阅读理解。 In business, there"s a speed difference: It"s the difference between h
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| 阅读理解。 |
In business, there"s a speed difference: It"s the difference between how important a firms 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 fear 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
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-years 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 operation 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, high performing companies with strategic speed always made changes when necessary.
They became more open to idea and discussion. They encouraged new ways of thinking. And they allowed
time to look and learn. By contrast (相比而言). Performance suffered at firms that moved felt all the among
their employer, 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. |
| 1. What does the underlined part "gain an edge" in Paragraph 2 mean? |
A. Increase the speed.
B. Get an advantage.
C. Reach the limit.
D. Set a goal |
| 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 |
| 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. |
| 4. Where could be the last title for the text? |
A. Improve quality? Serve better.
B. Deliver value? Plough ahead.
C. Reduce time? Move faster.
D. Need speed? Slow down. |
答案
| 1-4: BDCD |
举一反三
| 阅读理解。 |
Cassandra Feeley finds it hard to manage on her husband"s income. So this year she did something more
than a hobby: She planted vegetables in her yard. For her fist garden, Ms. Feeley has put in 15 tomato plants,
and five rows of a variety of vegetables. The family"s old farm house has become a chicken bourse, its
residents arriving next month. Last year, Ms. Rita Gartin kept a small garden. This year she has made it much
larger because, she said, "The cost of everything is going up and I was looking to lose a few pounds too; so
it"s a win-win situation all around."
They are among the growing number of Americans who, driven by higher living costs and a falling economy
(经济), have taken up vegetable gardening for the first time. Others have increased the size of their existing
gardens. Seed companies and garden shops say no since the 1970s have there been such an increase in interest
in growing food at home. Now many gardens across the country hacek been sold out for several months. In
Austin, Tex., some of the gardens have a three-year waiting list.
George C. Ball Jr, owner of a company, said sales of vegetable seeds and plants are up by 40%, over last
year, double the average growth of last five years. Mr. Ball argues that some of the reasons have been building
for the last few years. The big one is striking use in me cost on food like bread and milk, together with the
increases in the price of fruit and vegetables. Food prices have increase of higher oil price. People are driving
less, taking fewer vacations, so there more time to garden. |
| 1. What does the word"residents" in Paragraph 1 probably refer to? |
A. chicken
B. tomatoes
C. gardens
D. people |
| 2. Why is vegetable gardening becoming increasingly popular? |
A. More Americans are doing it for fun.
B. The price of oil is lower than before.
C. There"s a growing need for fruits.
D. The cost of living is on the rise. |
| 3. Which of the following might be the best title for the text? |
A. Family Food Planning
B. Banking on Gardening
C. A Belt-tightening Move
D. Gardening as a Hobby |
| 阅读理解。 |
In the more and more competitive service industry, it is no longer enough to promise customer
satisfaction. Today, customer "delight" is what companies are trying to achieve in order to keep and
increase market share.
It is accepted in the marketing industry, and confirmed by a number of researchers, that customers
receiving good service will promote business by telling up to 12 other people; those treated badly tell
tales of woe to up to 20 people. Interestingly, 80 percent of people who feel their complaints are handled
fairly will stay loyal.
New challenges for customer care have come when people can obtain goods and services through
telephone call centers and the Internet. For example, many companies now have to invest (投资) a lot
of money in information technology and staff training in order to cope with the "phone rage"-caused by
delays in answering calls, being cut off in mid-conversation or left waiting for long periods.
"Many people do not like talking to machines," says Dr, Storey, Senior Lecturer in Marketing at City
University Business School. "Banks, for example, encourage staff at call centers to use customer data to
establish instant and good relationship with then. The aim is to make the customer feel they know you and
that you can trust them-the sort of comfortable feelings people have during face-to-face chats with their
local branch manager."
Recommended ways of creating customer delight include: under-promising and over-delivering (saying
that a repair will be carried out within five hours, but getting it done within two) replacing a faulty product
immediately; throwing in a gift voucher (购物礼券) as an unexpected "thank you" to regular customers;
and always returning calls, even when they are complaints.
Aiming for customer delight is all very well, but if services do not reach the high level promised,
disappointment or worse will be the result. This can be eased by offering an apology and an explanation of
why the service did not meet usual standards with empathy (for example, "I know how you must feel"),
and possible solutions (replacement, compensation or whatever fairness suggests best meets the case).
Airlines face some of the toughest challenges over customer care. Fierce competition has convinced
them at that delighting passengers is an important marketing tool, while there is great potential for customer
anger over delays caused by weather, unclaimed luggage and technical problems.
For British Airways staff, a winning telephone style is considered vital in handling the large volume of
calls about bookings and flight times. They are trained to answer quickly, with their names, job title and a
"we are here to help" attitude. The company has invested heavily in information technology to make sure
that information is available instantly on screen.
British Airways also says its customer care policies are applied within the company and staff are taught
to regard each other as customers requiring the highest standards of service.
Customer care is obviously here to stay and it would be a foolish company that used slogans such as
"we do as we please". On the other hand, the more customers are promised, the greater the risk of
disappointment. |
| 1. We can learn from Paragraph 2 that _____. |
A. complaining customers are hard to satisfy
B. unsatisfied customers receive better service
C. satisfied customers catch more attention
D. well-treated customers promote business |
| 2. The writer mentions "phone rage"(Paragraph 3)to show that _____. |
A. customers often use phones to express their anger
B. people still prefer to buy goods online
C. customer care becomes more demanding
D. customers rely on their phones to obtain services |
| 3. What does the writer recommend to create customer delight? |
A. Calling customers regular.
B. Gibing a "thank you"note.
C. Delivering a quicker service.
D. Promising more gifts. |
| 4. If a manager should show his empathy (Paragraph 6), what would be probably say? |
A. "I know how upset you must be."
B. "I appreciate your understanding."
C. "I"m sorry for the delay."
D. "I know it"s our fault." |
| 5. Customer delight is important for airlines because _____. |
A. their telephone style remains unchanged
B. they are more likely to meet with complaints
C. the services cost them a lot of money
D. the policies can be applied to their staff |
| 6. Which of the following is conveyed in this article? |
A. Face-to -face service creates comfortable feelings among customers.
B. Companies that promise more will naturally attract more customers.
C. A company should promise less but do more in a competitive market.
D. Customer delight is more important for air lines then for banks. |
| Cloze test. |
Everyone in business has been told that success is all about attracting and retaining (留住) customers. It
sounds simple and achievable. But, 1 , words of wisdom are soon forgotten. Once companies have attracted
customers they often 2 the second half of the story. In the excitement of beating off the competition,
negotiating prices, securing orders, and delivering the product, managers tend to become carried away. They
forget what they regard as the boring side of business- 3 that the customer remains a customer.
4 to concentrate on retaining as well as attracting customers costs business huge amounts of money
annually. It has been estimated that the average company loses between 10 and 30 per cent of its customers
every years. In constantly changing 5 , this is not surprising. What is surprising is the fact that few companies
have any idea how many customers they have lost.
Only now are organizations beginning to wake up to those lost opportunities and calculate the 6 implications.
Cutting down the number of customers a company loses can make a big 7 in its performance. Research in
the US found that a five per cent decrease in the number of defecting (流失的) customers led to 8 increases
of between 25 and 85 per cent.
In the US, Domino"s Pizza estimates that a regular customer is worth more than $5,000 over ten years. A
customer who receives a poor quality product or service on their first visit and 9 never returns, is losing the
company thousands of dollars in 10 profits (more if you consider how many people they are likely to tell about
their bad experience).
The logic behind cultivating customer 11 is impossible to deny. "In practice most companies" marketing
effort is focused on getting customers, with little attention paid to 12 them", says Adrian Payne of Cornfield
University School of Management. "Research suggests that there is a close relationship between retaining
customers and making profits." 13 customers tend to buy more, are predictable and usually cost less to service
than new customers. Furthermore, they tend to be less price 14 , and may provide free word-of-mouth
advertising. Retaining customers also makes it 15 for competitors to enter a market or increase their share of
a market. |
( )1. A. in particular
( )2. A. emphasize
( )3. A. denying
( )4. A. Moving
( )5. A. markets
( )6. A. culture
( )7. A. promise
( )8. A. cost
( )9. A. as a result
( )10. A. huge
( )11. A. beliefs
( )12. A. altering
( )13. A. Assumed
( )14. A. agreeable
( )15. A. unfair | B. in reality
B. doubt
B. ensuring
B. Hoping
B. tastes
B. social
B. plan
B. opportunity
B. on the whole
B. potential
B. loyalty
B. understanding
B. Respected
B. flexible
B. difficult | C. at least
C. overlook
C. arguing
C. Starting
C. prices
C. financial
C. mistake
C. profit
C. in conclusion
C. extra
C. habits
C. keeping
C. Established
C. friendly
C. essential | D. first of all
D. believe
D. proving
D. Failing
D. expenses
D. economical
D. difference
D. budget
D. on the contrary
D. reasonable
D. interest
D. attracting
D. Unexpected
D. sensitive
D. convenient | Directions: Read the following text and choose the most suitable heading from A-F for each paragraph.
There is one extra heading which you do not need. | A. Manufacturing industry in information economy.
B. News in the age of information.
C. Argument about individual accounts and their reliability.
D. Be your own investigative journalist.
E. Don"t believe everything you read in the newspapers.
F. Information is presented in an entertaining way. | | 阅读理解。 | As the railroad and the highways shaped the American west in the past centuries, a new electrical
generating (发电) and transmission (输送) system for the 21st century will leave a lasting mark on the
West, for better or worse. Much of the real significance of railroads and highways is not in their direct
physical effect on the scenery, but in the ways that they affect the surrounding community. The same
is true of big solar plants and the power lines that will be laid down to move electricity around.
The 19th century saw land grant (政府拨地) offered to railroad companies to build the transcontinental
railroads, leaving public land in between privately owned land. In much of the West, some of the railroad
sections were developed while others remained underdeveloped, and in both cases the landownership has
presented unique challenges to land management. With the competition of the interstate highway system,
many of the small towns which sprang up as railway stops and developed well, have lost their lifeblood
and died.
Big solar plants and their power lines will also have effects far beyond their direct footprint in the West.
This is not n argument against building them. We need alternative energy badly, and to really take advantage
of it we need to be able to move electricity around far more readily than we can now.
So trade-offs will have to be made. Some scenic spots will be sacrificed. Some species (物种) will be
forced to move, or will be carefully moved to special accommodations. Deals will be struck to reduce the
immediate effects.
The lasting effects of these trade-offs are another matter. The 21st century development of the American
West as an ideal place for alternative energy is going to throw off a lot of power and money in the region.
There are chances for that power and money to do a lot of good. But it is just likely that they will be spent
wastefully and will leave new problems behind, just like the railroads and the highways.
The money set aside in negotiated trade-offs and the institutions that control it will shape the West far
beyond the immediate footprint of power plants and transmission lines. So let"s remember the effects of the
railroads and the highways as we construct these new power plants in the West. | | 1. What was the problem caused by the construction of the railways? | A. Small towns along the railways became abandoned.
B. Some railroad stops remained underused.
C. Land in the West was hard to manage.
D. Land grants went into private hands. | | 2. What is the major concern in the development of alternative energy according to the last two paragraphs? | A. The transmission of power.
B. The use of money and power.
C. The conservation of solar energy.
D. The selection of an ideal place. | | 3. What is the author"s attitude towards building solar plants? | A. Cautious
B. Approving
C. Doubtful
D. Disapproving | | 4. Which is the best title for the passage? | A. How the Railways Have Affected the West
B. How Solar Energy Could Reshape the West
C. How the Effects of Power Plants Can Be Reduced
D. How the Problems of the Highways Have Been Settled | 最新试题
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