From bankers to factory staff, employees in the west face the bleak prospect (暗淡的前景) of losing their jobs as a global recession (衰退) starts to bite. For colleagues in the East the pain is more likely to come through a pay cut.
Human resource experts say cultural differences explain why Asian firms try harder to keep jobs in difficult times, which will stop unemployment and may help keep Asian economies afloat at a time of slowing exports.
The East Asian attitude may also make it easier for firms to recover quickly from the economic downturn since they will not need to rehire or train new staff, leaving some experts predicting Western shift to Eastern flexibility.
“In the Confucian (儒家的) attitude, the right thing to do is to share the burden. There is the sense of collective responsibility whereas (然而) in the West, it’s more about the individual survival,” said Michael Benotlel, associated professor of organizational behavior at Singapore Management University.
Steven Pang, Asian Regional Director for Aquent, a headhunting firm, said in many East Asian companies there was a responsibility “ to take care of the members of the family and go through the pain together” even if that meant causing losses.
US firms from General Motors to Goldman Sachs plan to lay off workers by the thousand. But at the Asian units of Western multinationals, job cuts will probably be less severe.
Japan’s jobless rate was 4 percent in September, up from 3.8 percent in January, while Hong Kong’s was flat at 3.4 percent. But US unemployment is expected to have jumped to 6.3 percent last month from below 5 percent in January.
Experts say that while there are noticeable differences in labor practices in East and West, the gap will narrow as more firms become more multinational and competition forces firms to adopt the best practices of rivals (对手) from abroad.
(Note: Answer the questions or complete the statements in NO MORE THAN TEN WORDS.)What caused the different practices of Asian and Western firms facing the global recession?
Why is it easier for the East Asian firms to recover quickly from the economic downturn?
Firms in the west would lay off workers when facing a bleak prospect because of ______.
______ will make the differences in East and West less noticeable.
Returning a father's love
He was a single father, raising a 5-year-old boy by himself. He was often worried about his son,growing up without a mother to care for him.
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One day, he went away on business, leaving the childalone. He worried about the child all the way, not knowing if he
阅读下面短文,根据所读内容在表格中的空白处填入恰当的单词。
注意:每个空格只填一个单词。
If we agree that the function of education is to prepare us for life, then there is very little time to waste. So, while we can, we ought to concentrate on teaching children something really useful. Here is what our schools should teach.
Politeness is a mark of civilization. The sooner children learn this, the better. In any case, a lot can be accomplished by a smile and good manners.
Like it or not, our adult lives will be consumed by the struggle for money, but we don’t make an effort to teach children how to manage it. So our schools have a duty to teach them this ability from the beginning.
We’re likely to accept something we are told, but that’s not what educated people do. Educated people are reasonable and they look at facts. If our schools teach nothing else, they should at least teach critical (批判性的) thinking.
Children should learn to take care of their health. They should know that if they eat junk food (垃圾食品), they will become fat and unhealthy. They should be very clear about what happens to their bodies when they drink or smoke.
All of us are part of society. We have rights and responsibilities. We ought to understand what they are. We have to know a little bit of our history and geography, because we need to have an environment in which to relate to the people around us.
How will we test students on these? We can’t. But that’s not a reason to avoid teaching what is important. Our schools should spend every moment they have telling this to our children: “This is life, this is what you are going to face, and this is how you deal with it.”
Title |
Very Useful |
Introduction |
Education should be a |
Advice |
Important things should be taught in |
Teaching |
●How to behave ●The basic skill of ●How to ●How to keep ●The rights and responsibilities one has in |
Conclusion |
Children should be taught what |
请认真阅读下列短文,并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入最恰当的单词。注意:每空一词。
How old is “old”? The answer has changed over the years. Two hundred years ago, you were old at 35. That was the average life expectancy (平均寿命) then. At the turn of the 20th century, as medical knowledge advanced, the average life span increased to 45. In 1950, 70-year-olds were really old. Today, a healthy 70-year-old is looking forward to many more active years.
So, how old is “old”? The answer is one you've heard many times, from all sorts of people. “You are as old (or young) as you feel. The calendar simply tells you how many years you have lived. Your body tells you how well you've lived.”
“Youth,” wrote an unknown author, “is not a time of life—it is a state of mind. Nobody grows old by living a number of years; people grow old by deserting their ideals.”
Old is a point of view. Alice Brophy, when she was with the New York City Commission for the Aging, said, “It annoys (让人心烦) me when people say, ‘Gee, you look young for your age.’ What does that mean? Is there some model that you ought to look a certain way at 65 and 75 and 85? You know you can die old at 30 and live young at 80.”
Gray Myths (荒诞的说法)
There are many myths about aging. These myths stereotype (使……有成见) people on the basis of age. Here are some of the more common myths and the facts.
Myth: Most older people are in poor health.
Fact: Not so. There are neither biological nor physiological reasons to connect poor health with growing older. Older people are more likely to be affected with illness and physical disabilities than you are, but old age itself is not a disease. It is possible to remain physically fit throughout your life.
Myth: When you get old, you become senile (衰老).
Fact: Older minds can be as bright as young minds. Senility is a sign of disease; it is not part of the normal aging process. In a 1985 study of men ages 20; 40; 60 and 80 years, no evidence was found to indicate that aging was connected with an avoidable drop in intellectual (智力的) performance in generally healthy people.
Myth: Older people are rigid, unable to change?
Fact: Older people are as different in their life-styles and action as are young and middle-aged people. Despite the large pressure they deal with—death of loved ones or job, financial, and family problems—they deal with very well. Older people give up smoking and break other bad habits just as successfully as younger people.
Title: Standards about __________ Age
The average life span has |
time |
the |
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200 years ago |
35 years old |
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in 1900 |
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in 1950 |
70 years old |
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today |
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Gray Myths and |
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Myths |
Facts |
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When you get old, you will |
Older people are more likely to be affected with illness than younger people. |
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When you get old, you become senile. |
Senility is a sign of disease, which might happen in different sorts of |
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Older people are rigid, unable to change. |
Older people can deal with the large just as successfully as younger people. |
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请认真阅读下列短文,并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填人最恰当的单词。 注意:每空格1个单词。
For centuries people dreamed of going into space. This dream began to seem possible when high-flying rockets were built in the early 1900s.
In 1903 a Russian teacher named Konstantin Tsiolkovsky figured out how to use rockets for space travel. His plan was the first one in rocket science to use correct scientific calculation. About 30 years later, a U.S. scientist named Robert Goddard built the first rockets that could reach high altitudes. During World War II, German scientists built large rockets that could travel very far and carry dangerous explosives. After the war, scientists from Germany went to the United States and the Soviet Union to help those countries build space rockets.
These two countries were soon racing to get to space first. Each of these countries wanted to prove that it was stronger and more advanced than the other one. Both countries also had powerful bombs. People in the United States were worried when the Soviets were first to launch a space satellite, which was called Sputnik. The Soviets were also first to send a person into space. Yury Gagarin orbited the earth in the Vostok I spaceship in 1961.
The US government set a goal for its space program to be the first country to put a person on the Moon. The U.S. space program built a series of Apollo spaceship. These vehicles were powered by huge Saturn 5 rockets. In 1969 Apollo II took three men to the moon successfully. Nell Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon.
The Soviets may have lost the race to fly people to the Moon, but they built the first space station in 1971. The United States also built a space station. The space stations allowed people to live and work in space. Then the Soviet Union and the United States cooperated to hook two spaceships together in space. This action ended the "space race". Today a much larger space station, built by several countries together, orbits Earth.
Another new way to go to space is by space shuttle. A space shuttle, first made in the United States in 1981, looks like an airplane. Astronauts who fly spaceships have used shuttles to help put satellites into space.
History of space travel |
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Time |
Events |
Information concerned |
Early 1900s |
High-flying rockets were built. |
It made the ancient dream of going to space possible to come |
1903 |
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky |
He planned to put correct scientific calculation to use in rocket science. |
Around |
Robert Goddard built new rockets. |
The rockets could fly very |
During and after World War II |
German scientists built large rockets that could travel very far and carry dangerous explosives. |
Germany was ahead of all the other countries in building space rockets and later it even offered |
The Soviet Union and the United States competed to get to space first. |
The Soviet Union became the |
|
1969 |
The United States |
In one way, it |
1970s |
The Soviets built the first space station and was soon followed by Americans. And they finally ended the "space race" by |
Astronauts can live and work in space stations. |
1980s-- |
Space shuttles are used as new vehicles for space |
Shuttles are also used to help put satellites into space. |
It’s such a happy-looking library, painted yellow, decorated with palm-tree stickers and sheltered from the Florida sun by its own roof. About the size of a microwave oven, it’s pedestrian-friendly, too, waiting for book lovers next to a sidewalk in Palm Beach country Estates, along the northern boundary of Palm Beach Gardens.
It’s a library built with love.
A year ago, shortly after Janey Henriksen saw a Brian Williams report about the Little Free Library organization, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit that aims to promote literacy and build a sense of community in a neighborhood by making books freely available, she announced to her family of four, “That’s what we’re going to do for our spring break!”
Son Austin, now a 10th-grader, didn’t see the point of building a library that resembles a mailbox. But Janey insisted, and husband Peter unwillingly got to work. The 51-year-old owner of a ship supply company modified a small wooden house that he’d built years earlier for daughter Abbie’s toy horses, and made a door of glass.
After adding the library’s final touches (装点), the family hung a signboard on the front, instructing users to “take a book, return a book,” and making the Henriksen library, now one of several hundred like it nationwide and among more than 2,500 in the world, the only Little Free Library in Palm Beach County.
They stocked it with 20 or so books they’d already read, a mix of science fiction, reference titles, novels and kids’ favorites. “I told them, keep in mind that you might not see it again,” said Janey, a stay-at-home mom.
Since then, the collection keeps replenishing (补充) itself, thanks to ongoing donations from borrowers. The library now gets an average of five visits a day.
The project’s best payoff, says Peter, are the thank-you notes left behind. “We had no idea in the beginning that it would be so popular.” In what way is the library “pedestrian-friendly”?
A.It owns a yellow roof. |
B.It stands near a sidewalk. |
C.It protects book lovers from the sun. |
D.It uses palm-tree stickers as decorations. |
Janey got the idea to build a library from __________.
A.a visit to Brian Williams |
B.a spring break with her family |
C.a book sent by one of her neighbors |
D.a report on a Wisconsin-based organization |
The library was built __________.
A.by a ship supply company |
B.on the basis of toy horses |
C.like a mailbox |
D.with glass |
What can we infer about the signboard?
A.It was made by a user of the library. |
B.It marked a final touch to the library. |
C.It aimed at making the library last long. |
D.It indicated the library was a family property. |
The passage tells us that the users __________.
A.donate books to the library |
B.get paid to collect books for the library |
C.receive thank-you notes for using the library |
D.visit the library over 5 times on average daily |