To: ackard@mkk.com From: sandyp@mkk.com Subject: Confidential: Managerial Advice Date: Feb. 16, 2022 |
Hi Dan, I’m writing to ask if you could give me advice. Please note that this must all be kept secret. I am emailing you because I know that you are a trusted friend, and you have had experience in this area. I’ve been obliged to reduce my department’s budget within the month, too. I’m not looking forward to this and am not sure where to begin since I hope that I won’t have to create any layoffs. Long story short, I would really appreciate meeting with you at some point to see if you can offer up any advice or suggestions. Thanks in advance. Regards, Sandy |
To: sandyp@mkk.com From: ackard@mkk.com Subject: Re: Confidential: Managerial Advice Date: Feb. 17, 2022 |
Hi Sandy, I’m glad that you thought of me as someone to go to. I definitely don’t mind being your sounding board, and I can meet with you anytime starting next Monday. I realize that you may want to start thinking of some ideas sooner than later. My biggest piece of advice to you is to make sure you feel your way among your staff to get an impression of how people are currently coping with our company’s economic situation. Talk to them and find out what’s important to them. Of course, do it casually so that no one’s guard is up. Email or call me to let me know when you want to meet. Dan |
A.Firing bad employees |
B.Cutting costs and expenses |
C.Figuring out the new computer program |
D.Combining the two divisions of the company |
A.Start questioning all workers under her. |
B.Act carefully and find out employees’ thoughts. |
C.Give out a questionnaire (问卷) for everyone to fill out. |
D.Require extra overtime from staff members. |
A.listener | B.examiner | C.designer | D.informer |
2 . Business has slowed, layoffs mount, but executive pay continues to roar—at least so far. Business Week’s annual survey finds that chief executive officers (CEOs) at 365 of the largest US companies got compensation last year averaging $3.1 million—up l.3 percent from 1994.
Why are the top bosses getting an estimated 485 times the pay of a typical factory worker? That is up from 475 times in 1999 and a mere 42 times in 1980. One reason may be what experts call the “Lake Wobegon effect”. Corporate boards tend to consider that “all CEOs are above average”—a play on Garrison Keillor’s famous line in his public radio show, A Prairie Home Companion, that all the town’s children are “above average”. Consultants provide boards with surveys of corporate CEO compensation. Since directors are reluctant to regard their CEOs as below average, the compensation committees of boards tend to set pay at an above-average level. The result: Pay levels get raised.
Defenders of lavish CEO pay argue there is such a strong demand for experienced CEOs that the free market forces their pay up. They further maintain most boards structure pay packages to reflect an executive’s performance. They get paid more if their companies and their stock do well. So companies with high-paid CEOs generate great wealth for their shareholders.
But the supposed cream-of-the-crop executives did surprisingly poorly for their shareholders in 1999, says Scott Klinger, author of this report by a Boston-based Organization United for a Fair Economy. If an investor had put $10,000 apiece at the end of 1999 into the stock of those companies with the 10 highest-paid CEOs, by year-end 2000 the investment would have shrunk to $8.132. If $10,000 had been put into the Standard & Poor’s 500 stocks, it would have been worth $9,090. To Mr. Klinger, these findings suggest that the theory that one person, the CEO, is responsible for creating most of a corporation’s value is dead wrong. “It takes many employees to make a corporation profitable.”
With profits down, corporate boards may make more effort to tame executive compensation. And executives are making greater efforts to avoid pay cut. Since CEOs, seeing their options “under water” or worthless because of falling stock prices, are seeking more pay in cash or in restricted stock.
1. What could be implied by “Lake Wobegon effect” according to the passage?A.It is a fact that executives’ income must increases with time |
B.When businesses have slowed, there must be more layoffs. |
C.People tend to think themselves more significant than others. |
D.Directors are reluctant to regard their CEOs as below average |
A.All CEOs are above the average and they deserve an ever-rising pay. |
B.Garrison Keillor is successful in promoting CEOs in A Prairie Home Companion. |
C.Directors have a persistent, positive idea of the overall ability of the CEOs. |
D.A top boss should earn hundreds of times more than a typical worker. |
A.CEOs alone are not able to make a company prosperous. |
B.All investors in the stock market will suffer from financial loss. |
C.He had been an outstanding shareholder until 1999. |
D.He has offered valuable advice on how to prosper a company. |
A.delicious | B.enterprising | C.ablest | D.greedy |
3 . How Will Machines and AI Change the Future of Work?
Several recent studies have examined how machine automation and artificial intelligence (AI) will change the future of work.
The Rand Corporation recently issued its own report on the future effects of automation and AI on jobs and the workplace. Osonde Osoba was a co-author of the report.
In 16th century England, Queen Elizabeth famously refused an inventor’s request for a patent for a device to make material for clothing. The Queen explained that the device would lead to major job losses, forcing affected workers to become “beggars”.
The McKinsey Global Institute has also studied the issue. Its research suggests that up to one-third of work activities across 46 nations could be displaced by 2030.
Rand Corporation’s Osonde Osoba agrees with McKinsey. He also thinks that it will be very difficult for companies to completely automate most jobs, because they require a worker to perform many different duties and to react to unexpected situations.
A.Osoba says this can be problematic for machines, which do not understand cultural norms in the population. |
B.McKinsey identifies three job types that will be very difficult to replace with a machine. |
C.He noted that fears over machines taking jobs from humans goes back centuries. |
D.The study also predicts rising demand for educators, and “creatives”, a group of workers including artists, performers and entertainers. |
E.The study says automation will also raise productivity and economic growth. |
F.Osoba agrees there will be major job destruction due to AI and automation, especially for lower skilled workers. |
EDUCATION OUTREACH COORDINATOR (对外协调员)
|
A.It’s a full-time job. | B.It’s a permanent job. |
C.It’s volunteer work. | D.It’s academic work. |
A.teaching volunteers and faculty members to set up schedules |
B.helping the administrators to set up some education programs |
C.organizing teaching events for the education outreach program |
D.coordinating the programs between the academic communities |
A.A person who has excellent interpersonal skills. |
B.A person who once worked in a company for three years. |
C.A person who is good at using Excel and likes using social media. |
D.A person who has 3 years’ experience of coordinating meetings. |
5 . MEGHAN YOUNG is a professional Instagram star. She gets paid to climb beautiful mountains, photograph their glittering (闪闪发光的) summits and post about her adventures to her fans.
Young graduated from Seattle University’s school of Law in 2015. But she decided she didn’t want to become a lawyer. Her parents were shocked by the decision. “They were worried about what I was going to do,” Young says. “How was I going to find career stability?”
But her legal skills haven’t gone to waste. Once companies express an interest in working with her, there’s the tough task of negotiating the terms (条款) of the deal. And the work is still unfinished even after she’s done take the photos. When Young returns from her adventures, she carefully edits the images and writes captions to go along with them. Once the posts are public, businesses sometimes don’t pay on time. That's when she needs to follow up. Her least favorite problem is when she discovers that a company has used her photos in a way that violates the terms of the contract.That usually leads to time-consuming email exchanges.
Social media influencing is not as effortless as it seems. The stress it creates even has its own name: creator burnout (精疲力竭) . Young used to obsessively check her post’s performance, which she says will “drive you crazy”, so she stopped. But if she doesn’t reply, people will stop commenting.Without that engagement on her posts, brands won’t want to keep paying her. Therefore, she had to accept the fact that she’ll be tethered (拴住) to her phone as long as she’s in this line of work.
Beyond the day-to- day headaches of a career online, social media’s inherent (固有的) uncertainly also poses problems for creators. There are times when Young is staring at the calendar without another project in the works. In the long term, it can be risky to focus a career on a single platform, or even on social media itself.
Yet Young says it’s all been worth it, because the sponsorship allow her to spend much of her life in the mountains. Her ideal day starts with unzipping her tent at dawn so she can take pictures of the sunrise reflecting on snowy summits around her. Few jobs in the world would allow her to do that so consistently (一贯地) .
1. What is paragraph 3 mainly about?A.The main work involved in being an Instagram influencer. |
B.The difficulties that every Instagram star will meet. |
C.How to deal with dishonest companies. |
D.How Meghan Young’s legal skills help her work. |
A.there are a lot of tough tasks when dealing with sponsors. |
B.the work of photo-taking and image-editing is difficult to handle. |
C.it is stressful to check one’s phone and to interact with fans all the time. |
D.the income is unstable and the career prospects are uncertain. |
A.Bored. | B.Worried. |
C.Satisfied | D.Confident. |
A.Meghan Young’s decision to be a full-time influencer was supported by her parents. |
B.It happens frequently that Meghan Young doesn’t get paid on time. |
C.It is impossible for Instagram influencers to put down their phones. |
D.In order to increase their influence, creators have to keep a good relationship with fans. |
The Benefits of a Summer Job
Have you ever had a summer job? For many young people, summer is an exciting period where education stops and fun begins.
The concept of students and younger members of society being gainfully employed over the summer period is not a new one. And there are opportunities out there for those who want to earn.
A.Summer and Saturday jobs prepare young people for successful careers in later life, teaching vital soft skills. |
B.Students take summer jobs mainly to cover their tuition and this practice is highly appreciated by their parents. |
C.That said, holidays, festivals and time spent with friends cost money. |
D.This move comes at a time of apparent need. |
E.Soft skills are so essential to students’ future career that they have to take summer jobs to acquire them. |
F.Vacancies can range from roles as boring as fry cook, to seasonal work at a theme park. |
7 . Alibaba, Bank of China and Huawei—these are the dream employers for Chinese students, according to a new survey.
“The survey of more than 55,000 students, conducted by the research firm Universum, has found that roughly a quarter want to work for an international company, while only 9% want to work for a start-up. Five percent want to start their own business.”
The students said that work-1ife balance was the most important career goal, followed by job stability. When it comes to desirable companies, Bank of China has been named the top choice by business students for seven consecutive years, and the gigantic state-owned firm shows no signs of giving up its lead.
William Wu, the China country manager for Universum, said that banking remains an attractive industry for young Chinese. “China’s government is now emphasizing the revolution of the finance industry, which leaves the younger generation with the impression that although banking is a traditional industry, there are still a lot of development opportunities.” Wu said.
E-commerce giant Alibaba (BABA, Tech30) improved six places from 2014, ranking second among business students. Alibaba’s rise shouldn’t come as much of a surprise—the company held a record-breaking $25 billion IPO in September.
Among engineering students, Alibaba was once again a bridesmaid. Instead, Huawei—a telecoms infrastructure firm that now makes consumer products-took the top spot.
“Both of these companies are pioneers in terms of local companies going international.” said Wu. “It shows that… an international development strategy has a positive influence among Chinese young talents.” Tech companies ruled the rankings for humanities students, with Alibaba—which was ninth in 2014 一 landing at the top. Last year, Apple was the Number l choice of Chinese students.
1. What’s the percentage of the surveyed students who want to join a company set up recently?A.Five percent. |
B.Twenty-five percent. |
C.Nine percent. |
D.Twenty percent. |
A.Work-life balance. |
B.Job stability. |
C.Alibaba. |
D.Their own business. |
A.is rooted only in China |
B.makes consumer products |
C.goes international |
D.just aims at the foreign market |
A.What companies students want to work for. |
B.Why students have to go to university. |
C.How a company can develop well. |
D.Where students’ success lies in. |
8 . To be really happy and really safe, one ought to have at least two or three hobbies, and they must all be real. It is no use starting late in life to say “I will take an interest in this or that.” Such an attempt only aggravates the strain of mental effort. A man may acquire great knowledge of topics unconnected with his daily work, and yet hardly get any benefit or relief. It is no use doing what you like; you have got to like what you do.
Broadly speaking, human beings may be divided into three classes: those whoare toiledto death, those who are worried to death and those who are bored to death. It is no use offering the manual labourer, tired out with a hard week’s sweat and effort, the chance of playing a game of football or baseball on Saturday afternoon. It is no use inviting the politician or the professional or business man, who has been working or worrying about serious things for six days, to work or worry about trifling things at the weekend. As for the unfortunate people who can command everything they want, who can gratify every caprice and lay their hands on almost every object of desire — for them a new pleasure, a new excitement is only an additional satiation. In vain they rush frantically round from place to place, trying to escape from the avenging boredom by mere clatter and motion. For them discipline in one form or another is the most hopeful path.
It may also be said that rational, industrious, useful human beings are divided into two classes: first, those whose work is work and whose pleasure is pleasure; and secondly, those whose work and pleasure are one. Of these the former are the majority. They have their compensations. The long hours in the office or the factory bring with them as their reward, not only the means of sustenance, but a keen appetite for pleasure even in its simplest and most modest forms. But Fortune’s favoured children belong to the second class. Their life is a natural harmony. For them the working hours are never long enough. Each day is a holiday, and ordinary holidays when they come are grudged as enforced interruptions in an absorbing vacation. Yet to both classes the need of an alternative outlook, of a change of atmosphere, of a diversion of effort, is essential. Indeed, it may well be that those whose work is their pleasure are those who most need the means of banishing it at intervals from their mind.
1. What does “are toiled” in the 2ndparagraph mean?A.have hobbies | B.feel pleased |
C.work very hard | D.are busy |
A.Being late in life to attempt to cultivate hobbies adds to mental stress. |
B.Great knowledge irrelevant to the daily work can’t guarantee benefit. |
C.Those tired out for a week’s labour are reluctant to play football on weekends. |
D.Unfortunate people need discipline to help them build up hope. |
A.are very willing to work long hours in the office or the factory |
B.earn a large amount of money due to their hard work for a long time |
C.are keen to enjoy the pleasure when they are off duty |
D.usually enjoy themselves in the simplest and most modest forms |
A.The first class are lazy and the second class are bound to succeed. |
B.The second class never need holidays because their life is harmonious. |
C.The minority are more favoured by fortune because they never stop working. |
D.One really needs alternation for a change in order to work better. |