CastleFireWintonCastlewasdamag-优题课

Picture a typical MBA lecture theatre twenty years ago. In it the majority of students will have conformed to (符合) the standard model of the time: male, middle class and Western. Walk into a class today, however, and you’ll get a completely different impression. For a start, you will now see plenty more women—the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, for example, boasts that 40% of its new enrolment is female. You will also see a wide range of ethnic groups and nationals of practically every country.
It might be tempting, therefore, to think that the old barriers have been broken down and equal opportunity achieved. But, increasingly, this apparent diversity (多样化) is becoming a mask for a new type of conformity. Behind the differences in sex, skin tones and mother tongues, there are common attitudes, expectations and ambitions which risk creating a set of clones among the business leaders of the future.
Diversity, it seems, has not helped to address fundamental weaknesses in business leadership. So what can be done to create more effective managers of the commercial world? According to Valerie Gauthier, associate dean at HEC Paris, the key lies in the process by which MBA programmes recruit (招聘) their students. At the moment candidates are selected on a fairly narrow set of criteria such as prior (以前的) academic and career performance, and analytical and problem solving abilities. This is then coupled to a school’s picture of what a diverse class should look like, with the result that passport, ethnic origin and sex can all become influencing factors. But schools rarely dig down to find out what really makes an applicant succeed, to create a class which also contains diversity of attitude and approach—arguably the only diversity that, in a business context, really matters.
Professor Gauthier believes schools should not just be selecting candidates from traditional sectors such as banking, consultancy and industry. They should also be seeking individuals who have backgrounds in areas such as political science, the creative arts, history or philosophy, which will allow them to put business decisions into a wider context.
Indeed, there does seem to be a demand for the more rounded leaders such diversity might create. A study by Mannaz, a leadership development company, suggests that, while the bully-boy chief executive of old may not have been eradicated (根除) completely, there is a definite shift in emphasis towards less tough styles of management—at least in America and Europe. Perhaps most significant, according to Mannaz, is the increasing interest large companies have in more collaborative (合作的) management models, such as those prevalent (流行的) in Scandinavia, which seek to integrate the hard and soft aspects of leadership and encourage delegated responsibility and accountability.
What characterizes the business school student population of today?

A．Greater diversity.	B．Exceptional diligence.
C．Intellectual maturity.	D．Higher ambition.

What is the author’s concern about current business school education?

A．It will arouse students’ unrealistic expectations.

B．It will produce business leaders of a uniform style.

C．It focuses on theory rather than on practical skills.

D．It stresses competition rather than cooperation.

What aspect of diversity does Valerie Gauthier think is most important?

A．Age and educational background.	B．Attitude and approach to business.
C．Social and professional experience.	D．Ethnic origin and gender.

What does Mannaz say about the current management style?

A．It is eradicating the tough aspects of management.

B．It encourages male and female executives to work side by side.

C．It adopts the bully-boy chief executive model.

D．It is shifting towards more collaborative models.

If a diver surfaces too quickly, he may suffer the bends. Nitrogen (氮) dissolved (溶解) in his blood is suddenly liberated by the reduction of pressure. The consequence, if the bubbles (气泡) accumulate in a joint, is sharp pain and a bent body—thus the name. If the bubbles form in his lungs or
his brain, the consequence can be death.
Other air-breathing animals also suffer this decompression (减压) sickness if they surface too fast: whales, for example. And so, long ago, did ichthyosaurs (鱼龙). That these ancient sea animals got the bends can be seen from their bones. If bubbles of nitrogen form inside the bone they can cut off its blood supply. This kills the cells in the bone, and consequently weakens it, sometimes to the point of collapse. Fossil (化石) bones that have caved in on themselves are thus a sign that the animal once had the bends.
Bruce Rothschild of the University of Kansas knew all this when he began a study of ichthyosaur bones to find out how widespread the problem was in the past. What he particularly wanted to investigate was how ichthyosaurs adapted to the problem of decompression over the 150 million years. To this end, he and his colleagues traveled the world’s natural-history museums, looking at hundreds of ichthyosaurs from the Triassic period and from the later Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.
When he started, he assumed that signs of the bends would be rarer in younger fossils, reflecting their gradual evolution of measures to deal with decompression. Instead, he was astonished to discover the opposite. More than 15% of Jurassic and Cretaceous ichthyosaurs had suffered the bends before they died, but not a single Triassic specimen (标本) showed evidence of that sort of injury.
If ichthyosaurs did evolve an anti-decompression means, they clearly did so quickly—and, most strangely, they lost it afterwards. But that is not what Dr Rothschild thinks happened. He suspects it was evolution in other animals that caused the change.
Whales that suffer the bends often do so because they have surfaced to escape a predator (捕食动物) such as a large shark. One of the features of Jurassic oceans was an abundance of large sharks and crocodiles, both of which were fond of ichthyosaur lunches. Triassic oceans, by contrast, were mercifully shark- and crocodile-free. In the Triassic, then, ichthyosaurs were top of the food chain. In the Jurassic and Cretaceous, they were prey (猎物) as well as predator—and often had to make a speedy exit as a result.
Which of the following is a typical symptom of the bends?

A．A twisted body.	B．A gradual decrease in blood supply.
C．A sudden release of nitrogen in blood.	D．A drop in blood pressure.

The purpose of Rothschild’s study is to see _______.

A．how often ichthyosaurs caught the bends

B．how ichthyosaurs adapted to decompression

C．why ichthyosaurs bent their bodies

D．when ichthyosaurs broke their bones

Rothschild’s finding stated in Paragraph 4 _______.

A．confirmed his assumption	B．speeded up his research process
C．disagreed with his assumption	D．changed his research objectives

Rothschild might have concluded that ichthyosaurs _______.

A．failed to evolve an anti-decompression means

B．gradually developed measures against the bends

C．died out because of large sharks and crocodiles

D．evolved an anti-decompression means but soon lost it

Wugging, or web-use giving, describes the act of giving to charity at no cost to the user. By using Everyclick.com, which is being added to a number of university computers across the UK, students can raise money every time they search, but it won’t cost them a penny.
Research shows that students are extremely passionate about supporting charity — 88% of full time students have used the Internet to give to charity. This figure is high considering this age group is often the least likely to have their own income. 19% of 22 to 24 year olds have short-term debts of more than £5,000. With rising personal debt levels in this age group, due to university tuition fees or personal loans and a lack of long-term savings, traditional methods of donating to charity are often not appealing or possible.
Beth Truman, a 21 year old recent university graduate, has used everyclick.com to donate to her chosen charity, the RSPCA, for two years and has seen the “wugging” grow in popularity with students. “When you’re at university you become more socially aware, but it’s sometimes hard to give to others when you have little money yourself,” says Beth. “Wugging is great for people in this age group as it allows them to use the technology on a daily basis to give to charity, without costing them a single penny.”
Wugging is perfect for people who want to be more socially aware and supportive but don’t feel they have the means to do so. Students using the web can raise money for causes they care about without costing them anything in terms of time or money, and charities get a valuable source of funding.
Everyclick.com works like any other search engine, allowing users to search for information, news and images but users can decide which of the UK’s 170,000 charities they would like to support through their clicks. Everyclick.com then makes monthly payments to every registered charity. Launched in June 2005, Everyclick.com is now the eighth largest search engine and one of the busiest charity websites in the UK.
According to the passage, “wugging” is actually _______.

A．a student movement	B．a charity-related action
C．a school organization	D．a website

In the case of charity, everyclick.com _______.

A．frees students of the financial worries

B．receives much money from students

C．offers valuable information to students

D．praises students for their money-raising

What does Beth Truman think of the “wugging” movement?

A．It makes Everyclick.com popular in the UK.

B．It becomes easy to do charity because of it.

C．It results in students’ more social awareness.

D．It helps students to save money.

From the passage, we can conclude that _______.

A．most full time students do charity on the Internet every day

B．Everyclick.com helps students pay for the college education

C．“wugging” is a win-win idea for both students and charities

D．Everyclick.com is the most successful search engine in the UK

Knowing the best way to study will help you to be a better student. By using your time properly, you can do your homework more quickly. Learning to study is not difficult.
The first thing to remember is that you must be willing to learn. It doesn’t mean that you must always like the subject. It does mean, however, that you must be wil1ing to do whatever is necessary to learn. Try to understand why it is important and how it will help you now and later to do and learn other things. Knowing mathematics facts will be useful in your whole life. Knowing how to spell makes any kind of writing easier. Sometimes the subject that you think is going to be uninteresting will be exciting when you begin to work at it and understand it more clearly. Learning things can be fun if you are willing to work with them.
Here’s some advice for you: have a certain time each day and a quiet place with good lighting for study, so that you can concentrate on your study without interruptions(中断); have everything ready before you sit down to study, a dictionary, paper, a pen and books; be sure you understand what you should learn before you start; read carefully and pay special attention to the most important things; when memorizing, first find out the main parts and then recite the whole thing; check your homework after you finish it; never forget the importance of review and preview.
Don’t try to spend a lot of time researching learning methods. There are many students who know many good learning methods but don’t study well. They forget that no one can study well unless he studies hard.
The main goal of the article is .

A．to prove that learning is not difficult

B．to make the readers be interested in study

C．to tell the importance of self teaching

D．to tell the students how to study well

The first thing to remember in studying is that .

A．you must like the subject

B．you must follow the teacher

C．you must enjoy learning

D．you must spend much time researching learning methods

We learn things because .

A．we may use these things in the future

B．we like the subjects

C．our parents want us to learn them

D．every student learns them at school

The following advice is given in the article EXCEPT.

A．To put a pen, paper and books beside you before study.

B．To study at any possible time and place.

C．To review and preview

D．To pay attention to the most important things before you start to study

Among the following statements, which of the following is true?

A．The more learning methods we have, the better we will study.

B．Finding the best learning method is the most important in learning.

C．If you don’t work hard, though you have a good learning method, you can’t be good at study.

D．Once we have mastered a good learning method, we can improve our study greatly.

In today's fast-paced (快节奏) society, few people take time to enjoy the midday meal．Most of us just rush right through it. We grab a quick salad, or buy a sandwich and eat at our computers, Sometimes, if there is a deadline around the corner, we just skip lunch．
The development of technology hasn't done our eating habits much good either．We are constantly distracted by e-mail, social media, and 24 - hour news．Even when we do sit down for lunch, we are more connected to our hand - held electronic devices．
Long working hours can cause all kinds of health problems, and many developed countries have put in place labor laws specifically regarding the lunch break．These laws give employees the right to take a break during a long work shift, but it's up to them whether they do so or not．
Frank Partnoy, a former Wall Street trader, says that employers should encourage workers to take time off for lunch．This is because long lunch breaks can benefit both individuals and society.
Writing in The Guardian, Partnoy says that one obvious reason to take a lunch break is to slow down and gain some perspective（认识）． A break from work allows us to think strategically and outside the box．It also puts our daily tasks into a broader context（背景）．
What we eat at lunch is also important．In Partnoy' s opinion, a fast food lunch is more harmful than not having lunch at all． And it's not just about calories and unhealthy food．Recent studies show that fast food also has negative effects on how we think．
However, if we sit down at a proper restaurant and chat leisurely with colleagues, we are more likely to slow down, something that hardly can be achieved in a noisy and over — packed fast food chain．
Despite these benefits, some employees might still be unwilling to take time off for lunch．Partnoy's suggestion? Make skipping lunch difficult: Employers could ask workers to fill out a form stating their reasons for skipping the meal．
What does the underlined phrase "skip lunch" mean in the first paragraph?

A．have a quick lunch	B．don't have lunch
C．work while having lunch	D．take a lunch break

Which of the following is true according to the text?

A．Modern technology results in good diet habits．

B．Electronic devices make our life comfortable．

C．Many people are too busy to have a good lunch．

D．Laws have passed to make workers have lunch．

According to Frank Partnoy, long lunch breaks.

A．are time for the workers to relax their mind

B．make the employees work longer hours

C．are for employees to have a quick lunch

D．make the workers eat a proper lunch at home

In Partnoy's opinion, a fast food lunch.

A．saves a lot of time for a rest

B．affects people's way of thinking

C．is better than having no lunch

D．makes workers sit down and think

What might be the author's purpose in writing the text?

A．To warn us not to eat fast food．

B．To introduce Frank Partnoy's opinion．

C．To encourage us to work more efficiently．

D．To show the importance of a proper lunch．