1998年Passage 2
Well, no gain without pain, they say. But what about pain without gain? Everywhere you go in America, you hear tales of corporate revival. What is harder to establish is whether the productivity revolution that businessmen assume they are presiding over is for real.
The official statistics are mildly discouraging. They show that, if you lump manufacturing and services together, productivity has grown on average by 1.2% since 1987. That is somewhat faster than the average during the previous decade. And since 1991, productivity has increased by about 2% a year, which is more than twice the 1978 87 average. The trouble is that part of the recent acceleration is due to the usual rebound that occurs at this point in a business cycle, and so is not conclusive evidence of a revival in the underlying trend. There is, as Robert Rubin, the treasury secretary, says, a "disjunction" between the mass of business anecdote that points to a leap in productivity and the picture reflected by the statistics.
Some of this can be easily explained. New ways of organizing the workplace all that re engineering and downsizing - are only one contribution to the overall productivity of an economy, which is driven by many other factors such as joint investment in equipment and machinery, new technology, and investment in education and training. Moreover, most of the changes that companies make are intended to keep them profitable, and this need not always mean increasing productivity: switching to new markets or improving quality can matter just as much.
Two other explanations are more speculative. First, some of the business restructuring of recent years may have been ineptly done. Second, even if it was well done, it may have spread much less widely than people suppose.
Leonard Schlesinger, a Harvard academic and former chief executive of Au Bong Pain, a rapidly growing chain of bakery cafes, says that much "re engineering" has been crude. In many cases, he believes, the loss of revenue has been greater than the reductions in cost. His colleague, Michael Beer, says that far too many companies have applied re engineering in a mechanistic fashion, chopping out costs without giving sufficient thought to long term profitability. BBDO's Al Rosenshine is blunter. He dismisses a lot of the work of re engineering consultants as mere rubbish - "the worst sort of ambulance cashing."
55. According to the author, the American economic situation is _____ .
[A] not as good as it seems
[B] at its turning point
[C] much better than it seems
[D] near to complete recovery
[答案] A
[解題思路]
文章第一段最后一句話指出"What is harder to establish is whether the productivity revolution that businessmen assume they are presiding over is for real"（但是，更加難以確定的是商家自認(rèn)為他們發(fā)動(dòng)的這場(chǎng)生產(chǎn)率革命是否真的名副其實(shí)），緊接著第二段第五句話進(jìn)一步認(rèn)為"The trouble is that part of the recent acceleration is due to the usual rebound that occurs at this point in a business cycle, and so is not conclusive evidence of a revival in the underlying trend"（而問(wèn)題在于，近年出現(xiàn)的生產(chǎn)力快速增長(zhǎng)部分是由于商業(yè)周期通常到了這時(shí)候常出現(xiàn)的反彈造成的，因而還不能以此作為最終的證據(jù)來(lái)證明這種趨勢(shì)預(yù)示出經(jīng)濟(jì)復(fù)蘇的姿態(tài)），這些都說(shuō)明了作者并不認(rèn)為美國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)已經(jīng)從根本上復(fù)蘇，現(xiàn)在看到的只是表面現(xiàn)象，因而A為正確選項(xiàng)。做好本題的關(guān)鍵就是要抓住這些分布在不同地方的相關(guān)信息，理解長(zhǎng)句的含義并將它們結(jié)合起來(lái)一起幫助做題。
[題目譯文]
文章作者認(rèn)為美國(guó)的經(jīng)濟(jì)形勢(shì)是 。
[A] 不如看起來(lái)那么好
[B] 正處于轉(zhuǎn)折點(diǎn)
[C] 比看起來(lái)好多了
[D] 接近完全的復(fù)蘇
56. The official statistics on productivity growth _____ .
[A] exclude the usual rebound in a business cycle
[B] fall short of businessmen's anticipation
[C] meet the expectation of business people
[D] fail to reflect the true state of economy
[答案] B
[解題思路]
本文對(duì)應(yīng)的信息主要在文章的第二段，可以采用排除法一一排除。首先，第一句話說(shuō)"The official statistics are mildly discouraging"（官方的統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)字卻有點(diǎn)不容樂(lè)觀），顯然C選項(xiàng)與該句的意思相左。另外，該段最后一句話指出"There is, as Robert Rubin, the treasury secretary, says, a "disjunction" between the mass of business anecdote that points to a leap in productivity and the picture reflected by the statistics"（正如財(cái)政部長(zhǎng)羅伯特·魯賓所說(shuō)的那樣，生產(chǎn)力發(fā)生大幅提高的商業(yè)傳奇與官方的統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)字所反映的情況之間存在著一種"脫節(jié)"），因此官方數(shù)據(jù)重點(diǎn)是與business anecdote的情況相異，但與business cycle 和state of economy無(wú)關(guān)，因此A、D選項(xiàng)都可以排除。B選項(xiàng)中"fall short of"是"沒(méi)有達(dá)到，不符合"的意思，符合原文的語(yǔ)境。
[題目譯文]
關(guān)于生產(chǎn)力增長(zhǎng)的官方統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)據(jù) 。
[A] 沒(méi)有包括商業(yè)周期中通常出現(xiàn)的反彈
[B] 沒(méi)有達(dá)到商人們的預(yù)期
[C] 達(dá)到了商人們的預(yù)期
[D] 沒(méi)有反映出經(jīng)濟(jì)的真實(shí)狀況
57. The author raises the question "what about pain without gain?" because _____ .
[A] he questions the truth of "no gain without pain"
[B] he does not think the productivity revolution works
[C] he wonders if the official statistics are misleading
[D] he has conclusive evidence for the revival of businesses
[答案] B
[解題思路]
本題可以采用排除法。題干提到的這句話出現(xiàn)在文章的第一句，是作者用來(lái)引出話題的，而并不是文章的主題，因此A選項(xiàng)首先可以排除。關(guān)于C選項(xiàng)，文章第二段的開(kāi)頭說(shuō)到"The official statistics are mildly discouraging"（官方的統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)字卻有點(diǎn)不容樂(lè)觀），但是discouraging并不代表misleading，所以C選項(xiàng)也錯(cuò)誤。關(guān)于D選項(xiàng)，第二段第五句話認(rèn)為"The trouble is that part of the recent acceleration is due to the usual rebound that occurs at this point in a business cycle, and so is not conclusive evidence of a revival in the underlying trend"，因此D選項(xiàng)與原文意思相反，是錯(cuò)誤選項(xiàng)。文章最后一句指出"He dismisses a lot of the work of re engineering consultants as mere rubbish - "the worst sort of ambulance cashing.""（BBDO的艾爾·羅森夏恩更加直率，他把許多重組咨詢專家所做的工作視為垃圾--"典型的勞而無(wú)獲"），可見(jiàn)作者對(duì)于生產(chǎn)力革命是持否定態(tài)度的，因此正確選項(xiàng)為B。
[題目譯文]
作者提出了"如果是有勞無(wú)獲呢？"這個(gè)問(wèn)題的原因是 。
[A] 他懷疑"不勞而獲"這一說(shuō)法的真實(shí)性
[B] 他認(rèn)為生產(chǎn)力革命不起作用
[C] 他懷疑官方的統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)據(jù)有誤導(dǎo)作用
[D] 他有關(guān)于經(jīng)濟(jì)復(fù)蘇的確鑿證據(jù)
58. Which of the following statements is NOT mentioned in the passage?
[A] Radical reforms are essential for the increase of productivity.
[B] New ways of organizing workplaces may help to increase productivity.
[C] The reduction of costs is not a sure way to gain long term profitability.
[D] The consultants are a bunch of good for nothings.
[答案] A
[解題思路]
本題要求選擇在文章中沒(méi)有提到的說(shuō)法，因此應(yīng)該與原文一一對(duì)應(yīng)采用排除法來(lái)排除。首先，文章第三段第二句話指出："New ways of organizing the workplace all that re engineering and downsizing - are only one contribution to the overall productivity of an economy, which is driven by many other factors such as joint investment in equipment and machinery, new technology, and investment in education and training"（新的工作場(chǎng)所組織方式--包括所有那些重組和縮小規(guī)模的做法--只是促進(jìn)某一個(gè)經(jīng)濟(jì)實(shí)體的綜合生產(chǎn)力水平的一項(xiàng)措施，而這種生產(chǎn)力的提高還受到許多其他因素的驅(qū)動(dòng)，如對(duì)機(jī)械設(shè)備的聯(lián)合投資，采用新技術(shù)，以及在教育和培訓(xùn)上的投資），因此可見(jiàn)B選項(xiàng)與該句意思吻合，是對(duì)該句的一個(gè)簡(jiǎn)要概括，因此B選項(xiàng)表述正確。C和D選項(xiàng)分別對(duì)應(yīng)于文章最后一段的最后兩句話，"His colleague, Michael Beer, says that far too many companies have applied re engineering in a mechanistic fashion, chopping out costs without giving sufficient thought to long term profitability"（他的同事邁克·比爾說(shuō)，太多的公司用簡(jiǎn)單機(jī)械的方式進(jìn)行重組，在沒(méi)有充分考慮到長(zhǎng)期贏利能力的情況下降低了成本）和"He dismisses a lot of the work of re engineering consultants as mere rubbish - "the worst sort of ambulance cashing.""（BBDO的艾爾·羅森夏恩更加直率，他把許多重組咨詢專家所做的工作視為垃圾--"典型的勞而無(wú)獲"），因此這兩個(gè)選項(xiàng)的表述都是正確的。而A選項(xiàng)在文中則沒(méi)有明確的對(duì)應(yīng)信息，因此答案為A。
[題目譯文]
下面哪一項(xiàng)說(shuō)法沒(méi)有在文中提到？
[A] 激進(jìn)的改革對(duì)生產(chǎn)力的提高十分重要。
[B] 企業(yè)重組的新方式可能有助于提高生產(chǎn)力。
[C] 降低成本并不能保證獲得長(zhǎng)期的效益。
[D] 那些咨詢顧問(wèn)都是沒(méi)有的人
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