1、1 / 13 光華管理學(xué)院光華管理學(xué)院 2009 2010 學(xué)年第學(xué)年第二二學(xué)期期末考試試題學(xué)期期末考試試題（A 卷）卷） 課程名稱：課程名稱：商務(wù)英語(yǔ)商務(wù)英語(yǔ)（閱讀）閱讀） 任課教師：任課教師： 考試日期：考試日期：2010 年年 6 月月 30 日日 考試時(shí)間：考試時(shí)間： 1.5 小時(shí)小時(shí) 學(xué)生類別：學(xué)生類別：本科本科 年級(jí)班號(hào)：年級(jí)班號(hào)： 考生姓名：考生姓名： 考生學(xué)號(hào)：考生學(xué)號(hào)： 考試方式：閉卷考試方式：閉卷 試試 題： （注意：答案一律寫在答題紙，否則不計(jì)分）題： （注意：答案一律寫在答題紙，否則不計(jì)分） I. Reading comprehension (55) Passage O

2、NE (15%) In the Black Stuff 1. Barack Obamas administration has promised to keep its boot firmly applied to BPs neck. Many people would be happier if the boot were a blade. Fishermen who worry that their livelihoods are in peril; shareholders who have seen the value of BPs shares plunge; local Democ

3、ratic politicians who want to make sure they cannot be blamed for reacting too slowly: the list of boot-and-blade wielders is growing longer by the day. In practice BPs neck means Tony Haywards. Just a few weeks ago Mr. Hayward was one of the worlds most celebrated chief executives, responsible for

4、delivering $5.6 billion in profits in the first quarter of this year. Now, after the collapse of a rig leased by BP in the Gulf of Mexico, costing 11 lives and threatening environmental catastrophe, he is in the meat grinder of public opprobrium along with Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive of Goldman

5、 Sachs, and Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota. 2. So far he has done a creditable job of crisis-management. He has been a whirlwind of activity moving to a Ramada Inn in Houma, Louisiana, meeting Mr. Obamas deputies and giving back-to-back interviews on American television. He has thrown the full mig

6、ht of his companys resources at the problem, sending 2,500 people to help with the clean-up and chartering a sizeable armada. He has accepted “full responsibility” for the disaster but also made it clear that the rig was being operated by a subcontractor, Transocean. Things may yet get worse for BP.

7、 The company faces a tidal wave of litigation and an epidemic of stories about oil-drenched sea birds and devastated wetlands. The 2 / 13 final bill for the clean-up, which is costing BP about $6m a day, could well exceed $10 billion. Mr. Hayward could yet buckle under the pressure. But, if he can k

8、eep his head, he is arguably the best man to deal with an impossibly difficult situation. 3. Mr. Hayward took over BP in 2007 as the back-to-basics candidate. His predecessor, John Browne, was in many ways a remarkable chief executive, a man who sprinkled pixie dust onto the companys black gold whil

9、e also boosting its market capitalization ninefold. But Lord Browne focused too much on the soft furnishings and too little on the foundations. He purchased rivals such as Amoco but failed to integrate them properly. He lavished more than $200m on rebranding BP as “Beyond Petroleum” but failed to re

10、organize the companys sprawling bureaucracy. His final years were marred by a succession of devastating accidents an explosion at BPs Texas City refinery in 2005 that killed 15 workers and injured 170 others, and an oil spill a year later that dumped 4,800 barrels of oil at Prudhoe Bay, on the coast

11、 of Alaska. 4. Mr. Hayward set out to replace flash and fluff with nuts and bolts. He promised to focus “l(fā)ike a laser on safe and reliable operations”. He streamlined the companys management. He played down the Beyond Petroleum rhetoric in favor of a greater emphasis on the companys core business. “

12、BP makes its money by someone, somewhere, every day putting on boots, overalls, a hard hat and glasses, and going out and turning valves,” he argued. “And wed sort of lost track of that.” To be sure, after the spill in the Gulf this back-to-basics strategy leaves him open to some sharp criticisms. H

13、asnt the disaster made a mockery of his “focus like a laser” argument? And hasnt he been at the forefront of lobbying for more deep-sea drilling? He has tried to convince the Obama administration that one of the keys to Americas energy security lies in the oil and gas in the deep waters of the Gulf.

14、 Last September he even dispatched one of his lieutenants, David Rainey, to Congress to argue that new technology had made possible the “safe and reliable production” of offshore oil. 5. But against all this he has a number of things on his side. One is that the disasters at Texas City and Prudhoe B

15、ay occurred before he took over. A second is that before the current oil spill he had a solid record of improving safety and reducing injuries in the workplace. A third is that the markets have probably over-reacted to the oil spill: the fact that BPs shares have lost $30 billion in value, three tim

16、es the likely cost of the clean-up, suggests that they will start to climb back. But the 3 / 13 fourth may count for most: that he is an oilman by conviction as well as profession. Mr. Hayward is at his most animated when reminiscing about his hands-on experience out in the field working as a geolog

17、ist on a North Sea platform (his first job with BP) or exploring for oil in Yemen or Papua New Guinea. He won widespread support in the companys lower ranks in the wake of the Texas City disaster when he criticized BP for “a leadership style that is too directive and doesnt listen sufficiently well”

18、. 6. His immediate challenge is to stanch the flow of oil. But his longer-term problem is to secure the future of deep-sea drilling. BPs business strategy depends on its ability to keep pushing the frontiers of oil exploration: drilling the worlds deepest wells and probing the corners of the Arctic

19、for deposits. The Gulf already accounts for 10% of the companys worldwide oil production, a share that could be higher in the future. Mr. Hayward needs to salt his apologies for the disaster with some tough arguments about the virtues of offshore drilling. He needs to demonstrate that its risks are

20、no greater than, say, those of long-haul shipping. (More oil is spilled from tankers than from offshore wells.) He needs to persuade a restive public that there is no magic that can provide them with risk-free energy. This will test his political skills just as much as the spill in the Gulf is testi

21、ng his organizational skills. i. Decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F). 1. Tony Hayward reacted rather inactively and slowly to the crisis. 2. Tony Hayward suggests part of the responsibilities should be shouldered by Transocean, the subcontractor. 3. John Browne successf

22、ully boosted its market capitalization considerably with the back-to-basics approach. 4. Compared with his predecessor, Tony Hayward focuses more on details and BPs core business. 5. Tony Hayward made a lot of efforts to convince the US government of the merits of deepwater drilling. 6. To apologize

23、 effectively for the crisis, Tony Hayward must drop the argument in favor of deepwater drilling which is too risky. ii. Find out words used in the passage that mean the following. Numbers in the brackets indicate the paragraphs in which you can find the words. 4 / 13 1. danger, hazard (1) 2. rented

24、(1) 3. blame, criticism (1) 4. lawsuit (2) 5. wasted, spent exorbitantly (3) 6. damaged (3) 7. irony, sarcasm (4) 8. halt, stop (6) 9. hard to control or persuade (6) Passage TWO (15%) President Bush on Health Care 1. Today Ive had a really good discussion about health care and health care problems

25、with three business owners and employees of the small business with Secretary Leavitt and Mark McClellan and Administrator Preston. I heard a common complaint, that health care is - costs are too high; that small business owners feel very pinched by these high costs; that they dont like the idea of

26、having to make the decision between providing health care for their employees and not expanding their businesses. 2. And the fundamental question, given these frustrations, is what do we do about it as a nation. There is an interesting debate taking place in Congress, and there is a philosophical di

27、vide. Some in Congress believe the best solution to solving the frustrations of uninsured and high costs for small businesses is to expand the role of government. I have a different point of view. I believe the best way to deal with the frustrations of the high cost of health care and uninsured is t

28、o change the tax code, is to make health care in the private sector more affordable and more available. 3. The debate in Congress is now centering around whats called S-CHIP, which is the Childrens Health Care Insurance Program. It was a program initially designed to help poor families afford health

29、 care for their children. I support that concept. As a matter of fact, the budget I submitted funds health care for poor children. Members of Congress have decided, however, to expand the program to include, in some cases, up to families earning $80,000 a year - which would cause people 5 / 13 to dr

30、op their private insurance in order to be involved with a government insurance plan. 4. And when you couple that with the idea that some have suggested of reducing the age at which you can be eligible for Medicare, youre beginning to get a sense of a strategy to grow the governments role in the prov

31、ision of health care. I believe government cannot provide affordable health care. I believe it would cause - it would cause the quality of care to diminish. I believe there would be lines and rationing over time. If Congress continues to insist upon expanding health care through the S-CHIP program -

32、 which, by the way, would entail a huge tax increase for the American people - Ill veto the bill. 5. Our proposal is a strategy that says to small business owners and individuals we want you, one, to be in charge of your health care system - health care decisions; and, two, we believe youre discrimi

33、nated against in the tax code. If you work for a large company, you get a tax break on your health care. If you work for a small business and/or youre in the individual market, you dont get the same tax break. And thats unfair and its not right. And, therefore, I have proposed to the United States C

34、ongress that we have a $15,000 deductible for families and a $7,500 deductible for individuals, all aimed at encouraging people to be able to afford insurance and aimed at the encouragement of the development of an individual market. 6. I believe strongly that small businesses ought to be afforded t

35、he chance to purchase health care across jurisdictional boundaries. Mike owns a small restaurant, he ought to be able to pool risk with restaurants in Texas or California or anywhere else, so he can better afford insurance. I want patients making decisions, not bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. I want

36、 the system to benefit the individual, the small business owner, not large insurance companies. 7. And I really do believe that government involvement in health care will lead to less quality care and rationing over time. And, therefore, we proposed a plan. I urge the Congress to work with us on mak

37、ing the tax code fair. I know there are different ideas as to whether or not there ought to be a $15,000 deductible or a credit. Im open-minded, Im willing to listen. But what Im not willing to listen to is a direct expansion of the federal role in providing - a massive expansion of the federal role

38、 in providing health care for individuals across the country. 8. Thank you all for having me. Cliff, thank you; you have a very interesting company here. Im proud to be with small business owners. I understand the role 6 / 13 of small businesses in our society. We have worked to reduce taxes on smal

39、l businesses because we want you to grow. And the fact that you are growing across the country collectively is one reason why our economy is so strong. And this economy is doing well. The unemployment rate is 4.5 percent. Small businesses are growing. People are working. Stock market is up. Inflatio

40、n is down. And were going to keep it that way. One way you keep it that way is to have good health care policy emanating out of Washington, and another is to keep taxes low. And thats what were going to do. So thank you all. i. Determine whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F). 1.

41、 Small businesses feel reluctant to provide health care for their employees because they will have less money for business expansion. 2. The Congress advocate that the expenses for staff health care in small businesses should be covered by government, while the President asserts that a better way is

42、 to exempt them from taxes. 3. The President is against the idea of government providing health care for small business staff on the grounds that it will be too heavy a burden on the government. 4. The President has proposed to the Congress that there should be a tax reduction of $ 7,500 for individ

43、uals and a reduction of $15,000 for families. 5. The President believes that small businesses have contributed a great deal to the nations economic growth. ii. Find in the passage words that match the meanings given below. 1. _: forced to live in a frugal way; not having enough money to pay for nece

44、ssities (para. 1) 2. _: a feeling of annoyance at being hindered or criticized (para. 2) 3. _: a serious disagreement between two groups of people (para. 2) 4. _: qualified for or worthy of being chosen (para. 4) 5. _: decrease in size, extent or range (para. 4) 6. _: distributing in limited amounts

45、 (para. 4) 7. _: refuse to assent; refuse to endorse (para. 4) 8. _: treated differently, usually in a worse way (para. 5) 9. _: a government or administrative official, usu. one who applies rules rigidly (para. 6) 10. _: a general increase in prices (para. 8) 7 / 13 Passage THREE (15%) Icon Acousti

46、cs: Bypassing Tradition 1. Like most entrepreneurs, Dave Fokos dreams a lot. He imagines customers eagerly phoning Icon Acoustics in Billerica, Massachusetts, to order his latest, custom-made stereo speakers. _1_ 2. Like most entrepreneurs, Dave has taken a long time to develop his dream. _2_ Dave d

47、iscovered that he had a strong interest in audio engineering. He took independent-study courses in this area and by graduation had designed and built a pair of marketable stereo speakers. Following graduation, Dave pursued his interest in audio engineering. He landed a job as a speaker designer with

48、 Conrad-Johnson, a high-end audio-equipment manufacturer headquartered in Fairfax Virginia. _3_ 3. Dave identified a market niche that he felt other speaker firms had overlooked. _4_ These affluent, well-educated customers are genuinely obsessed with their stereo equipment. Theyd rather buy a new se

49、t of speakers than eat, Dave observes. 4. Dave faced one major problem how to distribute Icons products. He had learned from experience at Conrad-Johnson that most manufacturers distribute their equipment primarily through stereo dealers. Dave did not hold a high opinion of most such dealers; he fel

50、t that they too often played hardball with manufacturers, forcing them to accept thin margins. _5_ This kept those firms that offered more customized products from gaining access to the market. Perhaps most disturbing, Dave felt that the established dealers often sold not what was best for customers

51、, but whatever they had in inventory that month. 5. Dave dreamed of offering high-end stereo loudspeakers directly to the audio-obsessed, bypassing the established dealer network. _6_ “My vision for the future is one where all manufacturers sell their products directly to end users. In this way, eve

52、n the audiophiles in Dead Horse, Alaska, can have access to all that the audio-manufacturing community has to offer.” 6. _7_ Some customers who had gotten to know Daves work became enthusiastic supporters of his dream and invested $189,000 in Icon. With their 8 / 13 money and $10,000 of his own, Dav

53、e started Icon in a rented facility in an industrial park. 7. Approximately 335 stereo-speaker makers compete for a $3 billion annual U.S. market for audio components. About 100 of these manufacturers sell to the low- and midrange segments of the market, which account for 90 percent of the markets u

54、nit volume and about 50 percent of its value. In addition to competing with each other, U.S. manufacturers also compete with Japanese firms that offer products at affordable prices. The remaining 235 or so manufacturers compete for the remaining 10 percent of the markets unit volume and 50 percent o

55、f the value the high end where Dave hopes to find his customers. 8. _8_ He has developed two models: The Lumen and the Parsec. The Lumen stands 18 inches high, weighs 26 pounds, and is designed for stand mounting. The floor-standing Parsec is 47 inches high and weighs 96 pounds. Both models feature

56、custom-made cabinets that come in natural or black oak and American walnut. Dave can build and ship two pairs of the Lumen speakers or one pair of the Parsec speakers per day by himself. In order to have an adequate parts inventory, he had to spend $50,000 of his capital on the expensive components.

57、 9. Dave set the price of the Lumen and Parsec at $795 and $1,795 per pair, respectively. He selected these prices to provide a 50 percent gross margin. He believes that traditional dealers would sell equivalent speakers at retail at twice those prices. Customers can call Icon on a toll-free 800 num

58、ber to order speakers or to get advice directly from Dave. Icon pays for shipping and any return freight via Federal Express round-trip freight for a pair of Parsecs costs $486. 10. Dave offers to pay for the return freight because a key part of his promotional strategy is a 30-day, in-home, no-obligation trial. In his ads, Dave calls this The 43,200 Minute, No Pressure Auditi