英語(yǔ)考試閱讀題原文

1、第 第 頁(yè)英語(yǔ)考試閱讀題原文Well, no gain without pain, they say. But what about painwithout gain? Everywhere you go inAmerica, you hear tales ofcorporate revival. What is harder to establish is whether theproductivity revolution that businessmen assume they are presiding overis for real.The official statistics a

2、re mildly discouraging. They showthat, if you lump manufacturing and services together, productivity hasgrown on average by 1.2% since 1987. That is somewhat faster than the averageduring the previous decade. And since 1991, productivity has increased by about2% a year, which is more than twice the

3、1978-1987 average. Thetrouble is that part of the recent acceleration is due to the usual reboundthat occurs at this point in a business cycle, and so is not conclusive evidenceof a revival in the underlying trend. There is, as Robert Rubin, the treasurysecretary, says, a disjunction between the mas

4、s ofbusiness anecdote that points to a leap in productivity and the picturereflected by the statistics.Some of this can be easily e*plained. New ways of organizing theworkplace all that re-engineering and downsizing are only one contributionto the overall productivity of an economy, which is driven

5、by many otherfactors such as joint investment in equipment and machinery, new technology,and investment in education and training. Moreover, most of the changesthat companies make are intended to keep them profitable, and this need notalways mean increasing productivity: switching to new markets or

6、improvingquality can matter just as much.Two other e*planations are more speculative. First, some of thebusiness restructuring of recent years may have been ineptly done.Second, even if it was well done, it may have spread much less widely thanpeople suppose.Leonard Schlesinger, a Harvard academic a

7、nd former chiefe*ecutive of Au Bong Pain, a rapidly growing chain of bakery cafes, says thatmuch re-engineering has been crude. In many cases, he believes, theloss of revenue has been greater than the reductions in cost. Hiscolleague, Michael Beer, says that far too many companies have appliedre-eng

8、ineering in a mechanistic fashion, chopping out costs without givingsufficient thought to long-term profitability. BBDOs AlRosenshine is blunter. He dismisses a lot of the work of re-engineering consultantsas mere rubbish the worst sortof ambulance-chasing.55. According tothe author, the American ec

9、onomic situation is _.A not as good as it seemsB at its turning pointC much better than it seemsD near to complete recovery56. The officialstatistics on productivity growth _.A e*clude the usual rebound in a business cycleB fall short of businessmens anticipationC meet the e*pectation of business pe

10、opleD fail to reflect the true state of economy57. The authorraises the question what about pain without gain? because _.A he questions the truth of no gain without painB he does not think the productivity revolution worksC he wonders if the official statistics are misleadingD he has conclusive evidence for the revival of businesses58. Which of thefollowing statements is NOT mentioned in the passage?A Radical reforms are essential for the increase ofproductivity.B New ways of organizing w