If you know exactly what you want, the best way to get a job is to get specialized training. A recent report shows that companies like graduates in such fields as business and health care who can go to work immediately with very little on-the-job training.
That’s especially true of booming fields that are challenging for workers. At Cornell's School of Hotel Administration, for example, bachelor's degree graduates get an average of four or five job offers with salaries ranging from the high to low and plenty of chances for rapid advancement. Large companies especially like a background of formal education coupled with work experience. But in the long run, too much specialization does not pay off. Business, which has been flooded with MBAs, no longer considers the degree an automatic stamp of approval. The MBA may open doors and command a higher salary initially, but the impact of a degree washes out after five years.
As further evidence of the erosion of corporate faith in specialized degrees, Michigan State’s Scheetz cites a pattern in corporate hiring practices. Although companies tend to take on specialists as new hires, they often seek out generalists for middle and upper-level management. This sounds like a formal statement that you approve of the liberal-arts(文科) graduate. Time and again labor-market analysts mention a need for talents that liberal-arts majors are assumed to have: writing and communication skills, organizational skills, open-mindedness and adaptability, and the ability to analyze and solve problems. David Birch, manager of the Boston Red Sox, says that he does not hire anybody with an MBA or an engineering degree. “I hire only liberal-arts people because they have a less-than-canned way of doing things,” says Birch.
For a liberal – arts degree, students focus on some basic courses that include literature history, mathematics, economics, science, human behavior and a computer course or two. With these useful and important courses, you can feel free to specialize, “A liberal-arts degree coupled with an MBA or some other technical training is a very good combination in the marketplace,” says Scheetz. The job market is in great need of people with .
| A.special training in special fields | B.a bachelor’s degree in education |
| C.formal schooling and work experience | D.an MBA degree from top universities |
The underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 means .
| A.an MBA degree does not help in future promotion |
| B.MBA programs will not be as popular as they are now |
| C.people will not forget the degree the MBA graduates have got |
| D.most MBA programs fail to provide students with a foundation |
David Birch says that he only hires liberal – arts people because .
| A.they will follow others’ ways of solving problems |
| B.they can do better in bundling changing situations |
| C.they are well trained in a variety of specialized fields |
| D.they have attended special programs in management |
The author supports the idea that .
| A.on – the – job training is less costly in the long run |
| B.formal schooling is less important than job training |
| C.specialists are more expensive to hire than generalists |
| D.generalists will do better than specialists in management |
The most famous statue-the Sphinx in Egypt has been damaged. The experts are trying to find out the cause to protect it.
As we all know, the Sphinx has the body of a lion and the face of a man. It was cut from limestone(石灰石) near Egypt's pyramids about 4, 500 years ago. Not long ago a large piece of stone fell from the Sphinx's right shoulder.
In order to protect the statue from more harm, a computer was placed on it to measure rainfall, wind speed and air temperature. The computer also measured the amount of water and air pollution, the direction of wind and the temperature of the statue itself. The effects of age, wind, water and pollution have greatly weakened the Sphinx. Sunlight, wind, water and pollution have been eroding the outside of the statue for centuries. The experts hope that the information from the computer will help protect it from more damage. They say the more they know about what is destroying the Sphinx, the more they can do to protect it.What does this passage mainly tell us?
| A.The reason why the Sphinx was set up. |
| B.The great importance of the Sphinx in Egyptian history. |
| C.The detailed(详尽的) course and cause of the damage to the Sphinx. |
| D.The experts are trying to find out the cause so as to protect the Sphinx. |
Which of the following is TRUE?
| A.The Sphinx has completely fallen down. |
| B.The Sphinx is made of a kind of rock, which can be destroyed by wind, rain and so on. |
| C.The Sphinx is made of a kind of rock, which is hard enough not to be damaged by anything. |
| D.The Sphinx is in too poor condition to be protected. |
Which of the following is wrong?
| A.The Sphinx is more than 4, 500 years old. |
| B.The advanced instruments(仪器)can help protect cultural relics. |
| C.Both the Sphinx and the pyramids are well known to the world. |
| D.From now on no damage will happen to the Sphinx. |
Friendship Day in India falls on the first Sunday of August every year. It is celebrated with many activities.
Young people in India spend the day with their closest friends and have fun together. Most youngsters in India plan a movie or have a meal with their friends. Many friends may go on a drive to tourist places or make a plan for camping. Some friends go to the supermarket to do some shopping. On Friendship Day, most stores offer discounted prices for customers and it is the perfect day to buy something for friends.
Some friends go to parties that are organized by many restaurants in order to attract youngsters. Such parties are very enjoyable. You can get food at a discounted price. Some friends just decide to meet up (碰头,相聚) at someone’s home and talk about their happy time. The time good friends spend sitting together and talking over a cup of coffee is precious and unforgettable.
Long-distance friends call up each other on this day and wish each other with warm feelings. Some of them even plan to meet up on this particular day. Yet some others plan a surprising visit just to see their friend gasp (喘息) in shock!
In 2009, Friendship Day in India falls on August 2nd. So don’t forget to celebrate it with your friends.When is Friendship Day celebrated in India?
| A.On August 2nd every year. |
| B.On the third weekend of August every year. |
| C.On August 1st every year. |
| D.On the first weekend of August every year. |
According to the text, which of the following is the most popular way that youngsters in India celebrate Friendship Day?
| A.Traveling with friends | B.Seeing a film with friends |
| C.Dancing with friends | D.Going shopping with friends. |
How many ways are discussed in Paragraph 3 that friends spend Friendship Day together?
| A.Two | B.Three | C.Four | D.Five |
The underlined phrase “a surprising visit” in Paragraph 4 refers to “____”.
| A.a visit to a friend who hasn’t expected it |
| B.a visit to a friend who has dreamed of it for a long time |
| C.a visit to a friend who tries to avoid it |
| D.a visit to a friend who lives in a faraway place |
You may know the English letters A, B and C. But do you know there are people called ABC? You may like eating bananas. But did you know there is a “banana person”? How strange! Are these people from “another Earth”? No. They are just Chinese people like you and me.
ABC means American-Born Chinese. An ABC is a Chinese, but was born in the United States. Sometimes, people call an ABC a “banana person”. A banana is yellow outside and white inside. So, when a person is a banana, he or she is white inside--thinking like a Westerner and yellow outside--looking like a Chinese.
Do you know why? Usually, ABCs know little about China or the Chinese language. Some of them don’t speak Chinese.
But if ABCs cannot speak Chinese, can we still call them Chinese people? Yes, of course. They are Chinese. They are overseas (海外) Chinese. These people may be citizens(公民) of another country like the US, Canada or Singapore. But they have Chinese blood. Their parents, grandparents or even great-grandparents were from China. They all have black eyes and black hair.
But they are not Chinese citizens. They are not the people of the People’s Republic of China. For example, we all know the famous scientist? C.N. Yang(杨振宁). He got the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1957. The Chinese love him, but he is an American citizen.“ABC” in this passage means “____________”.
| A.three English letters | B.a kind of banana |
| C.Chinese born in America | D.Americans born in China |
What’s the author’s purpose in writing this passage?
| A.He wants to tell us something about “ABC”. |
| B.He wants to show that Chinese are well respected in America. |
| C.He wants to tell us some knowledge about the English language. |
| D.He wants to introduce the American culture to us. |
Chinese in Western countries are called “banana persons” because ____.
| A.their bodies are white inside but yellow outside |
| B.they think like Westerners but look like Chinese |
| C.they were born in China but go to study in America |
| D.they like to eat bananas |
C.N. Yang is mentioned here to show that ____.
A. American Chinese are great.
B. we love American Chinese
C. The Chinese can win Nobel Prizes
D. American Chinese are not Chinese citizens
A beautiful woman took a plane on business. She found her seat and sat down next to a young man. The man was just thinking of making a few dollars on the plane. When he saw the woman, he got an idea.
“Hey! Would you like to play a game?” he asked the woman. “No, thank you. I just want to take a nap (打盹),” the woman answered.
“It’s really easy. All you have to do is to answer the questions that I ask you. If you don’t know the answer, you give me five dollars. If I don’t know the answer to your question, then I’ll give you five dollars.”
“No,” the woman still refused.
“OK. If I don’t know the answer to your question, I’ll give you five hundred dollars. How about that?” the man said. Then the woman became interested and decided to join in the game.
“OK. How many moons does Jupiter (木星) have?” asked the young man. The woman reached into her purse and took out a five-dollar bill.
“What goes up the mountain with three legs and comes back with four?” the woman asked. Then the young man took out his computer and searched the Internet for an answer. Minutes later, the young man handed five hundred dollars to the woman.
After a few hours, the young man really wanted to know the answer to the question. So he asked the woman, “What is the answer to your question?” The woman reached into her purse and handed the young man a five-dollar bill.Why did the man ask the woman to play a game?
| A.He wanted to show his kindness. |
| B.He wanted to have a pleasant journey. |
| C.He wanted to earn some money from it. |
| D.He wanted to make friends with the woman. |
How much did the woman get at the end of the story?
| A.$ 500. | B.$ 5. | C.$ 10. | D.$ 490. |
What can we learn from the last paragraph?
| A.The woman told the man the answer to her question. |
| B.The woman gave the man’s money back to him. |
| C.The woman asked the man another question. |
| D.The woman didn’t know the answer, either. |
We can learn from the story that the woman is ______.
| A.clever | B.friendly |
| C.polite | D.honest |
The concept of personal choice in relation to health behaviors is an important one. An estimated 90 percent of all illnesses may be preventable if individuals would make sound personal health choice and do not like to see it restricted when it is within the legal and moral boundaries of society. The structure of American society allows us to make almost all our own personal decisions that may concern our health. If we so desire, we can smoke, drink excessively, refuse to wear seat belts, eat whatever foods we want, and live a completely sedentary life style without any exercise. The freedom to make such personal decisions is a fundamental aspect of our society, although the wisdom of these decisions can be questioned. Personal choices relative to health often cause a difficulty. As one example, a teenager may know the facts relative to smoking cigarettes and health but may be pressured by friends into believing it is the socially accepted thing to do.
A multitude(多数;大批) of factors, both inherited and environmental, influence the development of health related behaviors, and it is beyond the scope of this text to discuss all these factors as they may affect any given individual. However, the decision to adopt a particular health related behavior is usually one of personal choices. There are healthy choices and there are unhealthy choices. In discussing the morals of personal choice, Fries and Grapo drew a comparison. They suggest that to knowingly give oneself over to a behavior that has a statistical(统计数字的) probability of shortening life is similar to attempting suicide(自杀). Thus, for those individuals who are interested in preserving both the quality and quantity of life, personal health choices should reflect those behaviors that are associated with a statistical probability of increased vitality(活力;生命力) and longevity(长寿).The concept of personal choice concerning health is important because ____.
| A.personal health choice help cure most illness |
| B.it helps raise the level of our medical knowledge |
| C.it is essential to personal freedom in American society |
| D.wrong decisions could lead to poor health |
To “live a completely sedentary life style”(L7, Para.1)in the passage means____.
| A.to“live an inactive life” |
| B.to “live a proper life” |
| C.to“live a life with complete freedom” |
| D.to “live a life of evil” |
Sound personal health choice is often difficult to make because ____.
| A.current medical knowledge is still insufficient |
| B.there are many factors influencing our decisions |
| C.few people are willing to trade the quality of life for the quantity of life |
| D.people are usually influenced by the behavior of their friends |
To knowingly allow oneself to pursue unhealthy habits is compared by Fries and Crapo to ____.
| A.improving the quality of one’s life |
| B.limiting one’s personal health choice |
| C.deliberately ending one’s life |
| D.breaking the rules of social behavior |
According to Fries and Crapo sound health choices should be based on ____.
| A.personal decisions | B.society’s laws |
| C.statistical evidence | D.friend’s opinions |