2024年4月27日发(作者：)

2021年研究生MBA英语(二)真题及解析

Section I Use of English

Directions:

Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on

the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)

It's not difficult to set targets for staff. It is much harder, 1 , to understand their negative

consequences. Most work-related behaviors have multiple components. 2 one and the others become

distorted.

Travel on a London bus and you'll 3 see how this works with drivers. Watch people get on and show

their tickets. Are they carefully inspected? Never. Do people get on without paying? Of course! Are there

inspectors to 4

that people have paid? Possibly, but very few. And people who run for the bus? They are

5 . How about jumping lights? Buses do so almost as frequently as cyclists.

Why? Because the target is 6 . People complained that buses were late and infrequent. 7 , the

number of buses and bus lanes were increased, and drivers were 8 or punished according to the time they

took. And drivers hit these targets. But they 9 hit cyclists. If the target was changed to 10 , you would

have more inspectors and more sensitive pricing. If the criterion changed to safety, you would get more 11

drivers who obeyed traffic laws. But both these criteria would be at the expense of time.

There is another 12 : people became immensely inventive in hitting targets. Have you 13 that you

can leave on a flight an hour late but still arrive on time? Tailwinds? Of course not! Airlines have simply

changed the time a 14

is meant to take. A one-hour flight is now billed as a two-hour flight.

The 15 of the story is simple. Most jobs are multidimensional, with multiple criteria. Choose one

criterion and you may well 16 others. Everything can be done faster and made cheaper, but there is a

17 . Setting targets can and does have unforeseen negative consequences.

This is not an argument against target-setting. But it is an argument for exploring consequences first. All

good targets should have multiple criteria 18 critical factors such as time, money, quality and customer

feedback. The trick is not only to 19 just one or even two dimensions of the objective, but also to

understand how to help people better 20 the objective.

1. A. therefore B. however C. again D. moreover

2. A. Emphasize B. Identify C. Assess D. Explain

3. A. nearly B. curiously C. eagerly D. quickly

4. A. claim B. prove C. check D. recall

5. A. threatened B. ignored C. mocked D. blamed

6. A. punctuality B. hospitality C. competition D. innovation

7. A. Yet B. So C. Besides D. Still

8. A. hired B. trained C. rewarded D. grouped

9. A. only B. rather C. once D. also

10. A. comfort B. revenue C. efficiency D. security

11. A. friendly B. quiet C. cautious D. diligent

12. A. purpose B. problem C. prejudice D. policy

13. A. interesting B. revealed C. admitted D. noticed

14. A. break B. trip C. departure D. transfer

15. A. moral B. background C. style D. form

16. A. interpret B. criticize C. sacrifice D. tolerate

17. A. task B. secret C. product D. cost

18. A. leading to B. calling for C. relating to D. accounting for

19. A. specify B. predict C. restore D. create

英语（二）试题 ﹒1﹒（共 14 页）

20. A. modify B. review C. present D. achieve

Section II Reading Comprehension

Part A

Directions:

Read the following four texts. Answer the questions after each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark

your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (40 points)

Text1

Reskilling is something that sounds like a buzzword but is actually a requirement if we plan to have a

future where a lot of would-be workers do not get left behind. We know we are moving into a period where the

jobs in demand will change rapidly, as will the requirements of the jobs that remain. Research by the WEF

detailed in the Harvard Business Review, finds that on average 42 percent of the "core skill" within job roles

will change by 2022. That is a very short timeline, so we can only imagine what the changes will be further in

the future.

The question of who should pay for reskilling is a thorny one. For individual companies, the temptation is

always to let go of workers whose skills are no longer demand and replace them with those whose skills are.

That does not always happen. AT&T is often given as the gold standard of a company who decided to do a

massive reskilling program rather than go with a fire-and-hire strategy, ultimately retraining 18,000 employees.

Prepandemic, other companies including Amazon and Disney had also pledged to create their own plans. When

the skills mismatch is in the broader economy though, the focus usually turns to government to handle. Efforts

in Canada and elsewhere have been arguably languid at best, and have given us a situation where we frequently

hear of employers begging for workers even at times and in regions where unemployment is high.

With the pandemic, unemployment is very high indeed. In February, at 3.5 percent and 5.5 percent

respectively, unemployment rates in Canada and the United States were at generational lows and worker

shortages were everywhere. As of May, those rates had spiked up to 13.3 percent and 13.7 percent, and

although many worker shortages had disappeared, not all had done so. In the medical field, to take an obvious

example, the pandemic meant that there were still clear shortages of doctors, nurses and other medical

personnel.

Of course, it is not like you can take an unemployed waiter and train him to be doctor in few weeks, no

matter who pays for it. But even if you cannot close that gap, maybe you can close others, and doing so would

be to the benefit of all concerned. That seems to be the case in Sweden: When forced to furlough 90 percent of

their cabin staff, Scandinavian Airlines decided to start up a short retraining program that reskilled the laid-off

workers to support hospital staff. The effort was a collective one and involved other companies as well as a

Swedish university.

21.

Research by the World Economic Forum suggests ______.

A. an increase in full-time employment

B. an urgent demand for new job skills

C. a steady growth of job opportunities

D. a controversy about the "core skills"

22.

AT&T is cited to show ______.

A. an alternative to the fire-and-hire strategy

B. an immediate need for government support

C. the importance of staff appraisal standards

D. the characteristics of reskilling program

英语（二）试题 ﹒2﹒（共 14 页）

23. Efforts to resolve the skills mismatch in Canada ______.

A. have driven up labour costs

B. have proved to be inconsistent

C. have met with fierce opposition

D. have appeared to be insufficient

24. We can learn from Paragraph 3 that there was ______.

A. a call for policy adjustment

B. a change in hiring practices

C. a lack of medical workers

D. a sign of economic recovery

25. Scandinavian Airlines decided to ______.

A. great job vacancies for the unemployed

B. retrain their cabin staff for better services

C. prepare their laid-off workers for other jobs

D. finance their staff's college education

Text 2

With the global population predicted to hit close to 10 billion by 2050, and forecasts that agricultural

production in, some regions will need to nearly double to keep pace, food security is increasingly making

headlines. In the UK, it has become a big talking point recently too, for rather particular reason: Brexit.

Brexit is seen by some as an opportunity to reverse a recent trend towards the UK importing food. The

country produces only about 60 percent of the food it eats, down from almost three-quarters in the late 1980s. A

move back to self-sufficiency, the argument goes, would boost the farming industry, political sovereignty and

even the nation’s health. Sounds great—but bow feasible is this vision?

According to a report on UK food production from the University of Leeds, UK, 85 percent of the

country's total land area is associated with meat and dairy production. That supplies 80 percent of what is

consumed, so even covering the whole country in livestock farms wouldn't allow us to cover all our meat and

dairy needs.

There are many caveats to those figures, but they are still grave. To become much more self-sufficient, the

UK would need to drastically reduce its consumption of animal foods, and probably also farm more

intensively-meaning fewer green fields, and more factory-style production.

But switching to a mainly plant-based diet wouldn't help. There is a good reason why the UK is dominated

by animal husbandry: most of its terrain doesn't have the right soil or climate to grow crops on a commercial

basis. Just 25 percent of the county's land is suitable for crop-growing, most of which is already occupied by

arable fields. Even if we converted all the suitable land to fields of fruit and veg-which would involve taking

out all the nature reserves and removing thousands of people from their homes-we would achieve only a 30

percent boost in crop production.

Just 23 percent of the fruit and vegetables consumed in the UK are currently home-grown, so even with

the most extreme measures we could meet only 30 percent of our fresh produce needs. That is before we look

for the space to grow the grains, sugars, seeds and oils that provide us with the vast bulk of our current calorie

intake.

26. Some people argue that food self-sufficient in UK would ______.

A. be hindered by its population ground

B. post a challenge to its farming industry

C. become a priority of government

D. contribute to the nation's well-being

英语（二）试题 ﹒3﹒（共 14 页）

27. The report by the University of Leeds shows that in the UK ______.

A. farmland has been inefficiently utilized

B. factory-style production needs reforming

C. most land is used for meat and dairy production

D. more green fields will be converted for farming

28. Crop-growing in the UK is restricted due to ______.

A. its farming technology

B. its dietary tradition

C. its natural conditions

D. its commercial interests

29. It can be learned from the last paragraph that British people ______.

A. rely largely on imports for fresh produce

B. enjoy a steady rise in fruit consumption

C. are seeking effective ways to cut calorie intake

D. are trying to grow new varieties of grains

30. The author's attitude to food self-sufficient in the UK is ______.

A. defensive B. doubtful C. tolerant D. optimistic

Text 3

When Microsoft bought task management app Wunderlist and mobile calendar Sunrise in 2015, it picked

up two newcomers that were attracting considerable buzz in Silicon Valley. Microsoft's own Office dominates

the market for "productivity" software, but the start-ups represented a new wave of technology designed from

the ground up for the smartphone world.

Both apps, however, were later scrapped, after Microsoft said it had used their best features in its own

products. Their teams of engineers stayed on, making them two of the many "acqui-hires" that the biggest

companies have used to feed their insatiable hunger for tech talent.

To Microsoft's critics, the fates of Wunderlist and Sunrise are examples of a remorseless drive by Big

Tech to chew up any innovative companies that lie in their path. "They bought the seedlings and closed them

down," complained Paul Arnold, a partner at San Francisco-based Switch Ventures, putting paid to businesses

that might one day turn into competitors. Microsoft declined to comment.

Like other start-up investors, Mr. Arnold's own business often depends on selling start- ups to larger tech

companies, though he admits to mixed feelings about the result: "I think these things are good for me, if I put

my selfish hat on. But are they good for the American economy? I don't know."

The US Federal Trade Commission says it wants to find the answer to that question. This week, it asked

the five most valuable US tech companies for information about their many small acquisitions over the past

decade. Although only a research project at this stage, the request has raised the prospect of regulators wading

into early-stage tech markets that until now have been beyond their reach.

Given their combined market value of more than $5.5trillion, rifling through such small deals--many of

them much less prominent than Wunderlist and Sunrise--might seem beside the point. Between them, the five

biggest tech companies (Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook) have spent an average of only

$3.4bn a year on sub-$1billion acquisitions over the past five years---a drop in the ocean compared with their

massive financial reserves, and the more than $130billion of venture capital that was invested in the US last

year.

However, critics say that the big companies use such deals to buy their most threatening potential

competitors before their businesses have a chance to gain momentum, in some cases as part of a "buy and kill"

tactic to simply close them down.

英语（二）试题 ﹒4﹒（共 14 页）

31. What is true about Wuderlist and sunrise after their acquisitions?

A. Their market values declined

B. Their tech features improved

C. Their engineers were retained

D. Their products were re-priced

32. Microsoft's critics believe that the big tech companies tend to ______.

A. ignore public opinions

B. treat new tech talent unfairly

C. exaggerate their product quality

D. eliminate their potential competitors

33. Paul Arnold is concerned that small acquisitions might ______.

A. harm the national economy

B. worse market competition

C. discourage start-up investors

D. weaken big tech companies

34. The US Federal Trade Commission intends to ______.

A. examine small acquisitions

B. limit Big Tech's expansion

C. supervise start-ups' operations

D. encourage research collaboration

35. For the five biggest tech companies, their small acquisitions have ______.

A. brought little financial pressure

B. raised few management challenges

C. set an example for future deals

D. generated considerable profits

Text 4

We're fairly good at judging people based on first impression, thin slices of experience ranging from a

glimpse of a photo to five-minute interaction, and deliberation can be not only extraneous but intrusive. In one

study of the ability she dubbed "thin slicing," the late psychologist Nalini Ambady asked participants to watch

silent 10-second video clips of professors and to rate the instructor's overall effectiveness. Their ratings

correlated strongly with students' end-of-semester ratings. Another set of participants had to count backward

from 1,000 by nines as they watched the clips, occupying their conscious working memory. Their ratings were

just as accurate, demonstrating the intuitive nature of the social processing.

Critically, another group was asked to spend a minute writing down reasons for their judgment, before

giving the rating. Accuracy dropped dramatically. Ambady suspected that deliberation focused them on vivid

but misleading cues, such as certain gestures or utterances, rather than letting the complex interplay of subtle

signals form a holistic impression. She found similar interference when participants watched 15- second clips

of pairs of people and judged whether they were strangers, friends, or dating partners.

Other research shows we're better at detecting deception and sexual orientation from thin slices when we

rely on intuition instead of reflection. “It’s as if you’re driving a stick shift,” says Judith Hall, a psychologist at

Northeastern University, “and if you start thinking about it too much, you can’t remember what you’re doing.

But if you go on automatic pilot, you’re fine. Much of our social life is like that.”

Thinking too much can also harm our ability to form preferences. College students' ratings of strawberry

jams and college course aligned better with experts' opinions when the students weren't asked to analyze their

rationale. And people made car-buying decisions that were both objectively better and more personally

satisfying when asked to focus on their feelings rather than on details, but only if the decision was

英语（二）试题 ﹒5﹒（共 14 页）

complex--when they had a lot of information to process.

Intuition's special powers are unleashed only in certain circumstances. In one study, participants

completed a battery of eight tasks, including four that tapped reflective thinking (discerning rule

comprehending vocabulary) and four that tapped intuition and creativity(generating new products or figures of

speech). Then the rated the degree to which they had used intuition (“gut feelings”, “hunches”, “my heart”).

Use of their gut hurt their performance on the first four tasks, as expected, and helped them on the rest.

Sometimes the heart is smarter than the head.

36. Nalini Ambady's study deals with ______.

A. instructor student interaction

B. the power of people's memory

C. the reliability of first impressions

D. People's ability to influence others

37. In Ambaby's study, rating accuracy dropped when participants ______.

A. gave the rating in limited time

B. focused on specific details

C. watched shorter video clips

D. discussed with on another

38. Judith Hall mentions driving to mention that ______.

A. memory can be selective

B. reflection can be distracting

C. social skills must be cultivated

D. deception is difficult to detect

39. When you are making complex decisions, it is advisable to ______.

A. following your feelings

B. list your preferences

C. seek expert advice

D. collecting enough data

40. What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A. Generating new products takes time

B. Intuition may affect reflective tasks

C. Vocabulary comprehension needs creativity

D. Objective thinking may boost intuitiveness

Part B

Directions: Read the following text and answer the questions by choosing the most suitable subheading from

the list A–G for each numbered paragraph (41–45). There are two extra subheadings which you do not need to

use. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)

A. Stay calm

B. Stay humble

C. Don't make judgments

D. Be realistic about the risks

E. Decide whether to wait

F. Ask permission to disagree

G. Identify a shared goal

英语（二）试题 ﹒6﹒（共 14 页）

How to Disagree with Someone More Powerful than You

Your boss proposes a new initiative you think won't work. Your senior colleague outlines a project

timeline you think is unrealistic. What do you say when you disagree with someone who has more power than

you do? How do you decide whether it's worth speaking up? And if you do, what exactly should you say?

Here's how to disagree with someone more powerful than you.

41.__________________

You may decide it's best to hold off on voicing your opinion. Maybe you haven't finished thinking the

problem through, the whole discussion was a surprise to you, or you want to get a clearer sense of what the

group thinks. If you think other people are going to disagree too, you might want to gather your army first.

People can contribute experience or information to your think---all the things that would make the

disagreement stronger or more valid. It's also a good idea to delay the conversation if you're in a meeting or

other public space. Discussing the issue in private will make the powerful person feel less threatened.

42.__________________

Before you share your thoughts, think about what the powerful person cares about---it may be the

credibility of their team on getting a project done on time. You're more likely to be heard if you can connect

your disagreement to a “higher purpose”. When you do speak up, don't assume the link will be clear. You'll

want to state it overtly, contextualizing your statements so that you're seen not as a disagreeable underling but

as a colleague who's trying to advance a shared goal. The discussion will then become more like a chess game

than a boxing match.

43.__________________

This step may sound overly deferential, but it's a smart way to give the powerful person “psychological

safety” and control. You can say something like, “I know we seem to be moving toward a first-quarter

commitment here. I have reasons to think that won't work. I'd like to lay out my reasoning. Would that be OK?”

This gives the person a choice, allowing them to verbally opt in. And, assuming they say yes, it will make you

feel more confident about voicing your disagreement.

44.__________________

You might feel your heart racing or your face turning red, but do whatever you can to remain neutral in

both your words and actions. When your body language communicates reluctance or anxiety, it undercuts the

message. It sends a mixed message, and your counterpart gets to choose what to read. Deep breaths can help, as

can speaking more slowly and deliberately. When we feel panicky we tend to talk louder and faster. Simply

slowing the pace and talking in an even tone helps the other person calm down and does the same for you. It

also makes you seem confident, even if you aren't.

45.__________________

Emphasize that you're offering your opinion, not gospel truth. It may be a well-informed, well-researched

opinion, but it's still an opinion, my talk tentatively and slightly understate your confidence. Instead of saying

something like, “If we set an end-of-quarter deadline, we'll never make it,” say, “This is just my opinion, but I

don't see how we will make that deadline.” Having asserted your position (as a position, not as a fact),

demonstrate equal curiosity about other views. Remind the person that this is your point of view, and then

invite critique. Be open to hearing other opinions.

英语（二）试题 ﹒7﹒（共 14 页）