1、根據(jù)下面內(nèi)容，回答題
Buffet Zone
Lucy Robertson started working at a take-away food business to supplement her income during her student days at Edinburgh University. Several years later she had bought the business and now, 17 years on, she owns Grapevine Caterers, probably Scotland's leading independent caterers, with a turnover of almost ε6m.
She had never planned to own a business, and had certainly never considered a career in catering. (0)...G However, her unplanned career began in 1985, when she returned to Edinburgh and discovered that the takeaway she had worked in was up for sale. On impulse, she bought it, but admits that at the time she knew nothing about catering. (8).....It was a difficult time, but essential in terms of gaining the experience she needed. The late 1980s boom was good for business, with large numbers of office workers wanting takeaway food for their lunches. (9)..... "At one point there were 26 food outlets within a 5-kilometre radius," Robertson recalls, as the economy changed and the once packed office blocks started to become vacant, it became clear that Robertson would need to diversify. (10)......It changed the direction of the company for good.
As Robertson began to win catering contracts, she decided that the company would have to move to larger premises. In 1994, the move was made when she bought another catering business that already had a number of profitable contracts for boardroom lunches.
Meanwhile, Robertson's main competitor, the oldest catering company in Edinburgh, was causing her some anxiety. "Customer loyally is not to be underestimated," she warns. But Robertson is not someone who is easily put off. (11)...... Partly as a result of this, turnover doubled, and having outgrown another site, Robertson bought a city-centre location for the group's headquarters.
By now, Grapevine's main competitor was a new catering company called Towngates. Although Robertson tried to raise enough money to buy Towngates, she did not succeed. Then luck intervened and Towngates went bankrupt. (12)......Many accepted and the company's turnover went from ε700,000 to ε1.5 million almost overnight.
However, the company's growth was not as smooth as it sounds in retrospect. Robertson admits, "We were close to the edge during the growth period. Like many under-capitalized companies trying to grow, it might easily have collapsed." But that, she feels, is the challenge of developing your own business.
A．But there are plenty of similar contracts to be won in the east of Scotland before Robertson turns her attention elsewhere.
B．Her way round this particular problem was to recruit the catering manager of the rival company.
C．But this demand was short-lived, and before long, increasing competition made it harder to make a profit.
D．"It was a dramatic learning curve and very small amounts of money were earned at first," says Robertson.
E．She decided that the solution, since many companies required working lunches for meetings with clients, was to prepare and deliver meals to business premises.
F．On hearing this, Robertson immediately contacted all of their clients and offered the services of Grapevine Caterers.
G．Instead, she studied accountancy after leaving university, and a steady if unspectacular professional path seemed set.
（8）應(yīng)選
填空題
2、根據(jù)下面內(nèi)容，回答題
0 Market research involves in collecting and sorting facts and opinions from specific groups
00 0f people．The purpose of research can vary from discovering the popularity of a political
34 party to assessing whether is a product needs changing or replacing．Most work in
35 consumer research involves interviewers employed by market research agencies，but
36 certain industrial and social research is carried out by any specialist agencies．Interviews
37 may be with individuals or groups and can last anything as from a few minutes to an hour
38 0r more．In some interviews，people may be asked to examine or try out products before
39 giving up their opinion．Successful interviewers tend to like meeting people and should
40 not only be shy of addressing strangers．Interviewers are usually expecled to work
41 unsupervised，organizing their own workload．Self-discipline is absolutely essential，and
42 as are motivation and enemy．There are no specific age limits for such a work，though
43 many agencies prefer to employ older applicants with experience of meeting people。
44 Market research agencies which frequently organize training，where trainees learn how
45 to recognize socio-economic groups and practice approaching to the public。
34__________
3、
For most managers of small and medium-sized enterprises, the job of searching for, interviewing and selecting staff is difficult and time-consuming. ___(0) G___. Interviewing, for example, is a highly skilled activity in itself.
“We have found the whole process very hard,” says Dan Baker, founding partner of a PR company. “In seven years we have grown from five to eighteen staff, but we have not found it easy to locate and recruit the right people.” ___(8)___. As Dan Baker explains, “We went to one for out first recruitment drive, but they took a lot of money in advance and didn’t put forward anybody suitable. In the end we had to do it ourselves.”
Most recruitment decisions are based on a pile of CVs, a couple of short interviews and two cautious references. David Rowe, a business psychologist, studied how appointments were made in five small companies. He claims that selection was rarely based in clear criteria. ___(9)___. This kind of approach to recruitment often has unhappy consequences for both employers and new recruits.
Small companies often know what kind of person they are looking for. ___(10)___. According to David Rowe, this means that small company managers themselves have to devote more time and energy to recruitment. It shouldn’t be something that is left to the evenings or weekends.
Many companies start the recruitment process with over-optimistic ideas about the type of person that will fit into their team. “It’s very easy to say you must have the best people in the top positions,” says Alex Jones, managing partner of an executive recruitment company. “But someone who is excellent in one company may not do so well in another environment. ___(11)___. You can never guarantee a successful transfer of skills.”
Whatever the candidate’s qualifications, their personal qualities are just as important since they will have to integrate with existing members of staff. This is where, the recruitment industry argues, they can really help.
According to Alex Jones, “a good recruitment agency will visit your company and ask a lot of questions. ___(12)___. They can ask applicants all sorts of you with a shortlist of people who not only have the skills, but who are likely to fit in with your company’s way of doing things.”
A. A finance director in a big company, for example, will often make a terrible small company finance director because he or she is used to having a team doing the day-to-day jobs.
B. More often than not, the people making the choice prioritized different qualities in candidates or relied on guesswork.
C. Recruitment would seem an obvious task to outsource, but the company’s experience of recruitment agencies was not encouraging.
D. They need paying for that, of course, but you will have them working for you and not for the candidate.
E. They are usually in very specific markets and the problem they face is that recruitment agencies may not really understand the sector.
F. This means that companies cannot spend more than the standard ten minutes interviewing each applicant.
G. Yet few are trained and competent for all aspects of the task.
4、
Questions 8 - 12
·Read this advertisement about business book reviews.
·Choose the best sentence from the opposite page to fill each of the gaps.
·For each gap 8 - 12, mark one letter A - I on your Answer Sheet.
·Do not mark any letter twice.
A) These introductory texts are the most important books and using them can pay big dividends.
B) Discover practical tips and techniques you can apply without delay.
C) In order to avoid this problem, we select for you only the truly worthwhile titles and reject the rest.
D) According to studies published in psychology journals, you retain the content of a summary better than a book.
E) He or she would take the most important ideas from each one, and compile them into a neat executive summary.
F) With the breadth and depth of knowledge gained from books, it is less likely that you'll be caught off guard.
G) Each contains all the key points in the original book, but instead of 200 to 500 pages there are only eight pages.
H) There's a sample of the superb business titles that we summarise for you.
I) With all the reading you have to do in the normal course of your work, you find it impossible to keep up with all the new business books.
5、
Questions 8-12
· Read this letter to the editor of The Economist.
· Choose the best sentence from the list A-I to fill each of the blanks.
· For each bland (8-12) mark one letter (A-I) on your Answer Sheet.
· Do not mar4 any letter twice.
· One answer has been given as an example.
Sir,
You state on February 13 th that New Mexico has “few natural resources”, ____ example____ In 1991 New Mexico ranked fourth in the United States in production of natural gas, seventh in oil and tenth in non-fuel minerals ____8____ Non-fuel minerals contributed about $ 1 billion and coal $ 509 million.
Taxes from production of fuels and minerals, and lease payments on state lands have been set aside by legislative acts to endow two permanent funds worth about $ 5.65 billion, ____9____ In addition, during fiscal year 1991 , payments to New Mexico from taxes on federal lands were S 108 million, all earmarked for public education.
____10____ About $566 million came from taxes and permanent-fund earnings attributable to oil and gas production. ____11____ Tourism is an important industry in Mew Mexico, yet its economic impact on the public sector is dwarfed by that of mineral production.
New Mexico came through the recent recession in much better shape than most other states. It does not have a deficit. ____12____ States that rely primarily on a sales tax or on an income tax have big problems during economic downturns. Income growth per head in New Mexico averaged 6.1/00 in the year to October 1992-one if the fastest growth rates in the United States.
Charles Chapin
Example: C
A. That it has a broadly based tax structure is an important point.
B. In 1992 it produced more oil than Colorado and Kansas combined.
C. However, the extractive mineral industry in New Mexico is one of the state’s strongest economic forces.
D. During fiscal year 1992 New Mexico raised permanent funds worth about $6.1 billion.
E. The combined value of oil and gas production was $ 2.8 billion.
F. Some 16,000 employees work in the extractive industries and their wages are among the highest of any major industry.
G. The $39 million earned by these funds in 1991 was used to finance education and other public services.
H. Only S 25 million came from agricultural taxes.
I. New Mexico’s extractive mineral industries contribute about a third of the state’s $ 1.9 billion general-fund income in fiscal year 1991.
6、
Banks and Banking : Other Bank Services
A modern bank provides many services other than checking accounts. ____1____
If you went to a bank to open a savings account, you would go through almost the same procedures followed in applying for a checking account. ____2____ Then you would be given a passbook in which your initial deposit would be recorded. All deposits and withdrawals from your account are entered into your passbook. ____3____ With a regular passbook savings account, you would be able to withdraw money wherever you needed it. All you would have to do is fill out a withdrawal order and present it, along with your passbook to the teller.
All banks pay interest on savings accounts. ____4____ Banks also pay interest at different times. ____5____ Suppose, for example, that on January 1, you deposited $ 1,000 in a bank that paid 4 1/2 percent interest semiannually. By July 1,you would have earned $ 22.50 interest. This interest would automatically be credited to your account; and of you left it in the bank, along with your original deposit, you would receive interest on $ 1,022.50 for the next six-month period. That is, your interest would be compounded.
A. But the majority of them pay semiannually, that is, every six months.
B. The interest rate varies from bank to bank, but the general range is from 4 1/2 to 6 percent.
C. This means that passbook contains an actual record of all transactions made and that you know the exact amount of savings you have at any one time.
D. One of these is checking accounts.
E. First you would be asked to fill out a signature card.
F. But most banks pay interest at the end of a year.
G. One of the most important of these is regular passbook savings.
H. One can withdraw money whenever necessary.
簡答題
7、
根據(jù)下面內(nèi)容，回答題
Personal Assistant of the Year
O Anne-Marie Garrard was shocked when it was announced that she had won the
00 Personal Assistant of the Year award. "The other candidates seemed me
34 to be very strong, and I have to say I found that the selection procedure really
35 hard," she says. "1 didn't think I had any chance of winning. When I heard my
36 name, my legs were so weak I could only hardly stand up," she laughs. So
37 how is "the best" personal assistant chosen from a group of so extremely good
38 and very different individuals? The final decision was reached after a
39 day-long session of the tests, interviews and exercises. Garrard believes
40 the skills she uses in her job helped her how to perform well. For instance, although
41 most of her work is for her company's Managing Director, she works for six bosses
42 in all, so she always tries out to be prepared for anything that might happen.
43 As for the future, her firm has closed for its summer break now; as soon as
44 they will open again, there is a pay rise waiting for her. But Garrard is not
45 going to be relax. She says, "There's always room for personal development. You must keep trying to improve."
34__________
8、Part One
You are the training manager of a company which has won a large export order. You have been asked to organize foreign language training for some of your staff.
Write a memo of 30-40 words to staff:
Explaining why the courses are necessary;
Saying which members of staff should attend;
Announcing when the courses will start;
Write on your answer sheet.
Part Two
Your company exports to a number of countries around the world. The company is looking for new agents for international freight.
Read the two advertisements below, on which you have made some notes.
Then using the notes, write a short report for the Export Sales Manager, covering all your points and saying which agent you recommend.
Write 100-120 words.
Write on your answer sheet.
9、• Read the article below about the winner of a business award .
• In most of the lines 34-45 there is one extra word . It is either grammatically incorrect or
doesn’t fit in the meaning of the text . Some lines, however, are correct .
• If a line is correct , write CORRECT on your Answer Sheet .
• If there is a extra word in the line , write the extra word in CAPITAL LETTER on your Answer Sheet.
• The exercises begins with two examples , (0) and (00) .
Examples
|
0 |
C |
O |
R |
R |
E |
C |
T |
|
|
|
00 |
I |
T |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
INCREASING CUSTOMERS LOYALTY |
|
0 Customers are not revolutionaries. They are attracted to be the certainty of knowing that 00 what they buy it will be good value for money or will perform a particular task effectively. 34 They are cautious but their loyalty , without once achieved , is the key to business success. 35 Brands can help to create customer loyalty by providing us a signpost to certainty and 36 safety . Ideally , when a customer sees off a product , it leads to a range of positive thoughts 37 so that the product is being bought . Unfortunately , only a small number of products have 38 reached to this level . While everyone in business is aware of the need to attract and 39 retain customers , that they often overlook the second , more important , half of the 40 equation . In the excitement of beating against the competition and securing orders, 41 managers often fail to ensure that the customer remains a customer . It has been 42 estimated that since the average company loses between 10 to 30% of its customers 43 every year and this only recently have organizations started to wake up to these lost 44 opportunities and to calculate the financial implications . Established customers often 45 buy more and, in the addition , they may also provide free word-of-mouth advertising. |
10、• Read the article below about the winner of a business award .
• In most of the lines 34-45 there is one extra word . It is either grammatically incorrect or
doesn’t fit in the meaning of the text . Some lines, however, are correct .
• If a line is correct , write CORRECT on your Answer Sheet .
• If there is a extra word in the line , write the extra word in CAPITAL LETTER on your Answer Sheet.
• The exercises begins with two examples , (0) and (00) .
Examples
|
0 |
C |
O |
R |
R |
E |
C |
T |
|
|
|
00 |
M |
E |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PERSONAL ASSISTANT OF THE YEAR |
|
0 Anne-Marie Garrard was shocked when it was announced that she had won the 00 Personal Assistant of the Year award . “The other candidates seemed me 34 to be very strong , and I have to say I found that the selection procedure really 35 hard.” she says. “I don’t think I had any of chance of winning. When I heard my 36 name , my legs were so weak I could only hardly stand up .”she laughs. So 37 how is “the best” personal assistant chosen from a group of so extremely good 38 and very different from individuals ? The final decision was reached after 39 day-long session of tests , interviews and exercises . Garrard believes of 40 the skills she uses in her job helped her how to perform well. For instance ,although 41 most of her work is for her company’s Managing Director , she works for six bosses 42 in all , so she always tried out to be prepared for anything that might happen. 43 As for the future , her firm has close up for its summer break ; as soon as 44 they will open again , there is a pay rise waiting for her . But Garrard is 45 going to be relax . She says , “There’s always room for personal development. You must keep trying to improve. |