1、BEC商务英语（高级）阅读模拟试卷 10及答案与解析 一、 PART ONE 0 Look at the statements below and at the five extracts on the opposite page from an article giving advice to people setting up a business. Which extract (A, B, C, D or E) does each statement (1-8) refer to? For each statement (1-8), mark one letter (A, B, C, D
2、 or E) on your Answer Sheet. You will need to use some of these letters more than once. A So you think youre an entrepreneur, and you want to start up a company. First, be sure youre really an entrepreneur, and not an inventor. Inventors come up with ideas, entrepreneurs make a business out of them:
3、 its important to know where your abilities lie, as inventors can fail miserably at running a business. Also, you need to be confident that you can adapt your management style to meet new demands if your company is a success. Leading the management team of a growing business is very different from l
4、eading a newly founded company. B If your company proves successful, it will probably change out of all recognition, and may seem to possess a life of its own, with institutional shareholders, regulators and employees to consider as well as customers and bank managers. That is the time to consider h
5、ow far the aspirations of the business you founded still mirror your own. If they have diverged widely, and you feel you have built just the sort of business that you perhaps tried to escape from in the first place, it may be time to leave. C Bringing an idea to life requires an organisation. If you
6、 are going into business with your friends, make sure you treat them as professionally as you would your arms-length business partners, because the odds are that youll fall out with them. It may not seem important at the start, but it will strengthen the company if you ensure that its constitution d
7、ocuments are designed with your specific business and circumstances in mind, and that they clearly establish what will happen in the event of a withdrawal from the business by one of the founding shareholders. D Think carefully about the capital structure of the business. You could be storing up a p
8、roblem for the company in the future - for example, by allocating shares to founders in a way that could lead to a stand-off if they refuse to see eye to eye on key issues. Similarly, when you eventually recruit new senior team members, think carefully about what to offer them. Dont give away share
9、options too early. As a rule of thumb, cash is sufficient reward for knowledge and skill. Keep equity up your sleeve for rewarding commitment. E As your business grows, you need to keep the right balance between management control and entrepreneurial spirit. Too much control, and the business will u
10、ltimately cease to grow. Too little, and growth could be unsustalnable. Youll need to employ managers, but remember that their job is to build the infrastructure to underpin a business that until now may have run on the basis of your salesmanship and excitement. The risk is to bring in managers who
11、are too much like you, without the necessary experience of nursing a newly founded business through its evolution. 1 You should plan ahead in case a founder of the company chooses to leave it. 2 A company which is expanding today may not always continue to do so. 3 The distribution of equity among t
12、he founders can affect the smooth running of the business. 4 Your function in the organisation is different from that of the other managers. 5 Your method of running the business will have to be modified as your company develops. 6 Your business may evolve into a form that you are not satisfied with
13、. 7 Delay offering employees a financial stake in the company. 8 You need to identify your personal strengths and weaknesses. 二、 PART TWO 8 Read this introduction to an article about an approach to management. Choose the best sentence from the opposite page to fill each of the gaps. For each gap (9-
14、14), mark one letter (A-H) on your Answer Sheet. Do not use any letter more than once. Introducing T-shaped management Despite their best efforts, most companies continue to squander what may be their greatest asset in todays knowledge economy. I am referring to the wealth of expertise, ideas and la
15、tent insights that lie scattered across or deeply embedded in their organisations. This seems a great shame, because capitalising on those intellectual resources - using existing knowledge to improve performance or combining strands of knowledge to create something altogether new - can help companie
16、s respond to a surprising array of challenges, from fending off smaller, nimbler rivals to integrating businesses that have been forced together in a merger. (9) I suggest another approach, one that requires managers to change their behaviour and the way they spend their time. The approach is novel
17、but, when properly implemented, quite powerful. I call it T-shaped management. T-shaped management relies on a new kind of executive, one who breaks out of the traditional corporate hierarchy to share knowledge freely across the organisation (the horizontal part of the T) while remaining fiercely co
18、mmitted to individual business unit performance (the vertical part). (10) Although this tension is most acute for heads of business units, any T- shaped manager with operating unit obligations must wrestle with it. You might ask, why rely so heavily on managers to share knowledge? Why not just insti
19、tute a state-of-the-art knowledge management system? The trouble is that those systems are best at transferring explicit knowledge; for example, the template needed to perform a complicated but routine task. (11) In fact, this implicit knowledge sharing is crucial to the success of innovation-driven
20、 companies. Furthermore, merely moving documents around can never engender the degree of collaboration that is needed to generate new insights. (12) Effective T-shaped managers will benefit companies of almost any size, but theyre particularly crucial in large corporations where operating units have
21、 been granted considerable autonomy. Although giving business units greater freedom generally increases accountability and spurs innovation, it can also lead to competition between units, which may hoard, rather than share, expertise. (13) So, how do you successfully cultivate T-shaped managers and
22、capitalise on the value they can create? Energy giant BP Amoco provides some provocative answers. My in-depth examination of their management practices highlighted five specific types of value that T-shaped managers can generate. (14) It is important to follow these, because the benefits of T-shaped
23、 management will not be realised if the concept is poorly implemented. Senior executives must put in place mechanisms that simultaneously promote and discipline managers knowledge-sharing activities. A However, direct personal contact is more typically needed to effectively transfer the kind of know
24、ledge that must be creatively applied to particular business problems or opportunities. B For that, companies really have to bring people together to brainstorm. C Many companies have tried, with mixed success, to leverage this underused asset by centralising knowledge management functions or by inv
25、esting heavily in knowledge management technology. D The entire history of the T-shaped manager is one of evolution, a process that continues to this day. E The successful T-shaped manager must learn to live with, and ultimately thrive within, the stress created by this dual responsibility. F By enc
26、ouraging collaboration, a T-shaped management system can be a powerful counterbalance to such negative behaviour. G Their experience also suggests guidelines for creating an environment in which T-shaped managers will flourish. H I am referring to the wealth of expertise, ideas and latent insights t
27、hat lie scattered across or deeply embedded in their organisations. 三、 PART THREE 14 Read the following extract from an article about diversity management, and the questions followed. For each question 15 20, mark one letter (A, B, C, or D) on your Answer Sheet for the answer you choose. The UK dive
28、rsity management literature has tended to focus on its implementation in the public sector rather than in the commercial sector. Hicks-Clarke and Hes work considers the links between gender diversity and organizational performance in both retailing and the National Health Service but found that surv
29、ey analysis was not the most appropriate way of exploring diversity climates in the retail company. Initially, the study developed from an approach from the UK high-street operation which was seeking to create more innovative HR practices to support a marketing strategy of appealing to a more divers
30、e customer base. The decision to participate in the study suggests that not only are diversity issues growing in significance for UK retailers but, arguably, point to an absence of guidance on how to achieve diversity management in practice. The retailer had three distinct businesses: the UK high st
31、reet, its online business and the US retailing chain. The online business, selling products through its website and other interactive channels, employed approximately 100 people all centrally located in one UK premises. In contrast, the UK high street and US businesses were much larger and more wide
32、ly dispersed. Both businesses had similar structures (head office, regional level and store level) and relied on formal documents to disseminate company policies. The UK high-street business had approximately 530 stores and 17, 000 staff, and has occupied a dominant position in UK retailing since it
33、s inception more than 200 years ago. Established in 1985, the US business employed 3,600 staff and had a total of 570 stores in airports and hotels, predominately in North America. A case study approach was selected as the most likely means of gathering insights into understanding the concept of div
34、ersity management and how managers applied this in their working environments. Over 12 months, 40 semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals holding managerial responsibilities in the UK business operations and with a small number of ssnior HR specialists from the relevant head offic
35、e who were the architects of the equality and diversity policies and procedures. The majority of the samples were store managers but a number had wider regional or general managerial roles and not only had a responsibility for diversity issues but also experienced these as employees. Although an imp
36、ortant consideration was the diversity of respondents, and every effort was made to ensure that they reflected a wide range of visible characteristics, the main priority of the study was to obtain the views of those staff with an organizational responsibility for the interpretation and application o
37、f equality and diversity policies. This meant that the diversity of the sample was constrained by the composition of the population in such roles. The result was a sample that was 70 percent female and 30 percent male, with an age composition ranging from mid-twenties to late fifties, although the m
38、ajority were in their thirties or earlier forties. There was only one non-white manager in the UK sample, and one with a visible physical disability. It was difficult to select respondents on the grounds of their non-visible diversity, such as religion and sexuality, as these differences were not ma
39、de known unless during the interview the respondent provided the information that they were, for example, Christian. The large numbers employed in the UK high street and US businesses, combined with the fluid nature of job roles in the online business, meant that snowball sampling was employed to se
40、lect interviewees. This technique relies on respondents to identify other suitable people to interview. It is recognized that such an approach could have resulted in some bias in the selection of respondents. To try to minimize this, the list of interviewees and their roles were verified with the HR
41、 function both before and after the interviews took place as well as being checked against the documented organizational structures. In addition, each respondent was asked about their job role and supervisory responsibilities, their previous experience and working environment. During the interviews
42、individuals were each asked to comment on a couple of scenarios describing employment situations where people could be treated either the same (an equal opportunities approach) or differently (a managing diversity approach). For example, one scenario related to an organizational benefits scheme wher
43、e respondents were asked to consider the advantages and disadvantages of providing benefits for specific groups of employees, such as working parents, or for all employees, such as reduced rates for membership of a local gym. Providing an example of how these might operate in practice was intended t
44、o assist the interviewee to reflect more easily on the different approaches that could be taken to equality issues. 15 From the first two paragraphs, what can you predict about the main purpose of the study? （ A） The study is to expose the thought of a number of managers who were responsible for the
45、 application of organizational equality and diversity policies in the retailing industry. （ B） The study is mainly about in the implementation of organizational diversity initiatives, employers need to take greater account of the tensions facing line managers. （ C） Line managers regard a diversity m
46、anagement agenda concerned with recognizing and responding to individual differences. （ D） The study is to explore through qualitative methods the understandings, perceptions of fair treatment and reported actions of a group of managers. 16 What was the research primarily based on? （ A） In-depth int
47、erviews conducted with managers, HR specialists and employees across the three distinct business units. （ B） A long-established UK major high-street retailer of stationery and books. （ C） UK diversity management literature and the UK high-street operation. （ D） UK retailers. 17 What is the similarit
48、y among the retailers three distinct businesses? （ A） They all occupy a dominant position in UK retailing. （ B） They all possess a large number of consumers and a wide as well as prosperous market. （ C） They all have very different operational contexts, and they all sell products relating to enterta
49、inment, information and education. （ D） They all sell products through the website and other interactive channels. 18 To minimize the bias in the selection of respondents, why was each respondent asked about their job role and supervisory responsibilities, their previous experience and working environment? （ A） To have a better understanding about the value and world view of the managers. （ B） To explore the managers perceptions of equality and diversity policies. （ C） To test the sensitivity of perception and discrimination of the respondents. （ D） To get
