公共课英语一模拟题2020年(80).pdfVIP

公共课英语一模拟题2020 年(80) (总分：100.00，做题时间：180 分钟) 阅读理解(总题数：4，分数：100.00) Disruption may be the buzzword in boardrooms, but the most striking feature of business today is not the overturning of the established order. It is the entrenchment of a group of superstar companies at the heart of the global economy. Some of these are old firms, like GE, that have reinvented themselves. Some are emerging-market champions, like Samsung, which have seized the opportunities provided by globalisation. The elite of the elite are high- tech wizards—Google, Apple, Facebook and the rest—that have conjured up corporate empires from bits and bytes. The superstars are admirable in many ways. 【R1】__________But they have two big faults. They are squashing competition, and they are using the darker arts of management to stay ahead. Neither is easy to solve. But failing to do so risks a backlash which will be bad for everyone. The heft of the superstars also reflects their excellence at less productive activities. 【R2】__________The giants also deploy huge armies of lobbyists, bringing the same techniques to Brussels, where 30,000 lobbyists now walk the corridors, that they perfected in Washington, DC. Laws such as Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank, to say nothing of Americas tax code, penalise small firms more than large ones. None of this helps the image of big business. Paying tax seems to be unavoidable for individuals but optional for firms. Rules are unbending for citizens, and up for negotiation when it comes to companies. Nor do profits translate into jobs as once they did. 【R3】 __________ Concentration is an even harder problem. America in particular has got into the habit of giving the benefit of the doubt to big business. 【R4】__________It is less defensible now that superstar firms are gaining control of entire markets and finding new ways to entrench themselves. Prudent policymakers must reinvent antitrust