1 . At first the question was how quickly people would get back to the office. Then it was whether they would ever return. The last three years has introduced in a major change in white-collar working patterns. The office is not dead but many professionals have settled into a hybrid (混合的) arrangement of some office days and some remote days.

Hybrid working has much to recommend: flexibility for employees, periods of concentration at home, bursts of cooperation in the office. A new paper from Harvard Business School describes an experiment in which workers at BRAC, a non-profit organisation in Britain, were randomly assigned to three groups, each spending different amounts of time working from home. The intermediate (中等的) group, who spent between 23% and 40% of their time in the office, performed best on various performance measures.

But a shift on this large scale is bound to raise tricky issues. In workplaces that have moved to hybrid work, there are still plenty of open questions. One is how to handle the impact of less time in the office for new joiners and younger workers. Research by Emma Harrington of the University of Iowa shows that software engineers receive more feedback on their code when the team sits next to each other in the office, especially new engineers. According to Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University, making new employees spend more time in the office can be a good way of integrating them into company culture and improving their competence. And these younger employees were most likely to quit when everyone was forced to go remote.

A second question concerns how strictly to enforce attendance on days when teams are meant to be in the office. An agreement holds that there should be agreed “anchor days” on which all the people come to work in the office; since the idea is to spend time together, as many people as possible should be there. But one person on the team might have moved somewhere else; someone else might have asked to stay home to let the repairer in. In practice, therefore, hybrid working still often means a mixture of people on screen and people in the office.

Other questions exist. How to define performance measures so managers do not spend time worrying about lazy workers at home? Do you require company-wide anchor days or team-level ones? The era of hybrid working is only just beginning, so it will take time for answers to emerge. But if there is a message from this first full year of hybrid working, it is that flexibility does not mean a free-for-all.

1. How can in-office work help new employees?

A．Giving them more feedback from senior employees.

B．Getting them to catch up with the work schedule.

C．Saving them the cost of staying at home.

D．Helping them feel part of the company.

2. What makes it difficult to enforce attendance on anchor days?

A．Young workers prefer working on screen.

B．Engineers object to the idea of anchor days.

C．Office workers can’t take a day off as expected.

D．Employees have various private matters to address.

3. Which of the following statements is the author most likely to agree with?

A．It is necessary to grant employees full autonomous rights.

B．Employers should go with the flow because new questions will emerge.

C．Allowing flexibility in work arrangements does not mean having no rules.

D．It is no easy job to arrange either company-wide or team-level anchor days.

4. What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．Hybrid working is outdated after workers’ return.

B．There are some open questions of hybrid working.

C．A shift of working patterns calls for hybrid working.

D．Fixed restrictions should be applied to hybrid working.

2 .

Take Off with Historic Hiring Growth

A message from Kate Gebo

Welcome aboard!

We are so happy to have you fly with us. I’m sure you’ve thought about United as a way to travel, and with over 95,000 employees and growing, our company is also the center for rewarding careers.

I could not be prouder to lead Human Resources at United during this exciting time for our company, while we’re building the biggest and best airline in the history of aviation. Earlier this year, we announced that we are on track to hire at least 15,000 new employees by the end of this year.

When people think of career opportunities at United, they often think of being a pilot or flight attendant. In reality, our organization has a wide variety of roles in addition to our fantastic pilots and flight attendants, with jobs and functions to keep our airports running and our planes flying.   

Whether it’s for operational roles, such as ramp service employees, customer service representatives, and aircraft technicians, or for corporate roles in human resources, digital technology, and social media, we’re hiring across every function of the airline, seeking strong talent that will take us to new heights.

A role at United is not just a job; it’s a career. Many of our employees have taken on new roles in different departments throughout their tenure (聘用期), which we support to develop and invest in our workforce. In the past seven years, more than 1,500 frontline employees were promoted to management roles, and 78 % of our senior leaders were promoted internally.

Beyond the traditional career paths, we’re proud to create new paths to help our talent pipelines fulfill some of the industry’s most critical job functions. Aviate, our pilot career development program, offers aspiring and established pilots a path to the United flight deck. Calibrate is our full-time, paid apprenticeship program for those wanting to go into aircraft maintenance and other technical operational roles. Our newly launched Innovate program helps provide the skills and experiences needed to succeed in a technology career at United.

We’re hiring from coast to coast, at our seven major hubs and across a broad range of positions. If you’re ready to join me and 95,000 of the industry’s best and brightest at United, I encourage you to visit careers.united.com today to see what opportunities await you. Your career is cleared for takeoff.

United with you,

Kate Gebo

Executive Vice President,

Human Resources and Labor Relations

1. What is the main purpose of this passage?

A．Guarantee to provide first-class customer service.

B．Promote frontline employees to management roles.

C．Introduce jobs available in some departments of United.

D．Advertise for United to enroll pilots and flight attendants.

2. Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

A．Visit careers.united.com, and you can see positions available.

B．Employees at United can change their jobs with interest.

C．Employees have to keep their positions throughout their tenure.

D．The United is making efforts to be the biggest and best airline.

3. Which is most suitable for those wanting to be technicians?

A．The full-time, paid apprenticeship program.	B．The traditional United career path.
C．The newly launched Innovate program.	D．The new paths for talent pipelines.

3 . The Four-day Work Week

If Liz Truss can reduce a whole premiership to seven weeks, why can’t a standard working week be squashed into something shorter? A six-month pilot (试点) scheme, in which around 3,300 workers from 70 companies are testing out a four-day workweek, is due to conclude this month.     1     Like previous such experiments, it is likely to be praised as a success. A mid-point survey by the trial’s organisers — researchers at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and Boston College — found that the transition had worked well for 88% of surveyed companies.

    2     In particular a four-day week forces firms to think harder about time management. Most businesses in the trial have encouraged employees to leave meetings when they are not contributing, and to be more selective about accepting invitations. Daryl Hine of Stellar, an asset-management company in London, calls this a “diary detox”. This also extends to reducing commutes.

Of the participating organisations, 46% reported maintaining overall output at the same level, and 49% said it had improved.     3     Its HR department has goals for response time to emails; its staff are given so-called net promoter scores, which track how colleagues rate their services. On both counts, they have made “rare” leaps, says Sharon Platts, the company’s chief people officer. Participants say that their employees feel more motivated.

Becoming a four-day operation can be hard in a five-day world, however. Bookishly, an online shop, chose Wednesdays off to avoid having three days in a row when packages are not mailed out; people are warned about the new schedule before they order.     4    

More tests are on the horizon. In January South Cambridge shire District Council will become the first British local authority to try out a four-day week. The lessons learned are likely to be valuable even if the idea does not spread.

A．Sceptics might observe that the companies involved are self-selecting.

B．Advocates say a shorter week delivers a better work-life balance without hurting overall output.

C．The trial’s largest company, Outcomes First Group, tracks indicators for its 1,027 participating employees.

D．The scheme holds useful lessons about productivity.

E．Platten’s, a fish-and-chip shop in Norfolk, gives its 50-or-so employees two days on and two days off to cover the week.

F．But customers are not always prepared to wait, so most firms in the scheme have tried to spread staff more thinly.

4 . As is the fate of anyone running a hotel in Kerala these days, Bijoy George is a man with too much to do. Before pandemic-caused lockdowns began in 2020, he managed 40 employees at the Eighth Bastion Hotel in the charming historic quarter of Kochi, a bustling coastal city. Now that business is back to pre-covid levels he needs the same number of staff again. But he has only 20 workers. His plight is shared with every other hotel, café and bar. It is a result of the state’s hospitality (招待) employees moving all together in large numbers to Qatar, not to watch football but to take up employment tied to the World Cup.

As the start of the competition approaches on November 20th, workers are quitting at a rate Mr. George says he has never seen in his 22 years in the business. Qatar, a country with a population of under 3m, will have welcomed more than 1.5m visitors before the matches conclude on December 18th. That means finding staff to run all the new hotels that have been built along with other venues that have been pressed into service to profit from the sports fans.

Kerala has long been a significant source of hospitality workers for Qatar and other Middle Eastern countries. Its state government provides good schools with English-language instruction but few jobs. More than 2m people, 17% of its working population, already work overseas, largely in the Gulf.

The appeal of Qatar is straightforward. Starting salaries approach $1,000 a month, more than six times the level for similar jobs in Kerala. To replace those who have left, Kerala’s employers have been casting their nets wider. Recruiters have been extending their searches to many other Indian cities. But that means the most common word on name-tags pinned to the breast pockets of workers is “trainee”.

Among the many skills that need to be taught, says Mr. George, is smiling at customers — the failure to do so a result of shyness among those new to the workforce. The danger is that after a week or so when confidence grows, even these employees may slip away to the Gulf.

Most contracts run for three months, concluding at the end of December, not long after the World Cup final. Returning workers will be welcomed back with open arms. Filling the gaps is even more important as Indian tourism and weddings have restarted. The reunions, though, may be short-lived. The game these workers will have learned from the World Cup is how to be paid better. That means leaving India.

1. The underlined sentence in paragraph one implies that __________.

A．other hotels, cafes and bars will share Bijoy’s 20 employees

B．other hotels, cafes and bars will have to lay off some workers

C．other hotels, cafes and bars also send the workers to Qatar

D．other hotels, cafes and bars also find it hard to employ enough workers

2. Which of the following DOESN’T contribute to hospitality workers in Kerala taking up jobs in Qatar?

A．Millions of tourists have to be served during the World Cup.

B．Hospitality workers are in high demand with new hotels and venues open for business in Qatar.

C．Qatar provides good education and English training for potential workers in Kerala.

D．The salaries of similar jobs in Kerala are much lower than those in Qatar.

3. Which of the following difficulties do Kerala’s employers face due to lack of workers?

A．Kerala’s employers have to take on new employees in Asian cities.

B．Many of the new employees will pin their name tags to their breast pockets.

C．The new employees will not greet the customers as a result of shyness.

D．The new employees may soon follow the trend of going to the Gulf.

4. What makes the reunions between Indian workers and employers probably a short-lived one?

A．Jobs outside India can provide Indian workers with a more decent life.

B．It will soon be the off season for Indian tourism and weddings.

C．Another grand occasion will soon begin in the Gulf.

D．The workers only sign short-term contracts with the employers in India.

5 . Young Africans are logging in and clocking on

His home is Bungoma, a small town in western Kenya, but his workplace is the world. Kevin, who asks that his real name be masked to protect his credibility, has written about offices in China without ever going there. He has reviewed home-security systems he has never seen.

    1    Freelances (自由职业者) on online platforms can reach clients around the world, mastering skills from blogging 10 web design. Optimists hope that online work can set Africa on the path of service-led growth dominated by countries such as India and the Philippines. Pessimists worry such work will breed injustices.

Some are attracted to the work by the flexibility and pay; others because they cannot find a traditional job. There are advocates for freelancing.    2    “Now everyone is speaking about digital jobs,” he says. In Kenya the government’s Ajira program runs support centers that aim to link a million Kenyans to online platforms and make the country a “digital center”.

Freelances, like the wider outsourcing (外包) industry, “are fighting against a reputation of Africa as somewhere where you would not expect digital work to take place,” says Mohammad Amir Anwar of the University of Edinburgh, who co-wrote a book about Africa’s digital workforce. Some African freelances use virtual private networks and fake names to pretend they are somewhere else.    3    

The available data suggest that it will take time for Africa to become a continent of digital freelances. In 2019, Mr. Anwar and colleagues estimated that there were 120,000 African workers on Upwork, the continent’s most popular platform—fewer than in the Philippines. Most did not seem to be making any money.

Outsourcing practices have also sparked moral questions. Al Astra (a live-streaming company) content-moderation center in Kenya run by Sama (an outsourcing firm), workers told journalists that they were mistreated and misled about the nature of their work.    4    Finally, Sama discontinued its services for Astra this year.

Technological change bounces in unpredictable directions. Could Al tools, previously trained by Kenyan workers, one day make these freelances such as Kevin unnecessary?

A．Africa’s digital workers are re-mapping the old geographies of labor.

B．The internet creates new kinds of work, without any patterns of inequality.

C．A former employee has taken both companies to court, accusing them of forced labor.

D．Typical tasks include data entry, online marketing, or even writing essays for lazy students.

E．Baraka Mafole, a student in Tanzania, organizes training events for navigating online platforms.

F．Power cuts and competition for part-time jobs from cheaper workers in Asia and beyond create other challenges.

6 . People often imagine that a knowledge of languages is sufficient to make an interpreter. Of course it is a prerequisite, as are two hands to a professional boxer. But just as the fact of having two hands does not make a boxer, so the knowledge of different languages, be they many or few, does not make an interpreter. It is only an instrument which you must learn how to use in a particular way — for which you may or may not be gifted.

The basic qualities required of the interpreter are not exceptionally rare, but their combination is very uncommon. They are:

(1) A capacity for being passively receptive, i.e. for drinking in readily and without any personal reaction all that may be said by the speaker.

(2) The type of quick-wittedness which makes for prompt and effective repartee (妙语), interpretation being a sort of mental game of tennis.

(3) A good memory, because all the tricks of the trade are intended only to make up for its deficiencies. Two things are expected of the interpreter’s memory: first, that it should store up an exceptionally large vocabulary in the related languages and supply instantly the required word or phrase; second, that it should retain for a very brief period(seldom more than one hour) a picture as full, detailed, and accurate as possible of what has just been said after which the interpreter will be well advised to wash his mind clear of most of what he has memorized. In this latter function, the interpreter’s memory is therefore the reverse of the comedian’s. Whereas the actor has ample time to learn his part, gradually, and methodically, and is then expected to remember it over a long period and repeat it on a succession (连续) of occasions, the interpreter must wholly commit to his memory fleeting thoughts and words as they fly past, and then bring them back to mind only once, a very short while later.

The work of the translator and that of the interpreter are fundamentally different and can hardly be combined. Very rare indeed are people who can do both. The reason for this is clear: the translator can or should search at leisure for the accurate term, as well as effort to express himself in the best possible grammar and style; he may re-write the same paragraph ten times or more, improving it each time; he may consult all dictionaries and reference books, and ask for help and advice. The interpreter, on the other hand, is given hardly any time to think, can consult neither books nor friends, and must “put across”, immediately and as accurately as possible, whatever the speaker wishes to convey. But he may express nuances (微妙) by varying the tone of his voice, he may paraphrase when he does not find the exact word, he may repeat, correct or add to what he has just said, if he sees that he was not properly understood. These are in reality two contrary techniques.

1. Interpretation is similar to playing tennis in that both need _________.

A．two hands	B．quick response
C．mental fitness	D．good muscle memory

2. A good memory is required of an interpreter so that he can _________.

A．memorize all that is said and remember it for a long time

B．memorize the important part of what is said and remember it for a long time

C．memorize for a short period all that is said and then forget about it

D．memorize all that is said gradually and completely

3. What is the author’s opinion of the qualities mentioned for an interpreter?

A．It is not necessary for the interpreter to possess all the basic qualities.

B．It is uncommon for the interpreter to possess all the basic qualities.

C．Certain qualities are more important than the others.

D．Only two of the qualities are actually required.

4. Which of the following can best indicate the author’s understanding of the difference between a translator and an interpreter?

A．The qualities required of a translator are basically opposite what is required of an interpreter.

B．Being an interpreter is more stressful because an interpreter cannot take back what has been said.

C．Putting effort into combing the qualities of a translator and an interpreter can enhance their performance.

D．The qualities of a translator are easier to obtain than those of an interpreter.

7 . Women are still underrepresented in top academic positions. One of the possible explanations for this is the increasing importance of obtaining research funding. Women are often less successful in this than men. Psychology researchers Dr. Romy van der Lee and professor Naomi Ellemers investigated whether this difference also occurs at the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and examined potential explanations.

The researchers were assigned by NWO to carry out this study as part of the broader evaluation of NWO’s procedures and its gender diversity policy. The aim was to gain more insight into the causes of the differences in awarding rates for male and female applicants for research funding. The analysis addressed an important “talent programme” of NWO, the Veni grant. “Whoever receives this grant has a greater chance of obtaining an important appointment at a university, ” says Naomi Ellemers.

Van der Lee and Ellemers investigated all the applications submitted by male and female researchers over a period of three years: a total of 2823 applications. Under the direction of NWO these applications were assessed by scientific committees consisting of men and women. The results demonstrate that the awarding rates for female applicants (14.9%) are systematically lower than those for male applicants (17.7%). “If we compare the proportion of women among the applicants with the proportion of women among those awarded funding, we see a loss of 4%,” said Ellemers.

The study reveals that women are less positively evaluated for their qualities as researcher than men are, “Interestingly the research proposals of women and men are evaluated equally positively. In other words, the reviewers see no difference in the quality of the proposals that men and women submit,” says Romy van der Lee.

In search for a possible cause for the differences in awarding rates and evaluations, the researchers also investigated the language use in the instructions and forms used to assess the quality of applications. This clearly revealed the occurrence of gendered language. The words that are used to indicate quality are frequently words that were established in previous research as referring mainly to the male gender stereotype (such as challenging and excellent). Romy van der Lee explains: “As a result, it appears that men more easily satisfy the assessment criteria, because these better fit the characteristics stereoty-pically associated with men.”

In response to the results of this research, NWO will devote more attention to the gender awareness of reviewers in its methods and procedures. It will also be investigated which changes to the assessment procedures and criteria can most strongly contribute to more equal chances for men and women to obtain research funding. This will include an examination of the language used by NWO. NWO chair Jos Engelens said, “The research has yielded valuable results and insights. Based on the recommendations made by the researchers we will therefore focus in the coming period on the development of evidence-based measures to reduce the difference in awarding rates.”

1. Van der Lee and Ellemers carried out the research to find out whether _________.

A．women are less successful than men in top academic positions

B．female applicants are at a disadvantage in getting research funding

C．NOW’s procedures and gender diversity policy enhance fair play

D．there are equal chances for men and women to be admitted to a university

2. Van der Lee and Ellemers’ study shows that _________.

A．grant receivers were more likely to get appointments at universities

B．men applicants for research funding outnumbered women applicants

C．the research proposals of women are equally treated with those of men

D．the reviewers have narrow, prejudiced conceptions of women candidates

3. What might be the main cause for the differences in awarding rates and evaluations?

A．The words used in the instructions and forms.

B．The reviewers’ preference to applications.

C．The methods and procedures for evaluation.

D．The vague and unclear assessment criteria.

4. What will NWO probably do next in response to the results of this research?

A．Eliminate possibilities for difference in awarding rates.

B．Design a language examination for all the reviewers.

C．Emphasize the importance of gender awareness.

D．Improve the assessment procedures and criteria.

8 . Julia Whelan climbed into the recording room in her home office. In preparation, she had avoided alcohol the night before, had avoided milk since waking at 6 a.m. and had run through the warm-up voice exercises.

Whelan, 38, is the calm, confident female voice behind more than 400 other audiobooks, as well as the narrated versions(叙事版本) of many articles. Once she has taken on a project, she reads through the book once or twice, deciding on themes to highlight when she gets into the recording room by using different tones and accents, and emphasizing certain words. “Narrating a book really is a performance,” she said, “and it can be harder to do than acting, because I can’t use my eyes or facial expressions to convey something to the audience.”

As she spent time subsuming herself in the writing of others, she began to think more about her own creative ambitions. Just before the pandemic, she began “Thank You for Listening,” combining her writing with the experiences she has collected as a narrator.

Writers say that Whelan has helped them understand their own work. “When I listen to Julia read my stories, it sounds like she is calling you over to tell you a great story,” said Nuzzi, whose work has been narrated by Whelan. “When I write now, I try to think like that, that I am calling a reader over to tell him a great story. It has completely changed my approach.” Whelan said that she also learns about her writing when she experiences it as a narrator. “There is something about it that changes when you’re performing it,” she said. “I read the book out loud during every stage of its revisions but it’s different when you sit down and have the microphone in front of you, when I finally am in all the characters and the story comes to life.”

1. Before recording a book, Whelan __________.

A．acts out its narrated version

B．builds up strength through exercise

C．determines the focus of its subject

D．varies its emphasized words

2. The underlined phrase “subsuming herself in the writing of others” (paragraph 3) is closest in meaning to “__________ herself in the writing of others”.

A．dismissing

B．involving

C．maintaining

D．presenting

3. How does narrating help Whelan do her own writing better?

A．It enables her to think in readers’ view.

B．It inspires her to be absorbed in the story.

C．It provides her with diverse life experiences.

D．It reminds her to pursue her creative ambition.

4. What can be concluded from Whelan’s experience as a narrator and writer?

A．Excellent narration is based on convincing stories.

B．Narrating is a more rewarding ambition than writing.

C．An influential writer is definitely a wonderful narrator.

D．Experiences as a narrator can change the writing approach.

9 . Once you choose to become an actor, many people who you thought were your closest friends will tell you you’re crazy, though some may react quite differently. No two people will give you the same advice. But it is a very personal choice you are making, and only you can take responsibility for yourself and for realising your ambition.

There are no easy ways of getting there — no written examination to pass, and no absolute guarantee that when you have successfully completed your training you will automatically make your way in the profession. It’s a matter of luck plus talent.

I have frequently been asked to define this magical thing called talent, which everyone is looking out for. I believe it is best described as natural skill plus imagination — the latter being the most difficult quality to assess. And it has a lot to do with the person’s courage and their belief in what they are doing and the way they are putting it across.

Where does the desire to act come from? It is often very difficult to put into words your own reasons for wanting to act. Certainly, in the theatre the significant thing is that moment of contact between the actor on the stage and a particular audience. And making this brief contact is central to all acting, wherever it takes place — it is what drives all actors to act.

If you ask actors how they have done well in the profession, the response will most likely be a shrug. They will not know. They will know certain things about themselves and aspects of their own technique and the techniques of others. But they will take nothing for granted, because they know that they are only as good as their current job, and that their fame may not continue.

Disappointment is the greatest enemy of the actor. Last month you may have been out of work, selling clothes or waitressing. Suddenly you are asked to audition (试镜) for a part, but however much you want the job, the truth is that it maybe denied you. So actors tend not to talk about their chances. They come up with ways of protecting themselves against the stress of competing for a part and the possibility of rejection.

1. If you decide to take up acting, you may well receive a lot of _____ from your close friends.

A．encouragement	B．sympathy
C．jealousy	D．objection

2. Which of the following is the writer most likely to agree with in terms of acting?

A．Good actors know very well about their secret of success.

B．Talented actors are usually those with a vivid imagination.

C．There should be training and exams to qualify potential actors.

D．Not all actors like the contact with the audience while on the stage.

3. What does the writer imply about disappointment?

A．It is what actors often talk about.

B．Actors should compete to avoid it.

C．Actors should get accustomed to it.

D．It will surely affect actors’ performance.

4. Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?

A．So you want to be an actor

B．Wanting to be an actor? Don’t hesitate

C．Why acting appeals to young people?

D．Acting: riskier than expected

10 . 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

2. What is the major cause of the CEO’s pay rise according to paragraph two?

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.

3. Concerning Scott Klinger’s idea or description, which of the following is probably correct?

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.

4. The underlined part “cream-of-the-crop" is closest in meaning to ________.

A．delicious

B．enterprising

C．ablest

D．greedy