1 . JeffBezos has a rule at Amazon, or perhaps more appropriate a philosophy. If a team cannot be fed by two pizzas then that team is too large. The reasoning is quite straightforward and basic. More people means more communication, more bureaucracy, more chaos, and more of pretty much everything that slows things down, hence why large organizations are oftentimes considered as being so inefficient.
In 2013 Gallup released a report called “The State of The American Workplace", in which they found that smaller companies had more engaged employees. In fact,42% of employees working at companies of 10 or fewer were engaged at work versus only 30% of employees at large companies.
Most people are not familiar with the Ringelmann Effect which is the tendency for individual members to become less productive as the size of a group increases. This concept was named after Maximilien Ringelmann, a French professor of agricultural engineering who passed away in 1931.In one of his experiments he asked volunteers to perform a very simple task, to pull on a rope. He found that when only one person is pulling on the rope they give 100% of their effort; however, as more people are added the individual effort goes down.
This experiment was recreated in the 1970's by Alan Ingham who came up with the concept of “social loafing” which helps us understand why the individual effort decreases as the team size increases. So why does this happen? Because it becomes harder to extract the individual contributions and performance of each person.
Organizations should really think about what their team structures look like and create and follow similar “two pizza rules”. It's no coincidence that smaller organizations are oftentimes more nimble while large organizations look like they are stuck in the mud.
1. What is the author's purpose of mentioning “two pizza rules” in paragraph 1?| A．To make a comment. |
| B．To introduce the topic. |
| C．To provide an example. |
| D．To analyze a phenomenon. |
| A．It repeated the Ringelmann Effect experiment. |
| B．It was based on a simple task of pulling a rope. |
| C．It aimed to explore the reason behind the phenomenon. |
| D．It revealed the link between team size and individual effort. |
| A．Balanced. |
| B．Complicated. |
| C．Simple. |
| D．Flexible. |
| A．What Makes a Team More Productive? |
| B．Why Are Smaller Teams Better Than Larger Ones? |
| C．How Can Two Pizzas Be Shared by One Team? |
| D．Which Is More Important: Individual Effort r Team Size? |
1. Who painted the pictures on the wall?
| A．The man. |
| B．The college professor. |
| C．The great painters. |
| A．For ten years. |
| B．For two years. |
| C．For one year. |
| A．Drawing. |
| B．Painting. |
| C．Writing. |
| A．Share the works. |
| B．Take college class. |
| C．Design something. |
Over the years, I've been guilty of hurriedly shutting the front door to many strangers when they came to my home knocking with the intention of selling things. I hated it when they tried their best to persuade me to buy the things they promoted. But earlier this year, around Easter time, a dear friend of mine, Linda, had an experience that changed my mind and attitude towards these "intruders".
Last winter, Linda went through a very messy divorce and was very depressed. So she quit her job and left Los Angeles, where she encountered her ex-husband in college. She flew to Boston on the east coast of the US. Later, she settled in a new neighborhood in East Boston. However, shortly afterwards, the company where she worked went bankrupt（破产）. Suffering a series of bitter blows. she fell ill, a severe case of flu. She had to stay at home for the whole week, feeling extremely bad and hopeless.
Early one morning, Linda lay in bed, feeling painful all over. Then all of a sudden, there was an upsetting knock on her front door. Struggling out of the bed, she dragged herself to the window. There, outside, she saw a young lady carefully holding some leaflets（传单）and a TV set model. She knew of a large TV set establishment nearby and assumed a message was about to be gently delivered. "This is the last thing I need today." She muttered to herself and hesitantly opened the door.
Coughing bitterly, Linda stuck her head out. "Excuse me, madam…" the young lady said with a smile. "I'm sorry but I am not the slightest bit interested in any TV whatever." Linda interrupted her impatiently. "As a matter of fact, I am feeling terribly awful." "Is there anything I can do for you, madam?" the young lady asked with concern. "No thanks, just leave me alone." Linda then shut the door in her face. The young lady politely turned and left in silence.
注意：1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2. 续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
Paragraph 1:
A few hours later, another knock.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
Linda was surprised by this lovely action.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________4 . When John and Victoria Church arrived in New York from London for one-year stay, they brought no furniture with them. They had planned either to live in a furnished apartment or to buy used furniture. But they soon learned about a new way of furnishing an apartment or a house that more and more people are using. The renting of home furnishing (furniture, dishes, and so on) has become one of America’s fastest growing businesses.
Why do people rent their home furnishings instead of buying them? Many kinds of people: international businessmen, government officials, airline workers, young married couples…the people whose job or business may force them to move frequently from one city (or country) to another…find they can rent better quality furniture than they could afford to buy. Young people with little money do not want to buy cheap furniture that they will soon grow to dislike. They prefer to wait until they have enough money to buy furniture they really like. Meanwhile, they rent. And people whose work takes them from place to place are saved the trouble and cost of moving their furniture each time. They simply rent new furniture when they reach their new home.
One family, now settled in a large, beautiful home, liked their rented furniture so much that they decided to keep renting it instead of buying new things. But they don’t like to tell people about it. The idea of renting home furnishings is still quite new, and they are not sure what their neighbors might think.
1. Why do people rent their home furnishings instead of buying them?| A．They have to move frequently from one place to another because of their work. |
| B．Young people are not rich enough to buy furniture they really like. |
| C．They can save the trouble and cost of moving their furniture. |
| D．All of the above. |
| A．Air hostesses. | B．Doctors. | C．Teachers. | D．Lawyers. |
| A．They don’t have money to buy new ones. |
| B．The idea of renting home furnishings is still quite new. |
| C．They are sure their neighbors will not like their doing. |
| D．They don’t want to have their neighbors look down up on them. |
| A．Rent or Buy | B．You Can Do Whatever You Like |
| C．Better Not Buy | D．Better Not Rent |
