[考研类试卷]考研英语(阅读)模拟试卷58.doc.pdfVIP

[考研类试卷]考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷58 Part A Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. (40 points) 0 Hostess Brands is not dead just yet, but the prospects for the companys survival are now dim at best. Hostess—which still makes iconic food products like Twinkies and Ding Dongs—filed for bankruptcy back in January for the second time in eight years, in an attempt to get out from under a pile of debt and labor obligations. But last week, after Hostess put in place a contract that the bakers union said would end up cutting wages and benefits between twenty-seven and thirty-two per cent, that union went on strike. Hostess claims the strike has irreparably damaged production and made it impossible for it to continue operating. As a result, on Friday the company asked a bankruptcy judge to allow it to liquidate the company. Management, of course, blames the companys demise on the greedy, unreasonable unions. But, while the strike may well have sent Hostess over the edge, the hard truth is that it probably should have gone out of business a long time ago. The company has been steadily losing money, and market share, for years. And its core problem has not been excessively high compensation costs or pension contributions. Its core problem has been that the market for its products changed, but it did not. The simple truth is that this kind of failure is regularly found in the creative destruction process. The problem, of course, is that that destruction is going to make the lives of thousands of workers upside down. And to the extent, then, that Hostesss demise shows us something important about the plight of organized labor today, its not that greedy workers have brought on their own demise. Its rather that one of organized labors biggest challenges over the past four decades has been that union strength was concentrated in industries and among companies that, though once