剑桥商务英语讲义阅读训练题及答案
2016年剑桥商务英语讲义阅读训练题及答案
公主猫训练一
If sustainable competitive advantage depends on work-force skills, American firms have a problem. Human-resource management is not traditionally en as central to the competitive survival of the firm in United States. Skill acquisition is considered an individual responsibility. Labour is simply another factor of production to be hired-rented at the lowest possible cost-much as one buys raw materials or equipment.
The lack of importance attached to human-resource management can be en in the corporate hierarchy. In an American firm the chief financial officer is almost always cond in command. The post of head of human-resource management is usually a specialized job, off at the edge of the corporate hierarchy. The executive who holds it is never consulted on major strategic decisions and has no chance to move up to Chief Executive Officer (CE
O). By way of contrast, in Japan the head of human-resource management is central-usually the cond most important executive, after the CEO, in the firm's hierarchy.
临沂安全教育平台登录入口While American firms often talk about the vast amounts spent on training their work forces, in fact they invest less in the skills of their employees than do either Japane or German firms. The money they do invest is also more highly concentrated on professional and managerial employees. And the limited investments that are made in training workers are also much more narrowly focud on the specific skills necessary to do the next job rather than on the basic background skills that make it possible to absorb new technologies.
As a result, problems emerge when new breakthrough technologies arrive. If American workers, for example, take much longer to learn how to operate new flexible manufacturing stations than workers in Germany (as they do), the effective cost of tho stations is lower in Germany than it is in the United States. More time is required before equipment is up and running at capacity, and the need for extensive retraining generates
costs and creates bottlenecks that limit the speed with which new equipment can be employed. The result is as lower pace of technological change. And in the end the skills of the population affect the wages of the top half. If the bottom half can't effectively staff the process that have to be operated, the management and professional jobs that go with the process will disappear.
( T ) 1. The management of human resources in American companies es the gaining of skills as their employees' own business.
天才眼睛狗( F) 2. The head of human-resource management in an American firm is directly under the chief financial executives in the firms.
节假日工资怎么算>新闻价值的五要素( F ) 3. The money most American firms put in training mainly goes to workers who lack basic background skills
( F ) 4. According to the passages, the decisive factor in maintaining a firm's competitive advantage is the rational composition of professional and managerial employees
抗疫必胜
( T ) 5. According to the passage, the human-resource management strategies of American firms affect their competitive capacity.
训练二
The ri of multinational corporations(跨国公司), global marketing, new communications technologies, and shrinking cultural differences have led to an unparalleled(空前的)increa in global public relations or PR.
Surprisingly, since modern PR was largely an American invention, the U.S. leader ship in public relations is being threatened by PR efforts in other countries. Ten years ago, for example, the world's top five public relations agencies were American owned. In 1991, only one was. The British in particular are becoming more sophisticated and creative. A recent survey found that more than half of all British companies include PR as part of their corporate(公司的) planning activities, compared to about one-third of U.S. companies. It may not be long before London replaces New York as the capital of PR.
中考祝福语Why is America lagging behind in the global PR race? First, Americans as a whole tend to be fairly provincial and take more of an interest in local affairs. Knowledge of world geography, for example, has never been strong in this country. Secondly, Americans lag behind their European and Asian counterparts(对手)in knowing a cond language. Less than 5 percent of Burson Marshall's U.S. employees know two languages. Ogilvy and Mather has about the same percentage. Converly, some European firms have half or more of their employees fluent in a cond language. Finally, people involved in PR abroad tend to keep a clor eye on international affairs. In the financial PR area, for instance, most Americans read the Wall Street Journal. Overas, their counterparts read the Journal as well as the Financial Times of London and The Economist, Publications not often read in this country.
Perhaps the PR industry might take a lesson from Ted Turner of CNN (Cable News Network). Turner recently announced that the word "foreign" would no longer be ud on CNN news broadcasts. According to Turner, global communications have made the nations of the world so interdependent that there is no longer any such thing as foreign.
( T ) 11. According to the passage, U.S. leadership in public relations is being threatened becau of incread efforts of other countries in public relations.
(F ) 12. London could soon replace New York as the center of PR becau four of the world's top public relations agencies are British owned.
对联福(F ) 13. Comparatively, there are more U.S. employees know two languages.
( T ) 14. We learn from the third paragraph that employees in the American PR industry are not as sophisticated as their European counterparts.