2014年英语专八阅读

2014

年英语专八阅读

+

写作

TEM-8 (2014)

PART II

READING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN)

TEXT A

My

class

at

Harvard

Business

School

helps

students

understand

what

good

management

theory

is

and

how

it

is

built.

In

each

session,

we

look

at

one

company

through

the

lenses

of

different theories, using them to explain how the company got into its situation and to examine

what action will yield the needed results. On the last day of class, I asked my class to turn those

theoretical lenses on themselves to find answers to two questions: First, How can I be sure I‘ll be

happy in my career? Second, How can I be sure my relationships with my spouse and my family

will become an enduring source of happiness? Here are some management tools that can be used

to help you lead a purposeful life.

1. Use Your Resources Wisely

. Your decisions about allocating your personal time, energy,

and

talent

shape

yo

ur

life‘s

strategy.

I

have

a

bunch

of

―businesses‖

that

compete

for

these

resources: I‘m trying to have a rewarding relationship with my wife, raise great kids, contribute to

my community, succeed in my career, and contribute to my church. And I have exactly the same

problem that a corporation does. I have a limited amount of time, energy and talent. How much do

I devote to each of these pursuits?

Allocation

choices

can

make

your

life

turn

out

to

very

different

from

what

you

intended.

Sometimes that‘s good: opportunities that you have never planned for emerge. But if

you don‘t

invest your resources wisely, the outcome can be bad. As I think about my former classmates who

inadvertently

invested

in

lives

of

hollow

unhappiness,

I

can‘t

help

believing

that

thei

r

troubles

related right back to a short-term perspective.

When people with a high need for achievement have an extra half hour of time or an extra

ounce

of

energy,

they‘ll

unconsciously

allocate

it

to

activities

that

yield

the

most

tangible

accomplishments.

Our careers provide the most concrete evidence that we’re moving forward.

You ship a product, finish a design, complete a presentation, close a sale teach a class, publish a

paper,

get

paid, get

promoted.

In

contrast,

investing

time

and

energy

in

your

relationships

with

your spouse and children typically doesn‘t offer the same immediate sense of achievement. Kids

misbehave

every

day.

It‘s

really

not

until

20

years

down

the

road

that

you

can

say,

―I

raised

a

good son or a good daughter.‖ You can neglect

your relationship with your spouse and on a daily

basis

it

doesn‘t

seem

as

if

thing

are

deteriorating.

People

who

are

driven

to

excel

have

this

unconscious

propensity

to

under

invest

in

their

families

and

overinvest

in

their

careers,

even

though

intimate

and

loving

family

relationships

are

the

most

powerful

and

enduring

source

of

happiness.

If you study the root causes of business disasters, over and over you‘ll find this predisposition

toward endeavors that offer immediate gratification. If you look at personal lives through that lens,

you‘ll see that same stunning and sobering pattern: people allocating fewer and fewer resources to

the things they would have once said mattered most.

2. Create A Family Culture.

It‘s one thing to see into the foggy future

with a acuity and

chart the course corrections a company must make. But it‘s quite another to persuade employees

to line up and work cooperatively to take the company in that new direction.

When

there

is

little

agreement,

you

have

to

use

―power

tools‖

–

coercion,

threats,

punishments

and

so

on,

to

secure

cooperation.

But

if

employee‘s

ways

of

working

together

succeed

over

and

over,

consensus

begins

to

form.

Ultimately,

people

don‘t

even

think

about

whether their way yields success. They embrace priorities and follow procedures by instinct and

assumption rather than by explicit decision, which means that they‘ve created a culture. Culture,

in compelling but unspoken ways, dictates the proven, acceptable methods by which member s of

a

group

address

recurrent

problems.

And culture

defines

the

priority

given

to

different

types

of

problems. It can be a powerful management tool.

I

use

this

model

to

address

the

question,

How

can

I

be

my

family

becomes

an

enduring

source of happiness? My students quickly see that the simplest way parents can elicit cooperation

from children is to wield power tools. But there comes a point during the teen years when power

tools

no

longer

work.

At

that

point,

parents

start

wishing

they

had

begun

working

with

their

children at a very young age to build a culture in which children instinctively behave respectfully

toward one another, obey their parents, and choose the right thing to do. Families have cultures,

just a companies do. Those cultures can be built consciously.

If you want your kids to have strong self-esteem and the confidence that they can solve hard

problems,

those

qualities

won‘t

magically

materialize

in

high

school.

You

have

to

design

them

into family‘s culture and you have think about this very early on. Like employees, c

hildren build

self-esteem by doing things that are hard and learning what works.

11. According to the author, the key to successful allocation of resources in your life depends on

whether you

A. can manage your time well

B. have long-term planning

C. are lucky enough to have new opportunities

D. can solve both company and family

problems

12. What is the role of the statement ―

Our careers provide the most concrete evidence that we’re

moving forward

‖ with reference to the previous statement in the par

agraph?

A. To offer further explanation

B. To provide a definition

C. To present a contrast

D. To illustrate career development

13. According to the author, a common cause of failure in business and family relationships is

A. lack of planning

B. short-sightedness

C. shortage of resources D.

decision

by instinct

14. According to the author, when does culture begin to emerge

A. When people decide what and how to do by instinct

B. When people realize the importance of consensus

C. When people as a group decide how to succeed

D. When people use ―power tools‖ to reach agreement

15. One of the similarities between company culture and family culture is that

A. problem-solving ability is essential

B. cooperation is the foundation

C. respect and obedience are key elements

D. culture needs to be nurtured

Text B

It

was

nearly

bed-time

and

when

they

awoke

next

morning

land

would

be

in

sight.

Dr.

Macphail lit his pipe and, leaning over the rail, searched the heavens for the Southern Cross. After

two years at the front and a wound that had taken longer to heal than it should, he was glad to

settle

down

quietly

at

Apia

(

阿皮亚，西萨摩亚首都

)

for

twelve

months

at

least,

and

he

felt

already

better

for

the

journey.

Since

some

of

the

passengers

were

leaving

the

ship

next

day

at

Pago-Pago they had had a little dance that evening and in his ears hammered still the harsh notes

of the mechanical piano. But the deck was quiet at last. A little way off he saw his wife in a long

chair talking with the Davidsons, and he strolled over to her. When he sat down under the light

and took off his hat you saw that he had very red hair, with a bald patch on the crown, and the red,

freckled skin which accompanies red hair; he was a man of forty, thin, with a pinched face, precise

and rather pedantic; and he spoke with a Scots accent in a very low, quiet voice.

Between

the

Macphails

and

the

Davidsons,

who

were

missionaries,

there

had

arisen

the

intimacy of shipboard, which is due to propinquity rather than to any community of taste. Their

chief

tie

was

the

disapproval

they

shared

of

the

men

who

spent

their

days

and

nights

in

the

smoking-room playing poker or bridge and drinking. Mrs. Macphail was not a little flattered to

think

that

she

and

her

husband

were

the

only

people

on

board

with

whom

the

Davidsons

were

willing to associate, and even the doctor, shy but no fool, half unconsciously acknowledged the

compliment. It was only because he was of an argumentative mind that in their cabin at night he

permitted himself to carp (

唠叨

).

?Mrs. Davidson was saying she didn‘t know how they‘d have got through the journey if it

hadn‘t been for us,‘ said Mrs. Macphail, as she neatly brushed out her transformation (

假发

). ?She

said we were really the only people on the ship they cared to know.‘

?I shouldn‘t

have thought a missionary was such a big bug (

要人、名士

) that he could afford

to put on frills (

摆架子

).‘

?It‘s not frills.

I quite understand what she means. It wouldn‘t have been very nice for the

Davidsons to have to mix with all that rough lot in the smoking-

room.‘

?The founder of their religion wasn‘t so exclusive,‘ said Dr. Macphail with a chuckle.

?I‘ve

asked

you

over

and

over

again

not

to

joke

about

religion,‘

answered

his

wife.

?I

shouldn‘t like to have a nature like yours, Alec. You never look for the best in people.‘

He gave her a sidelong glance with his pale, blue eyes, but did not reply. After many years of

married

life

he

had

learned that

it

was

more

conducive

to

peace

to

leave

his

wife

with

the

last

word. He was undressed before she was, and climbing into the upper bunk he settled down to read

himself to sleep.

When he came on deck next morning they were close to land. He looked at it with greedy

eyes. There was a thin strip of silver beach rising quickly to hills covered to the top with luxuriant

ve

getation. The coconut trees, thick and green, came nearly to the water‘s edge, and among them

you saw the grass houses of the Samoaris (

萨摩亚人

); and here and there, gleaming white, a little

church. Mrs. Davidson came and stood beside him. She was dressed in black, and wore round her

neck a gold chain, from which dangled a small cross. She was a little woman, with brown, dull

hair very elaborately arranged, and she had prominent blue eyes behind invisible pince-nez (

夹鼻

眼镜

).

Her

face

was

long,

like

a

sheep‘s,

bu

t

she

gave

no

impression

of

foolishness,

rather

of

extreme alertness; she had the quick movements of a bird. The most remarkable thing about her

was

her

voice,

high,

metallic,

and

without

inflection;

it

fell

on

the

ear

with

a

hard

monotony,

irritating to the nerves like the pitiless clamour of the pneumatic drill.

?This must seem like home to you,‘ said Dr. Macphail, with his thin, difficult smile.

?Ours are low islands, you know, not like these. Coral. These are volcanic. We‘ve got another

ten days'' journ

ey to reach them.‘

?In

these

parts

that‘s

almost

like

being

in

the

next

street

at

home,‘

said

Dr.

Macphail

facetiously.