【2017年整理】02专八阅读.docVIP

PART ⅢREADING COMPREHENSION ［40 min］ SECTION A READING COMPREHENSION ［30min］ In this section there are four reading passages followed by a total of fifteen multiple-choice questions. Read the passages and then mark your answers on your COLOURED ANSWER SHEET. TEXT A Do you ever feel as though you spend all your time in meetings? Henry Mintzberg, in his book The Nature of Managerial Work, found that in large organizations managers spent 22 per cent of their time at their desk, 6 per cent on the telephone, 3 per cent on other activities, but a whopping 69 per cent in meetings. There is a widely-held but mistaken belief that meetings are for solving problems and making decisions. For a start, the number of people attending a meeting tends to be inversely proportional to their collective ability to reach conclusions and make decisions. And these are the least important elements. Instead hours are devoted to side issues, playing elaborate games with one another. It seems, therefore, that meetings serve some purpose other than just making decisions. All meetings have one thing in common: role-playing. The most formal role is that of chairman. He sets the agenda, and a good chairman will keep the meeting running on time and to the point. Sadly, the other, informal, role-players are often able to gain the upper hand. Chief is the constant talker, who just loves to hear his or her own voice. Then there are the can t do types who want to maintain the status quo. Since they have often been in the organization for a long time, they frequently quote historical experience as an excuse to block change: It won t work, we tried that last year and it was a disaster. A more subtle version of the cant do type, the yes, but ……, has emerged recently. They have learnt about the need to sound positive, but they still can t bear to have things change. Another whole sub-set of characters are people who love meetings and want them to continue until 5∶30 pm or beyond. Irrelevant issues are thei