them well. There’s more negotiation and discussion between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. They don’t want to rock the boat.”
So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends. “My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me,” says 17-year-old Daniel Lazall, “I always tell them when I’m going out clubbing. As long as they know what I’m doing, they’re fine with it.” Susan Crome, who is now 21, agrees. “Looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call negotiation. For example, as long as I’d done all my homework, I could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that.”
Maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. It is possible that the idea of teenage rebellion is not rooted in real facts. A researcher comments, “Our surprise that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in our social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. The normal situation throughout history has been a smooth change from helping out with the family business to taking it over.”
小题1:What is the popularly- held image of teenagers?| A．They worry about their school life. | | B．They live in harmony with their parents. | | C．They have to be locked in to avoid making troubles. | | D．They quarrel a lot with their parents. |
小题2:The study shows that teenagers don’t want to ______.| A．share family responsibility | B．cause trouble in their families | | C．go boating with their family | D．make family decisions |
小题3:Compared with parents of 30 years ago, today’s parents______．| A．go to clubs more often with their children | | B．are much stricter with their children | | C．care less about their children’s life | | D．give their children more freedom |
小题4:According to the author, teenage rebellion _______．| A．may be a false belief | B．is common nowadays | | C．is based on real facts | D．resulted from changes in families |
小题5:What is the passage mainly about?| A．Negotiation in family. | B．Education in family. | | C．Harmony in family. | D．Teenage trouble in family. |
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