考研英語(yǔ)閱讀理解精讀100篇【經(jīng)濟(jì)類】

 考研英語(yǔ)閱讀理解精讀100篇unit2

Unit 2
Charlie Bell became chief executive of McDonald's in April. Within a month doctors told him

that he had colorectal cancer. After stockmarket hours on November 22nd, the fast-food firm

said he had resigned; it would need a third boss in under a year. Yet when the market opened,

its share price barely dipped then edged higher. After all, McDonald's had, again, shown how

to act swiftly and decisively in appointing a new boss.

Mr Bell himself got the top job when Jim Cantalupo died of a heart attack hours before he was

due to address a convention of McDonald's franchisees. Mr Cantalupo was a McDonald's veteran

brought out of retirement in January 2003 to help remodel the firm after sales began falling

because of dirty restaurants, indifferent service and growing concern about junk food. He

devised a recovery plan, backed by massive marketing, and promoted Mr Bell to chief operating

officer. When Mr Cantalupo died, a rapidly convened board confirmed Mr Bell, a 44-year-old

Australian already widely seen as his heir apparent, in the top job. The convention got its

promised chief executive's address, from the firm's first non-American leader.

Yet within weeks executives had to think about what to do if Mr Bell became too ill to

continue. Perhaps Mr Bell had the same thing on his mind: he usually introduced Jim Skinner,

the 60-year-old vice-chairman, to visitors as the "steady hand at the wheel". Now Mr Skinner

(pictured), an expert on the firm's overseas operations, becomes chief executive, and Mike

Roberts, head of its American operations, joins the board as chief operating officer.

Is Mr Roberts now the new heir apparent? Maybe. McDonald's has brought in supposedly healthier

choices such as salads and toasted sandwiches worldwide and, instead of relying for most of

its growth on opening new restaurants, has turned to upgrading its 31,000 existing ones.

America has done best at this; under Mr Roberts, like-for-like sales there were up by 7.5% in

October on a year earlier.

The new team's task is to keep the revitalisation plan on course, especially overseas, where

some American brands are said to face political hostility from consumers. This is a big

challenge. Is an in-house succession the best way to tackle it? Mr Skinner and Mr Roberts are

both company veterans, having joined in the 1970s. Some recent academic studies find that the

planned succession of a new boss groomed from within, such as Mr Bell and now (arguably) Mr

Roberts, produces better results than looking hastily, or outside, for one. McDonald's smooth

handling of its serial misfortunes at the top certainly seems to prove the point. Even so,

everyone at McDonald's must be hoping that it will be a long time before the firm faces yet

another such emergency.

Economist; 11/27/2004, Vol. 373 Issue 8403, p64-65, 2p, 1c

注（1）：本文選自Economist；11/27/2004, p64-65, 2p, 1c；

注（2）：本文習(xí)題命題模仿2000年真題text 1第1題（1），1995年真題text 1第2題（2），2002年真題

text 2第2題（3），1998年真題text 2第2題（4）和1999年真題text 1第4題（5）；

1.       The main reason for the constant change at the top of McDonald is ________.

[A] the board’s interference

[B] the falling sales

[C] the health problems of the chief executives

[D] the constant change of its share price

2.       Which of the following was NOT a cause of the falling sales of McDonald?

[A] the change of the chief executive

[B] people’s concern about junk food

[C] dirty restaurant

[D] indifferent service

3.       The phrase “heir apparent” (Line 7, Paragraph 2) in the article most probably

means____________. 

[A] someone who has the same ideas, aims and style with a person

[B] someone who has the unalienable right to receive the family title

[C] someone who is appointed as a heir of a person

[D] someone who is likely to take over a person’s position when that person leaves

4.       In terms of succession at the top, McDonald_________.

[A] has had to made rather hasty decisions

[B] prefers to appoint a new boss from within

[C] acts in a quick and unreasonable way

[D] surprises all the people with its decisions

5.       Toward McDonald’s reaction to emergencies at the top, the writer’s attitude can be

said

to be___________.

[A] indifferent

[B] doubtful

[C] objective

[D] praiseful

答案：C A D B D

篇章剖析

本篇文章介紹了麥當(dāng)勞高層人事接替的情況，是一篇說(shuō)明文。第一段介紹了查里·貝爾辭去麥當(dāng)勞首席執(zhí)行

官一事；第二段追溯了他如何成為麥當(dāng)勞首席執(zhí)行官；第三段介紹了麥當(dāng)勞現(xiàn)任首席執(zhí)行官如何接任；第四

段分析了下一位可能的繼任者；最后一段對(duì)這種內(nèi)部接任的方式進(jìn)行了總結(jié)。

詞匯注釋

colorectal: [9kEJlE`rektEl] adj. [解]結(jié)腸直腸的

franchisee: [9frAntFaI`zi:] n. 總經(jīng)銷商, 有代銷權(quán)的人或團(tuán)體

veteran: [5vetErEn] n. 老資格；老手

heirs apparent: 有繼承權(quán)的人；公認(rèn)的繼任者

like-for-like: 同類的

revitalization: [ri:9vaItLlaI`zeIFLn] n. 振興；復(fù)興

in-house: [in5haus] adj. 內(nèi)部的

groom: [^ru:m] v. 培訓(xùn)；培植

難句突破

1. Mr Cantalupo was a McDonald's veteran brought out of retirement in January 2003 to help

remodel the firm after sales began falling because of dirty restaurants, indifferent service

and growing concern about junk food.

主體句式：Mr. Canalupo was a McDonald’s veteran.

結(jié)構(gòu)分析：這是一個(gè)復(fù)雜句，表語(yǔ)veteran后面有一個(gè)過(guò)去分詞短語(yǔ)brought out of retirement作后置定語(yǔ)

，這個(gè)定語(yǔ)還帶有自己的兩個(gè)狀語(yǔ)，一個(gè)是不定式短語(yǔ)做目的狀語(yǔ)，另外一個(gè)是after引導(dǎo)的時(shí)間狀語(yǔ)從句

，這個(gè)從句中還有一個(gè)because of引導(dǎo)的原因狀語(yǔ)。bring sb. out of retirement的意思是“將某人從退

休狀態(tài)召回”。

句子譯文：坎塔盧波在麥當(dāng)勞工作過(guò)多年，在公司因?yàn)椴蛷d環(huán)境不衛(wèi)生，服務(wù)態(tài)度差，以及人們對(duì)“垃圾食

品”的不斷質(zhì)疑導(dǎo)致業(yè)績(jī)下降之后，2003年他被從退休中召回，幫助公司進(jìn)行改革。

2. Even so, everyone at McDonald's must be hoping that it will be a long time before the firm

faces yet another such emergency.

主體句式：everyone must be hoping that…

結(jié)構(gòu)分析：這個(gè)句子中包含一個(gè)由that引導(dǎo)的賓語(yǔ)從句和由before引導(dǎo)的狀語(yǔ)從句。這個(gè)句子的難點(diǎn)在

before這個(gè)詞的理解上。通常before可以譯為“才”。例如：It had been two days before I realized

the problem. （過(guò)了兩天我才意識(shí)到這個(gè)問(wèn)題。）

句子譯文：即便如此，相信麥當(dāng)勞上下一定還是希望不要在近期內(nèi)又面臨這類緊急情況。

題目分析

1. 答案為C，屬事實(shí)細(xì)節(jié)題。文章第一段提及Charlie Bell辭職的原因是他患了直腸癌；接著又在第二段說(shuō)

他升任總裁是因?yàn)樗�的前任在�?zhǔn)備講演時(shí)因?yàn)樾呐K病突發(fā)而去世。這樣，麥當(dāng)勞在一年內(nèi)就不得不尋找第三

位總裁�？梢�(jiàn)麥當(dāng)勞高層頻繁更換人員的原因是這些總裁的健康問(wèn)題。

2. 答案為A，屬事實(shí)細(xì)節(jié)題�？蓞⒁�(jiàn)文章第二段第四行because of…后面的部分。

3. 答案為D，屬猜詞題。根據(jù)上下文，Charlie Bell被Jim Cantalupo提拔為首席運(yùn)營(yíng)官之后，被廣泛視為

是他的heir apparent，接著作者在第四段發(fā)問(wèn)，現(xiàn)任的首席運(yùn)營(yíng)官會(huì)不會(huì)是現(xiàn)任總裁的heir apparent呢？

顯然，這個(gè)詞組的意思應(yīng)該是“接替某人職位”的人。

4. 答案為B，屬推理判斷題。根據(jù)文章，三位總裁都是在麥當(dāng)勞內(nèi)部管理人才，而且下一位繼任者也已經(jīng)內(nèi)

定，這種內(nèi)部選定繼任者的辦法幫助麥當(dāng)勞在一連串不幸事件發(fā)生后能夠平穩(wěn)交接。可見(jiàn)麥當(dāng)勞更愿意從內(nèi)

部任命新老板。

5. 答案為D，屬推理判斷題。作者在第一段末評(píng)論麥當(dāng)勞的行動(dòng)時(shí)說(shuō)道：“麥當(dāng)勞又一次顯示了其在任命新

老板方面的快速?zèng)Q斷能力�！痹谖哪�對(duì)麥當(dāng)勞的內(nèi)部接任方式進(jìn)行總結(jié)時(shí)，作者引用某些學(xué)術(shù)研究的成果，

認(rèn)為這種方式的效果更好，并以“麥當(dāng)勞在高層發(fā)生一連串的不幸事件后能夠平靜地交接似乎清楚地證明了

這一點(diǎn)�！眮�(lái)加以說(shuō)明�？梢�(jiàn)作者對(duì)于麥當(dāng)勞處理類似發(fā)生在高層的突發(fā)事件的反應(yīng)是持贊揚(yáng)態(tài)度的。

參考譯文

查里·貝爾四月成為麥當(dāng)勞的首席執(zhí)行官。不到一個(gè)月，醫(yī)生就告訴他他患了直腸癌。在11月22日的股市交

易結(jié)束之后，這家快餐公司宣布他已經(jīng)辭職；該公司將需要這一年內(nèi)的第三位老板。然而，當(dāng)股市開張時(shí)，

該公司的股價(jià)只是略有下降，很快又再次上揚(yáng)。麥當(dāng)勞又一次顯示了其在任命新老板方面的快速?zèng)Q斷能力。

貝爾先生本人是在吉姆·坎塔盧波（Jim Cantalupo）死于心臟病突發(fā)之后得到這一高層職位的。當(dāng)時(shí)坎塔

盧波正準(zhǔn)備在幾個(gè)小時(shí)之后的麥當(dāng)勞特許經(jīng)銷商會(huì)議上致詞。坎塔盧波在麥當(dāng)勞工作過(guò)多年，在公司因?yàn)椴?/P>

廳環(huán)境不衛(wèi)生，服務(wù)態(tài)度差，以及人們對(duì)“垃圾食品”的不斷質(zhì)疑導(dǎo)致業(yè)績(jī)下降之后，2003年他被從退休中

召回，幫助公司進(jìn)行改革。他制定了一項(xiàng)在大規(guī)模營(yíng)銷基礎(chǔ)上的振興計(jì)劃，并且將貝爾先生提拔為首席運(yùn)營(yíng)

官。坎塔盧波先生去世后，董事會(huì)很快開會(huì)確定任命貝爾先生，這位早就被公認(rèn)為其繼任者的44歲澳大利亞

人擔(dān)任這一首席職位。這次會(huì)議從該公司的第一位非美國(guó)籍的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人那里得到了其許諾的公司首席執(zhí)行官的

講演。

然而，在短短幾周之內(nèi)，公司高層就不得不思考如果貝爾先生病重?zé)o法繼續(xù)工作該怎么辦的問(wèn)題。也許貝爾

先生也在考慮同樣的問(wèn)題：他向來(lái)訪者介紹60歲的副總裁吉姆·斯金納時(shí)總是稱他為“掌舵高手”�，F(xiàn)在公

司海外經(jīng)營(yíng)專家斯金納先生（見(jiàn)圖）成了公司首席執(zhí)行官，主管公司美國(guó)經(jīng)營(yíng)業(yè)務(wù)的麥克·羅伯茨則加入董

事會(huì)成為首席運(yùn)營(yíng)官。

羅伯茨先生是不是新的繼任者呢？也許。麥當(dāng)勞改變了主要依靠開新店發(fā)展企業(yè)的方法，而在全球推出了被

認(rèn)為更加健康的食品，比如沙拉和烤三明治，并且開始改進(jìn)現(xiàn)有的31000家連鎖快餐店的經(jīng)營(yíng)。美國(guó)在這方

面做得最好；在羅伯茨先生的努力下，美國(guó)麥當(dāng)勞十月的同類銷售額比一年前增長(zhǎng)了7%。

新團(tuán)隊(duì)的任務(wù)就是保持其振興計(jì)劃不變，尤其是海外部分，據(jù)說(shuō)在海外某些美國(guó)品牌面對(duì)著來(lái)自消費(fèi)者的政

治敵意。這是一個(gè)巨大的挑戰(zhàn)。這種內(nèi)部接任的方式是不是迎接這種挑戰(zhàn)的最佳方式呢？斯金納先生和羅伯

茨先生都是1970年代就加入公司的資深管理人員。最近的一些學(xué)術(shù)研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，內(nèi)定的新老板，比如貝爾先生

和現(xiàn)在（還未最終宣布）的羅伯茨先生，按計(jì)劃接任會(huì)比草率任命一個(gè)新老板或者從外部聘請(qǐng)新老板效果更

好。麥當(dāng)勞在高層發(fā)生一連串的不幸事件后能夠平靜地交接似乎清楚地證明了這一點(diǎn)。即便如此，相信麥當(dāng)

勞上下一定還是希望不要在近期內(nèi)又面臨這類緊急情況。

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