填空题 When Ruth Redding, an account manager, was sent on a management training course to improve her relationships with her colleagues by learning how to communicate with them more effectively, instead of being asked to address her boss or her peers, she found herself talking to a horse. In fact, during the course, which is organised by Manchester University Business School, Redding found herself standing in a pen whispering to an animal and communicating in a non-aggressive way. This form of communication, which is the subject of the best-selling novel The Horse Whisperer, later filmed with Robert Redford in the starring role, might appear bizarre on a stud farm, let alone a management training course. But horse whispering is among a number of unusual activities now being used to teach staff about every aspect of working life, from self-confidence to communication.
In the 1980s and 1990s, it became fashionable to dump executives on a remote mountainside, or windswept Scottish isle, and leave them to survive a weekend in order to develop initiative, build team spirit and promote leadership skills. An alternative to the classic"chalk and talk"format, with the lecturer and obedient staff seated round a table, it all seemed wild and rather outlandish.
Today, by comparison, it looks increasingly tame. A new generation of management training gurus are adopting a different approach. In Italy, stressed executives have been dressing up as gladiators to confront each other as their ancient forebears did, and in America, sales-people are herding cattle, while in Britain, one supermarket reportedly put its executives in Native American teepees for a weekend to develop a spirit of co-operation. Naturally, the originators of these new courses claim to have respectable psychological theories to back them up.
Tudor Rickards, a professor at Manchester, was intrigued when he heard about the work done by the famous horse whisperer, Monty Roberts. "The idea is that instead of'breaking'the horse, you co-operate with it. Traditionally, you would coax a horse into a box and then reward it by slamming the door shut. Monty leads the horse in and out of the box and offers it a reward, " explains Professor Rickards. " Monty's approach is founded on the recognition of a foal's instinctive desire to be part of the herd. " He matched this with research from the Industrial Society, which revealed that often the difference between a successful and unsuccessful leader is trust. "As they observe the way horses react to certain behavior, participants think about how they themselves or other colleagues react to different management styles, "explains Professor Rickards. "The discussion often leads to one about experiences of bullying and abusive behavior, a discussion that might not otherwise surface in a leadership course. We've found this helps the participants draw fine distinctions between being tough, being assertive, being supportive and being soft. "
Team building is also the aim of murder mystery days run by a company called Corporate Pursuits. Actors mingle with participants and play out a scene until someone is found" murdered". Clues, such as photographs, personal items or a cryptic message, are arranged around the room, and small teams, often pitted against each other, will work to solve the mystery under the gaze of trained observers.
Although fun and a sense of release is important, managing director Mandie Chester Bristow admits that this type of corporate clue do occasionally meets with skepticism among clients. "On one occasion, people were messing around and not taking it seriously at all, so I had to say to them, 'You're behaving like a bunch of school children.' " Another challenge can be reporting the observers'findings. "We would never say, 'You've failed, 'if they didn't identify the murderer correctly. Instead, we would praise them for the progress they made and how they worked together as a team. "
" There are lots of gimmick in training and headline-grabbing courses at the moment, but what they deliver is often variable," says Nick Isles of the Industrial Society. " People often say afterwards that they enjoyed the event, but it's very difficult to measure how much they've actually learned from it. "He argues that ongoing training in the work place, or courses that last months, are a better way of improving aspects of business such as productivity and customer service.

单选题 In the first paragraph, what does the writer say about the technique Ruth Redding found herself practising?
A. It is a way of learning how to address your boss properly.
B. It is designed to help managers relax.
C. It is perfectly acceptable in its original context.
D. It is popular despite its eccentricity.

单选题 According to the writer, management training techniques in the late 1900s were regarded as ______.
A. undesirable B. innovative C. effective D. demoralising

单选题 What does the writer imply about modern management training schemes in the third paragraph?
A. They have a tendency to be more exciting.
B. Their content can actually create stress.
C. Their creators are convinced of their effectiveness.
D. They were developed in a spirit of co-operation.

单选题 Rickards found Monty Roberts's ideas interesting because Roberts had ______.
A. based his methods on traditional horse-training techniques
B. recognised the importance of developing bonding techniques
C. dispensed with the idea of rewarding the horse he was training
D. worked tirelessly with others to come up with a new theory

单选题 Research carried out by Rickards and the Industrial Society showed that ______.
A. course discussions sometimes resulted in frank exchanges of opinion
B. course participants reacted negatively to different management styles
C. participants became less supportive of one another as the courses progressed
D. the bonds of trust between course participants and horses became stronger

单选题 What comment does Mandie Chester Bristow make about course participants in paragraph 6?
A. They enjoy indulging in games they played in their childhood.
B. Those who"lose" the game feel they have underachieved.
C. They sometimes need convincing of the value of the activities.
D. They are happy in the knowledge that they are being freed from stress.

单选题 What is Nick Isles's opinion of the new-style training courses?
A. Their quality is always consistent.
B. Their effectiveness is quantifiable.
C. Altemative courses are more easily set up.
D. Altemative courses can be more efficient.