2011年公共管理硕士联考英语阅读专项练习及答案

legs, hurrying to take a train or sitting at his desk working, it's no time to ask him that silly question.

When George Bernard Shaw, the famous British writer of plays was in his eighties, someone asked him, \\

1. According to the writer, greetings, such as \ A. show one's consideration for others B. are a good way to make friends C. are proper to ask a man in action D. generally make one feel uneasy

2. The question \ A. a friend who is ill

B. a person who has lost a close friend C. a stranger who looks somewhat worried D. a man who is working at his desk

3. George Bernard Shaw's reply in this passage shows his . A. silliness B. cleverness C. carelessness D. politeness

4. \ A. made him laugh

B. shown concern for him C. made fun of him

D. given him some kind of warning 5. This passage can be entitled . A. A Silly Question

B. Don't Trouble a Busy Man C. What Are Good Greetings D. George Bernard Shaw's Reply

参考答案：D A B D A

If sustainable competitive advantage depends on workforce skills, American firms have a problem. Human-resource management is not traditionally seen as central to the competitive survival of the firm in the United States. Skill acquisition is considered an individual responsibility. Labour is simply another factor of production to be hired—rented at the lowest possible cost—much as one buys raw materials or equipment.

The lack of importance attached to human-resource management can be seen in the corporate hierarchy. In an American firm the chief financial officer is almost always second in command. The post of head of human-resource management is usually a specialized job, off at the edge of the corporate hierarchy. The executive who holds it is never consulted on major strategic decisions and has no chance to move up to Chief Executive Officer(CEO). By way of contrast, in Japan the head of human-resource management is central—usually the second most important executive, after the CEO, in the firm's hierarchy.

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While American firms often talk about the vast amounts spent on training their work force, in fact they invest less in the skills of their employees than do either Japanese or German firms. The money they do invest is also more highly concentrated on professional and managerial employees. And the limited investments that are made in training workers are also much more narrowly focused on the specific skills necessary to do the next job rather than on the basic background skills that make it possible to absorb new technologies.

As a result, problems emerge when new breakthrough technologies arrive. If American workers, for example, take much longer to learn how to operate new flexible manufacturing stations than workers on Germany (as they do), the effective cost of those stations is lower in Germany than it is in the United States. More time is required before equipment is up and running at capacity, and the need for extensive retraining generates costs and creates bottlenecks that limit the speed with which new equipment can be employed. The result is a slower pace of technological change, And in the end the skills of the bottom half of the population affect the wages of the top half. If the bottom half can't effectively staff the processes that have to be operated, the management and professional jobs that go with these processes will disappear.

1. Which of the following applies to the management of human resources in American companies?

A. They hire people at the lowest cost regardless of their skills. B. They see the gaining of skills as their employees' own business. C. They attach more importance to workers than to equipment. D. They only hire skilled workers because of keen competition.

2. What is the position of the head of human-resource management in an American firm? A. He is one of the most important executives in the firm.

B. His post is likely to disappear when new technologies are introduced. C. He is directly under the chief financial executive.

D. He has no say in making important decisions in the firm.

3. The money most American firms put in training mainly goes to . A. workers who can operate new equipment B. technological and managerial staff

C. workers who lack basic background skills D. top executives

4. According to the passage, the decisive factor in maintaining a firm's competitive advantage is .

A. the introduction of new technologies B. the improvement of workers' basic skills

C. the rational composition of professional and managerial employees D. the attachment of importance to the bottom haft of the employees 5. What is the main idea of the passage ?

A. American firms are different from Japanese and German firms in human-resource management.

B. Extensive retraining is indispensable to effective human-resource management.

C. The head of human-resource management must be in the central position in a firm' s hierarchy.

D. The human-resource management strategies of American firms affect their competitive

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capacity.

参考答案：B D B B D

Since the dawn of human ingenuity, people have devised ever more cunning tools to cope with work that is dangerous, boring, burdensome, or just plain nasty. That compulsion has resulted in robotics—the science of conferring various human capabilities on machines. And if scientists have yet to create the mechanical version of science fiction, they have begun to come close.

As a result, the modern world is increasingly populated by intelligent gizmos whose presence we barely notice but whose universal existence has removed much human labor. Our factories hum to the rhythm of robot assembly arms. Our banking is done at automated teller terminals that thank us with mechanical politeness for the transaction. Our subway trains are controlled by tireless robo-drivers. And thanks to the continual miniaturization of electronics and micro-mechanics, there are already robot systems that can perform some kinds of brain and bone surgery with submillimeter accuracy—far greater precision than highly skilled physicians can achieve with their hands alone.

But if robots are to reach the next stage of laborsaving utility, they will have to operate with less human supervision and be able to make at least a few decisions for themselves—goals that pose a real challenge. \Lavery, manager of a robotics program at NASA, \can't yet give a robot enough 'common sense' to reliably interact with a dynamic world.\has produced very mixed results. Despite a spell of initial optimism in the 1960s and 1970s when it appeared that transistor circuits and microprocessors might be able to copy the action of the human brain by the year 2010, researchers lately have begun to extend that forecast by decades if not centuries.

What they found, in attempting to model thought, is that the human brain's roughly one hundred billion nerve cells are much more talented—and human perception far more complicated—than previously imagined. They have built robots that can recognize the error of a machine panel by a fraction of a millimeter in a controlled factory environment. But the human mind can glimpse a rapidly changing scene and immediately disregard the 98 percent that is irrelevant, instantaneously focusing on the monkey at the side of a winding forest road or the single suspicious face in a big crowd. The most advanced computer systems on Earth can't approach that kind of ability, and neuroscientists still don't know quite how we do it. 1. Human ingenuity was initially demonstrated in . A. the use of machines to produce science fiction

B. the wide use of machines in manufacturing industry C. the invention of tools for difficult and dangerous work D. the elite's cunning tackling of dangerous and boring work

2. The word \ A. programs B. experts C. devices D. creatures

3. According to the text, what is beyond man's ability now is to design a robot that can . A. fulfill delicate tasks like performing brain surgery

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B. interact with human beings verbally C. have a little common sense

D. respond independently to a changing world 4. Besides reducing human labor, robots can also . A. make a few decisions for themselves

B. deal with some errors with human intervention C. improve factory environments D. cultivate human creativity

5. The author uses the example of a monkey to argue that robots are . A. expected to copy human brain in internal structure B. able to perceive abnormalities immediately

C. far less able than human brain in focusing on relevant information D. best used in a controlled environment 参考答案：CCDBC

It is said that the public and Congressional concern about deceptive (欺骗性的) packaging rumpus (喧嚣) started because Senator Hart discovered that the boxes of cereals consumed by him, Mrs. Hart, and their children were becoming higher and narrower, with a decline of net weight from 12 to 10-1/2 ounces, without any reduction in price. There were still twelve biscuits, but they had been reduced in size. Later, the Senator rightly complained of a store- bought pie in a handsomely illustrated box that pictured, in a single slice, almost as many cherries as there were in the whole pie. The manufacturer who increases the unit price of his product by changing his package size to lower the quantity delivered can, without undue hardship, put his product into boxes, bags, and tins that will contain even 4-ounce, 8-ounce, one-pound, two-pound quantities of breakfast foods, cake mixes, etc. A study of drugstore (杂货店) and supermarket shelves will convince any observer that all possible sizes and shapes of boxes, jars, bottles, and tins are in use at the same time, and, as the package journals show, week by week, there is never any hesitation in introducing a new size and shape of box or bottle when it aids in product differentiation. The producers of packaged products argue strongly against changing sizes of packages to contain even weights and volumes, but no one in the trade comments unfavorably on the huge costs incurred by endless changes of package sizes, materials, shape, art work, and net weights that are used for improving a product's market position.

When a packaging expert explained that he was able to multiply the price of hard sweets by 2.5, from $1 to $ 2.50 by changing to a fancy jar, or that he had made a 5-ounce bottle look as though it held 8 ounces, he was in effect telling the public that packaging can be a very expensive luxury. It evidently does come high, when an average family pays about $ 200 a year for bottles, cans, boxes, jars and other containers, most of which can't be used for anything but stuffing the garbage can.

1. What started the public and Congressional concern about deceptive packaging rumpus? A. Consumers' complaints about the changes in package size. B. Expensive packaging for poor quality products. C. A senator's discovery of the tricks in packaging. D. The rise in the unit price for many products. 2. The word \

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