From bankers to factory staff, employees in the West face a cold prospect 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 companies try harder to preserve jobs in difficult times, which will prevent unemployment and may help Asian economies survive at a time of slowing exports. The East Asian attitude may also make it easier for companies to recover quickly from the economic downturn since they will not need to rehire or train new staff, but build up a more loyal and devoted group.
"In the Confucian mindset(儒家思想), the right thing to do is to share the burden（负担）, which is the sense of collective responsibility. While in the West, it's more about individual survival," said Michael Benoliel, associate professor of organizational behavior at Singapore Management University (SMU).
In contrast, local Western companies from General Motors to Goldman Sachs plan to lay off workers by the thousands, but at the Asian units of Western multinationals or western units of Asian groups, 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.The underlined word "prospect" in the first paragraph most probably means _________.
| A．future | B．scene |
| C．weather | D．place |
Compared with job cuts, pay cuts can bring the following benefits EXCEPT that _________.
| A．it's helpful to the economy recovery |
| B．it can form a team working harder and more loyally |
| C．it will keep the experienced and skilled workers |
| D．it costs the company less money to survive |
According to Michael Benoliel, the Confucian mindset focuses on _________.
| A．human rights |
| B．personal profits |
| C．sharing responsibility |
| D．individual survival |
The passage mainly tells us ________.
| A．the difficulties all the companies around the world will meet with today |
| B．the different labor solutions of Asian and Western in global recession |
| C．the ways to cut down the cost of the companies in economic downturn |
| D．the cultural differences between Eastern and Western world at present |
When I was going home to India last year, I called up my mother to ask if she wanted anything from china.
When India had not opened up its markets to the world, I carried suitcase loads of dark glasses and jeans. Thankfully, we can get all these anywhere in India now.
Still, her answer surprised me: “Green tea.”
As long as I can remember she didn’t even drink Indian tea.
I dutifully bought a big packet of Longjing and headed home to hear the story. My mother and her brother, both regular newspaper readers, believed that Chinese green tea was the wonder drug for all illnesses.
At the turn of the century, China was not really familiar to the average Indian. It was a strange country.
How things change! And how soon!
Now every town of any size seems to have a “China Market”. And everyone is talking about China.
The government of India has planned to send a team to China to see how things are done. A minister once said that India must open the doors for more foreign investment (投资) and such a step would “work wonders as it did for China”.
But it’s a two-way street. I just heard about a thousand Shenzhen office workers who have gone to Bangalore to train in software. Meanwhile, all the Indian IT majors are setting up a strong presence in China.
No wonder that trade , which was only in the millions just ten years ago, is expected to hit about US$15 billion for last year and US$20 billion by 2008, a goal set by both governments.
No wonder, my colleague wrote some weeks ago about this being the Sino-Indian (中印)century as the two countries started on January 1 the Sino-Indian Friendship Year.
But what is still a wonder to me is my mother drinking Chinese tea.
45. Why did the mother ask for Chinese green tea?
A. She was tired of Indian tea. B. She had a son working in China.
C. She believed it had a curing effect. D. She was fond of Chinese products.
46. What does the author mean by “it’s a two-way street” in Paragraph 10?
A. The exchanges between India and China benefit both.
B. Tea trade works wonders in both India and China.
C. Chinese products are popular in both China and India.
D. China and India have different traffic rules.
47. What do we know about the Indian IT industry?
A. It will move its head office to Shenzhen.
B. It is seeking further development in China.
C. It has attracted an investment of US$15 billion.
D. It caught up with the US IT industry in 2008.
48. In the text the author expresses _____.
A. his concern for his mother’s health
B. his support for drinking Chinese green tea
C. his wonder at the growth of India’s IT industry
D. his surprise at China’s recent development
It was graduation day at the university where I work and a beautiful day quite unlike the first graduation I attended as a young professor. On that cold day years ago, as we watched the students walking into the hall, one of my colleagues turned to me and said, “Graduation will be one of the happiest and one of the saddest time of your life.” At my inquiry, he answered, “Because the students you have gotten to know have to leave.”
As years went by, my previous confusion about my colleague’s words no longer existed. When I came across naughty students, I have had to rethink why I chose to be a teacher. It obviously isn’t the money. Once a former computer science student of mine called me, asking me if I wanted to have a change. He was working at Nintendo Corporation. His salary was higher than my current one, though I have more education and have worked for over a decade. With my programming skills, he said he could get me hired. I thanked him, but declined his kind offer.
A few days before this current graduation, while working on final grades, I found a note a student had slipped in with her homework. She thanked me for being her teacher and said the things she had learned in my class — not about math, but about life — would be things she would remember long after the math skills had faded away. As I finished reading, I remembered why I had become a teacher.
Now, on this sunny graduation day, as I again observed the sea of blue hats and gowns, I did so with renewed dedication (奉献) and a deeper sense of satisfaction — I will always be grateful that I am a teacher.
41. Hearing his colleague’s description of graduation for the first time, the author .
A. quite agreed with his colleague B. was very puzzled
C. thought it very funny D. was very sad
42. The underlined part blue hats and gowns refers to .
A. university colleagues B. graduates’ clothes
C. life memories D. decorations in the hall
43. The author wrote this passage to .
A. express his devotion to being a teacher
B. compare two different graduation ceremonies
C. talk about the meaning of graduation
D. give advice on how to be a good teacher
44. The reason why he earns less than the computer science student is that .
A. he was only a young professor
B. he didn’t do well in his work
C. he taught his students more about life than math
D. salaries for different careers are different
(E)
Messages can be sent across the land by means of the electric telegraph; but you cannot put up a line of telegraph posts across the sea. Messages can be sent across the
ocean by radio or by cable(电缆). The cable lies on the sea bottom and it has to have very good insulation. If any part of it is weak, the water will get through and stop all signals .
The first cable under the sea was between England and France. It was laid（放置） in 1851. In 1851 engineers tried to lay a cable across the Atlantic Ocean, but they met a
lot of difficulties. Halfway across the Atlantic the cable broke, and the ship that was laying it had to return.
Kelvin advised that another cable ought to be laid. It was made ready, and put on board a big ship. Kelvin and his friends traveled with it and after many days of hard work, they reached America without breaking the cable. Kelvin himself sent the first
message by cable from America to Britain. Unfortunately only 732 messages were sent through this cable before it broke.
The next cable was laid in 1866, and this time there were no problems. The ship
that laid it was the Great Eastern, one of the strongest ships that have ever been built.
It was driven by powerful engines and also by sails .
1. The undersea cable must be made strong enough to prevent _____.
A.. fishes from eating it B. enemy stealing it
C.water getting through it D. others cutting it
2. The first cable across the Atlantic _______.
A. was the first undersea cable
B. was only laid half- way
C. broke after only 732 messages were sent
D. never broke
3. The undersea cable Kelvin and his Mends laid was between_____.
A. England and France B. America and England
C. American and France D. England and Britain
4. The cable that Kelvin and his friends laid went through __
A. the Pacific Ocean B. the Indian Ocean
C. the Atlantic Ocean D. the Arctic Ocean
5. This passage mainly tells us _______.
A. how Kelvin laid the cable
B. how the scientists discovered the cable
C. the history of the cable in the world
D. how to lay the cable in the sea
(D)
Peter King, 15 and Mary King, 13 went to see a doctor together. Peter had a bad
cold, so the doctor gave him some pills to take. Mary had a bad cough, so the doctor |
gave her some cough medicine. These are the words on the bottle of medicine:
Cough Medicine
Shake well before use.
Take three times daily after meals.
Dosage: Adults 2 teaspoonfuls
Children 8 -14 1 teaspoonful
Child 4-7 1/2 teaspoonful
Not suitable for children below the age of 4.
Store in a cool place.
Use before October 1998.
1. Mary should take ____ in a day.
A. 2 teaspoonfuls B. 3 teaspoonfuls
C. 4 teaspoonfuls D. 1 teaspoonful
2. People aged ____ cannot take this medicine.
A. 80 B. 15 C. 20 D. 3
3. Mary or her mother should ____ the medicine after the tenth month of 1998.
A. throw away B. take two times
C. stop to take D. take 3 times more
(C)
The Romans built great "aqueducts" to carry fresh water from the mountains to the cities. Many of these aqueducts are still standing today. The Romans also built great pipes under the ground to carry away the sewage. In Rome, one of these sewage pipes (sewers) is still used today; it is 2,000 years old. The Roman Emperors even set up a government health service. They built the first great public hospitals in Europe, and they paid doctors to look after poor people.
Then the Roman Empire fell to pieces, these civilized methods of treatment disappeared from most of Europe, for more than a thousand years. People went back to the old ways. They lived in dirty conditions which helped to cause diseases（疾病）; and they asked God to cure the disease. They shut mentally sick people in prisons. Or they burnt them alive because they were supposed to have magic powers.
But the work of the Greek and Roman doctors was not lost. Over a thousand years
ago, they Arabs moved into many of the Mediterranean countries. They took big parts of the old Roman lands. They translated the Greek and Roman medical books into Arabic. Arab doctors themselves make many new discoveries.
When civilization(文明) at last came back to Europe, men once again translated the Greek and Roman works on medicine into Latin. Slowly－very slowly －European doctors discovered again the things that the Greeks and Romans had known so long ago. Slowly, they began to make new discoveries. They found out more about the way the body works--the way our blood goes round our bodies, the way our nerves（神经） send messages from our brains to our muscles, the way these muscles move our bodies.
1.The word "aqueduct" probably means _______. A. something which was built long ago
B. something invented by a Roman Emperor
C. a big pipe under the ground
D. something built to supply clean water for the citizens
2. Which of the following is true?
A. The sewage pipes built by the Roman are no longer in use now. B. Sewage pipes in Arabia were built by the Romans. C. A sewage pipe still being used today in Rome was built 2,000 .years ago. D. The ancient Romans got their drinking water from underground pipes.
3. Which of the following is NOT true?
A. A government health service was set up in ancient Rome.
B. The first public hospital in Europe was built in Rome.
C. m ancient Rome doctors were paid by the government.
D. Those who were mentally sick were all burnt alive in the Roman Empire.
4. In this article, "civilized methods of treatment" refers to _______.
A. advanced forms of health care
B. the way they burnt the bodies of the dead
C. imprisonment of the mentally sick
D. what was called magic power's