考研英语阅读理解命题思路透析和真题揭秘(32)

1998年Passage 2 

Well, no gain without pain, they say. But what about pain without gain? Everywhere you go in America, you hear tales of corporate revival. What is harder to establish is whether the productivity revolution that businessmen assume they are presiding over is for real.

The official statistics are mildly discouraging. They show that, if you lump manufacturing and services together, productivity has grown on average by 1.2% since 1987. That is somewhat faster than the average during the previous decade. And since 1991, productivity has increased by about 2% a year, which is more than twice the 1978 87 average. The trouble is that part of the recent acceleration is due to the usual rebound that occurs at this point in a business cycle, and so is not conclusive evidence of a revival in the underlying trend. There is, as Robert Rubin, the treasury secretary, says, a "disjunction" between the mass of business anecdote that points to a leap in productivity and the picture reflected by the statistics.

Some of this can be easily explained. New ways of organizing the workplace all that re engineering and downsizing - are only one contribution to the overall productivity of an economy, which is driven by many other factors such as joint investment in equipment and machinery, new technology, and investment in education and training. Moreover, most of the changes that companies make are intended to keep them profitable, and this need not always mean increasing productivity: switching to new markets or improving quality can matter just as much.

Two other explanations are more speculative. First, some of the business restructuring of recent years may have been ineptly done. Second, even if it was well done, it may have spread much less widely than people suppose.

Leonard Schlesinger, a Harvard academic and former chief executive of Au Bong Pain, a rapidly growing chain of bakery cafes, says that much "re engineering" has been crude. In many cases, he believes, the loss of revenue has been greater than the reductions in cost. His colleague, Michael Beer, says that far too many companies have applied re engineering in a mechanistic fashion, chopping out costs without giving sufficient thought to long term profitability. BBDO's Al Rosenshine is blunter. He dismisses a lot of the work of re engineering consultants as mere rubbish - "the worst sort of ambulance cashing."

55. According to the author, the American economic situation is _____ .
[A] not as good as it seems
[B] at its turning point
[C] much better than it seems
[D] near to complete recovery

[答案] A

[解题思路]

文章第一段最后一句话指出"What is harder to establish is whether the productivity revolution that businessmen assume they are presiding over is for real"（但是，更加难以确定的是商家自认为他们发动的这场生产率革命是否真的名副其实），紧接着第二段第五句话进一步认为"The trouble is that part of the recent acceleration is due to the usual rebound that occurs at this point in a business cycle, and so is not conclusive evidence of a revival in the underlying trend"（而问题在于，近年出现的生产力快速增长部分是由于商业周期通常到了这时候常出现的反弹造成的，因而还不能以此作为最终的证据来证明这种趋势预示出经济复苏的姿态），这些都说明了作者并不认为美国经济已经从根本上复苏，现在看到的只是表面现象，因而A为正确选项。做好本题的关键就是要抓住这些分布在不同地方的相关信息，理解长句的含义并将它们结合起来一起帮助做题。

[题目译文]

文章作者认为美国的经济形势是           。
[A] 不如看起来那么好
[B] 正处于转折点
[C] 比看起来好多了
[D] 接近完全的复苏

56. The official statistics on productivity growth _____ .
[A] exclude the usual rebound in a business cycle
[B] fall short of businessmen's anticipation
[C] meet the expectation of business people
[D] fail to reflect the true state of economy

[答案] B

[解题思路]

本文对应的信息主要在文章的第二段，可以采用排除法一一排除。首先，第一句话说"The official statistics are mildly discouraging"（官方的统计数字却有点不容乐观），显然C选项与该句的意思相左。另外，该段最后一句话指出"There is, as Robert Rubin, the treasury secretary, says, a "disjunction" between the mass of business anecdote that points to a leap in productivity and the picture reflected by the statistics"（正如财政部长罗伯特·鲁宾所说的那样，生产力发生大幅提高的商业传奇与官方的统计数字所反映的情况之间存在着一种"脱节"），因此官方数据重点是与business anecdote的情况相异，但与business cycle 和state of economy无关，因此A、D选项都可以排除。B选项中"fall short of"是"没有达到，不符合"的意思，符合原文的语境。

[题目译文]

关于生产力增长的官方统计数据            。
[A] 没有包括商业周期中通常出现的反弹
[B] 没有达到商人们的预期
[C] 达到了商人们的预期
[D] 没有反映出经济的真实状况

57. The author raises the question "what about pain without gain?" because _____ .
[A] he questions the truth of "no gain without pain"
[B] he does not think the productivity revolution works
[C] he wonders if the official statistics are misleading
[D] he has conclusive evidence for the revival of businesses

[答案] B

[解题思路]

本题可以采用排除法。题干提到的这句话出现在文章的第一句，是作者用来引出话题的，而并不是文章的主题，因此A选项首先可以排除。关于C选项，文章第二段的开头说到"The official statistics are mildly discouraging"（官方的统计数字却有点不容乐观），但是discouraging并不代表misleading，所以C选项也错误。关于D选项，第二段第五句话认为"The trouble is that part of the recent acceleration is due to the usual rebound that occurs at this point in a business cycle, and so is not conclusive evidence of a revival in the underlying trend"，因此D选项与原文意思相反，是错误选项。文章最后一句指出"He dismisses a lot of the work of re engineering consultants as mere rubbish - "the worst sort of ambulance cashing.""（BBDO的艾尔·罗森夏恩更加直率，他把许多重组咨询专家所做的工作视为垃圾--"典型的劳而无获"），可见作者对于生产力革命是持否定态度的，因此正确选项为B。

[题目译文]

作者提出了"如果是有劳无获呢？"这个问题的原因是        。
[A] 他怀疑"不劳而获"这一说法的真实性
[B] 他认为生产力革命不起作用
[C] 他怀疑官方的统计数据有误导作用
[D] 他有关于经济复苏的确凿证据

58. Which of the following statements is NOT mentioned in the passage?
[A] Radical reforms are essential for the increase of productivity.
[B] New ways of organizing workplaces may help to increase productivity.
[C] The reduction of costs is not a sure way to gain long term profitability.
[D] The consultants are a bunch of good for nothings.

[答案] A

[解题思路]

本题要求选择在文章中没有提到的说法，因此应该与原文一一对应采用排除法来排除。首先，文章第三段第二句话指出："New ways of organizing the workplace all that re engineering and downsizing - are only one contribution to the overall productivity of an economy, which is driven by many other factors such as joint investment in equipment and machinery, new technology, and investment in education and training"（新的工作场所组织方式--包括所有那些重组和缩小规模的做法--只是促进某一个经济实体的综合生产力水平的一项措施，而这种生产力的提高还受到许多其他因素的驱动，如对机械设备的联合投资，采用新技术，以及在教育和培训上的投资），因此可见B选项与该句意思吻合，是对该句的一个简要概括，因此B选项表述正确。C和D选项分别对应于文章最后一段的最后两句话，"His colleague, Michael Beer, says that far too many companies have applied re engineering in a mechanistic fashion, chopping out costs without giving sufficient thought to long term profitability"（他的同事迈克·比尔说，太多的公司用简单机械的方式进行重组，在没有充分考虑到长期赢利能力的情况下降低了成本）和"He dismisses a lot of the work of re engineering consultants as mere rubbish - "the worst sort of ambulance cashing.""（BBDO的艾尔·罗森夏恩更加直率，他把许多重组咨询专家所做的工作视为垃圾--"典型的劳而无获"），因此这两个选项的表述都是正确的。而A选项在文中则没有明确的对应信息，因此答案为A。

[题目译文]

下面哪一项说法没有在文中提到？
[A] 激进的改革对生产力的提高十分重要。
[B] 企业重组的新方式可能有助于提高生产力。
[C] 降低成本并不能保证获得长期的效益。
[D] 那些咨询顾问都是没有的人

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