1、根據(jù)下面資料，回答題
Morning,NoonandNight The long-hours culture at work
Working an eight-hour day is a luxury for most professional people. Nowadays, the only way to guarantee an eight-hour working day is to have a kind of job where you clock on and off. Those professionals who have managed to limit their hours to what was, 20 years ago, averagely do not wish to identify themselves. "1 can quite easily achieve my work within a normal day, but I don't like to draw attention to it," says one sales manager. "People looked at me when I left at 5 o'clock. Now, I put paperwork in my bag. People assume I'm doing extra hours at home."
But more typical is Mark, who works as an account manager. He says, "My contract says I work from 9 until 5 with extra hours as necessary. It sounds as if the extra hours are exceptional. In fact, my job would be enough not only for me, but also for someone else part- time. The idea of an eight-hour day makes me laugh!" He says he has thought about going freelance but realizes that this doesn't guarantee better working hours.
Professor Cary Cooper, occupational psychologist at the University of Manchester, is the author of the annual Quality of Working, Life survey. The most recent survey found that 77% of managers in Britain work more than their contracted hours, and that this is having a damaging effect for their health, relationships and productivity. Professor Cooper is critical of the long-hour culture. He says that while bosses believe long hours lead to greater efficiency, there is no evidence support this. "In fact, the evidence shows that long hours make you ill." There are, he says, steps that can be taken. One is to accept that the in-tray will never be empty. "There are always things to do. You just have to make the rule that on certain days you go home early. Prioritizing work and doing essential tasks first helps," he says. He also thinks it's time to criticize bad employers and unreasonable terms of employment. By all means, show commitment where necessary but when expectations are too high, people have to begin saying openly that they have a life outside of work.
Personal development coach Mo Shapiro agrees that communication is important. Staff needs to talk to managers about the working practices within a company. Both parties should feel that the expectations are realistic and allow them to have responsibilities and interests outside work. She recognizes, however, that in many organizations the response might well be, "If you want interests outside work, then find another job".
She believes that senior staff has a duty to set an example. "1 recently worked for a firm of solicitors where the partners started at 7:30 am. What kind of message is that to send to the staff?" She believes there is no shame in working sensible hours - in fact quite the reverse."Some people might be in at 7:30 but will be doing very little. You can work really hard from9 to 5 and achieve the same. If you find it difficult to achieve an eight-hour day, there is, as a last resort, the old trick of leaving your jacket on your chair and your computer switched on, even after you have left the building.
What does the writer say in the first paragraph about people who work an eight-hour day?
A． They are reluctant to admit to this.
B． They are disliked by their colleagues.
C． They are limited to certain professions.
D． They often catch up on work in the evenings.
2、根據(jù)下面資料，回答題
A
Gianluca Tramcere, Silica Systems An outsourced IT service is never a fully independent entity. It is tied to the home company's previous and continuing systems of working. But despite the added responsibility of managing new ways of working, many businesses ignore the integration process. They fail to establish contracts that define the ways in which the two companies will work alongside one another, and focus solely on the technological aspects of service delivery.
B
Kevin Rayner, Domola Businesses need to build integration competency centers dedicated to managing the integration effort. It is critical to have an individual in charge to check that the external and internal business operations work together. Although companies often think of outsourcing as a way of getting rid of people and assets, they need to remember that, at the same time, outsourcing involves gaining people. Because there is a new operation being carried out in a different way outside of the home business, this creates a training element.
C
Clayton Locke, Digital Solutions Communication is the key to success, and outsourcing to other regions or countries can lead to a range of problems. For any such initiative, it is necessary to create a team where there is good, open communication and a clear understanding of objectives and incentives. Bringing people to the home location from the outsourced centre is necessary, since it can aid understanding of the complexities of the existing system. To integrate efficiently, outsourcing personnel have to talk to the home company's executives and users to understand their experiences.
D
Kim Noon, J G Tech One way to avoid the difficulties of integration is to create a joint venture company with the outsourcer. Thus, a company can swap its assets for a share of the profits. Yet joint ventures bring potential troubles and companies should be careful not to lose sight of the original rationale for outsourcing: to gain cost efficiencies and quality of service in an area that for some reason could not be carried out entirely in-house. The complexities and costs of a joint venture initiative should not be underestimated.
the need to teach skills to employees working on the outsourced process
3、根據(jù)下面資料，回答題
Getting the Most out of Meetings
One aspect of business life which many managers are unhappy with is the need to attend meetings. Research indicates that managers will spend between a third and a half of their working lives in meetings. Although most managers would agree that it is hard to think of an alternative to meetings, as a means of considering information and making collective decisions, their length and frequency can cause problems with the workload of even the best-organized executives.
Meetings work best if they take place only when necessary and not as a matter of routine. One example of this is the discussion of personal or career matters between members of staff and their line and personnel managers. Another is during the early stages of a project when the team managing it needs to learn to understand and trust one another.
Once it has been decided that a meeting is necessary, decisions need to be taken about who will attend and about the location and length of the meeting. People should only be invited
to attend if they are directly involved in the matters under discussion and the agenda should be distributed well in advance. An agenda is vital because it acts as a road map to keep discussion focused and within the time limit allocated. This is also the responsibility of the person chairing the meeting, who should encourage those who say little to speak and stop those who have a great deal to say from talking too. much.
At the end of a well organized meeting, people will feel that the meeting has been a success and be pleased they were invited. They will know not only what decisions were made but also the reasons for these decisions. Unfortunately, at the end of a badly organized meeting those present will leave feeling that they have wasted their time and that nothing worthwhile has been achieved.
Much thought has been given over the years to ways of keeping meetings short. One man who has no intention of spending half his working life in meetings is Roland Winterson, chief executive of a large manufacturing company. He believes that meetings should be short, sharp and infrequent. "1 try to hold no more than two or three meetings a week, attended by a maximum of three people for no longer than half an hour," he says. "They are clearly aimed at achieving a specific objective, such as making a decision or planning a statement, and are based on careful preparation. I draw up the agenda for every meeting and circulate it in advance; those amending are expected to study it carefully and should be prepared to both ask and answer questions. Managers are best employed carrying out tasks directly connected with their jobs not attending endless meetings. In business, time is money and spending it in needless meetings that don't achieve anything can be very costly. Executives should follow the example of lawyers and put a cost on each hour of their time and then decide whether attending a long meeting really is the best way to spend their time."
What do most managers think about meetings?
A． Meetings take up most of their working life.
B． Meetings allow them to monitor decision-making.
C． Meetings prevent them from establishing a routine.
D． Meetings are the only way they know of achieving certain objectives.
4、根據(jù)下面內(nèi)容，回答題
Evaluating the Performance of the Board
Few employees escape the annual or twice-yearly performance review．(0) ...G ... The answer is not a great number．And the smaller the company, the fewer checks there are on how well the directors are doing．Some of the largest companies formally assess the performance of their board, but very few new or growing companies have managed to get round to establishing any such procedure.
Many business experts believe, however, that it is important for all companies to review
the performance of the board．(8)....．Another reason is that the board itself needs information on how well it is doing, just as much as other employees do．For the chief executive, appraisal of some sort is absolutely essential for his or her own sake and for the good of the company．Indeed, many of those who have reached this level remark on how lonely the job of chief executive is and how few opportunities they get to discuss issues relating to it.
There is some evidence to show that once smaller companies put a board appraisal process in place, they find this process relatively easy to operate．(9)....． Their counterparts in larger organizations, however, are often afraid that appraisals could be a challenge to their status.
So, how should companies assess their board? (10).....At a very basic level, this could simply mean getting all the directors to write down what they have achieved and how they can improve on it．At the other end of the scale is the full "360-degree" appraisal．Here, each director is appraised in a systematic manner by a combination of the chairman and fellow directors.
In the largest companies there are many methods for assessing the board．A number of such companies have self-assessment schemes．The chairman may meet each board member individually to ask how things are going, in a fairly informal way．The whole board might also meet to talk about its progress in open session．(11).....These might ask for people's opinions on the board's main tasks or on how well the committees are working.
Research indicates there has been some improvement in the way the appraisal of board members is conducted．(12)......The chairman will have been involved directly or indirectly in the appraisal of all members of the board．Whose job is it, then, to appraise the chairman?
A.It is often the case that the directors of such companies are even happy to receive criticism, as this can prevent them from making basic mistakes.
B.The rest of the workforce sees it as unfair if the directors are the only members of thecompany to escape appraisal.
C.These are encouraging as they put a limit on the power of the chairman to assess fellow directors.
D.Alternatively, questionnaires might be distributed to directors, forming the basis for future discussion.
E.One issue remains, however, when all the others have been dealt with．
F.It is generally agreed that it is the chairman's responsibility to ensure the regular appraisal of each member of the board.
G.However, one wonders how many companies have in place a formal appraisal process for their board of directors.
（8）應(yīng)選
填空題
5、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.
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(jiǎn)答題
7、Part One
Your company has just opened a new office in the United States. You have agreed to go and work there for six months.
Write a memo of 30-40 words to all your colleagues:
Explaining why you will be absent;
Saying when you are leaving the office;
Expressing your wish to keep in touch;
Write on your answer sheet.
Part Two
You work for RCT, a company which sells business stationery. RCT is interested in becoming an agent for Novestat, a company which manufactures paper products.
Read Novestat’s advertisement below, on which you have made some notes.
Then, using all your notes, write a letter to James Dowling at Novestat.
Do not include postal addresses.
Write 100-120 words.
Write on your answer sheet.
8、Part One
You are the Manager of a small printing company. A new employee, Mark McCabe, is joining your company on 10th May.
Write a short memo to your office administrator:
Saying who is starting work and when;
Telling him what Mark McCabe’s job will be;
Suggesting where Mark McCabe’s desk should be put;
Write 30-40 words on your answer sheet.
Part Two
You were sent on a residential training course for five days. Unfortunately the course was very badly run and there were a lot of problems with it. The advert below shows the details of the course, together with your comments.
Write a report for your manager on the course (100-120 words). Describe the problems with the course and suggest what your company should do.
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
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THE COST OF NOT TRAINING |
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0 Training is not a cost . It’s an investment . It really doesn’t matter that what we pay 00 for an investment . What is relevant is what we get in return . One of the easiest 34 ways is to put an organization’s future at risk would be to view training primarily as 35 a cost , and therefore provide with substandard training that operates only as a 36 temporary solution . Many companies attempt to quantify as the results of training. For 37 example , a person paid $50,000 a year who wastes just one hour a day costs the 38 organization between $6,250 per year . So if the organization sends 25 people for 39 training and they all receive the same benefit , this would equal from $156,250 40 savings per year . A few of years ago , training , apart from showing employees 41 what the basics of doing the job , was an optional extra for most organizations . 42 Today this is no longer than the case . If we continue doing what we do in the same way , 43 most of us and our organizations will become obsolete within the five years . This is 44 because of our competitors are helping their staff to become more effective through 45 training . They understand that if the real price of not training is the company falling behind as a result . |
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
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PERSONAL ASSISTANT OF THE YEAR |
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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. |