单选题 This year's Sumantra Ghoshal Conference, held at London Business School, debated whether strategy research has become irrelevant to the practice of management. The late Mr Ghoshal published a paper in 2005 scolding business schools for pouring "bad theory" on their students. That same year Warren Bennis and James O'Toole, both at the University of Southern California, published an article in the Harvard Business Review criticising MBA programmes for paying too much attention to "scientific" research and not enough to what current and future managers actually needed. Business schools, they argued, would be better off acting more like their professional counterparts, such as medical or law schools, nurturing skilled practitioners as well as frequent publishers.
However, business school professors have a tendency not to change. Since universities take journal rankings into account when awarding tenure, academics are rewarded more when they publish in research journals. (Popular media rankings of MBA programmes, although not The Economist's, also take research output into account.)
In 2008 the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) took up the debate, publishing a report on making business research more useful. It suggested that tenure committees become more flexible. A scholar dedicated to popularising management ideas, for example, should be evaluated on book sales and attention from the news media, not on articles in research journals. This would allow faculty to reach out to wider audiences, rather than be, as Messrs Bennis and O'Toole put it, "damned as popularisers".
But that might also risk granting tenure on the basis of trendy but ultimately unhelpful ideas. In any case, some argue that the relevance of business research is understated. Jan Williams, vice chair of AACSB, argues that doing research allows faculty members to stay at the forefront of their subject, and that in turn improves their teaching. "We can't teach students outdated material," he says.
What is more, a paper in Academy of Management Learning & Education suggests that faculty members' research productivity and their students' earnings after graduation may be positively linked. Certainly, the best known schools often have strong research reputations to match their recognition in the wider world. So, should a student worry about a faculty's research ability when applying to a school? If business schools with better researchers produce better-paid graduates, then perhaps they should. But only up to a point: what MBA students most need is skillful teaching and help in developing their critical thinking skills first; access to frontier research comes afterwards. As Messrs Bennis and O'Toole put it: "Business professors too often forget that executive decision-makers are not fact-collectors; they are fact users and integrators.

单选题 According to the first paragraph, Bennis and O'Toole complained about______.
[A] business schools' publishing papers
[B] irrelevant management in business schools
[C] too much efforts directed to research
[D] MBA programmes' misleading students

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[试题类型] 具体信息题。
[解题思路] 题干就Warren Bennis and James O'Toole在第一段中的观点进行提问。该段第三句指出，Bennis and O'Toole认为，MBA课程过于关注科研(paying too much attention to "scientific" research)，而没有传授学生足够的管理方面的知识(not enough to what current and future managers actually needed)，即他们抱怨投入到科研中的精力太多，故正确选项为[C]。
[干扰排除] 选项[A]“商学院发表的论文”，在第一段中都没有提及，更不是Bennis and O'Toole的观点，故排除。选项[B]是根据第一段第一句话设置的干扰，此处意为“在伦敦商学院举行的会议提出这样一个议题：研究是否变得与管理的实践毫不相干了”，并不是说商学院的管理多余，选项[B]错误，且这也不是Bennis和O'Toole的观点。文章第一段第二句指出“已故的Ghoshal先生”指责商学院向学生们传输不好的理论(pouring bad theory on their students)，但这也不是Bennis和O'Toole的观点，故排除选项[D]。

单选题 The ranking of MBA programmes is mentioned in brackets in order to______.
[A] name a particular ranking including the application factor
[B] provide a supporting argument for the importance of research output
[C] explain why universities expect journal papers from professors
[D] show another way for professors to get permanent teaching positions

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[试题类型] 篇章结构题。
[解题思路] 第二段指出商学院不会改变其重视研究的传统，因为学校在授予教授终身职位以及发放奖金时，都会参考教授发表论文的期刊排名(universities take journal rankings into account)，段末的括号内也补充指出，常见的媒体在给MBA课程进行排名时也会参考各个学校的科研成果(Popular media rankings of MBA programmes...also take research output into account)，由此可见，括号内提到MBA排名也是论述科研在商学院中受到高度重视的原因，故正确选项为[B]。
[干扰排除] 括号内提到的是媒体排名同样参考各个学校的科研成果，但没有参考其实际应用方面的因素(application factor)，故排除选项[A]。括号中的内容补充说明了媒体对MBA课程进行排名时对于科研成果的重视，并不是为了说明“大学希望教授发表学术论文”，故排除选项[C]。括号内没有提到教授获得终身职位的方式，故排除选项[D]。

单选题 AACSB suggested that______.
[A] professors should not pay heed to scientific research
[B] a more reasonable evaluating system be established to judge professors
[C] scholars should entertain a large audience if they want to be successful
[D] a flexible evaluating way be created to put scientific research into application

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[试题类型] 具体信息题。
[解题思路] 根据题干关键词AACSB定位至第三段。该段指出，管理商学院联合会发表了一份报告，探讨了如何使商业研究更加实用，并认为授予教授终身职位的评价标准应该更加灵活(It suggested that tenure committees become more flexible)，接着对此举例说明。由此可见，该组织赞成建立一个更加合理的教授评价体系，故选项[B]最符合文意。
[干扰排除] AACSB认为，不该以发表学术文章的数量作为授予教授终身职位的标准(...not on articles in research journals)，但这并不是说该组织认为教授不应该注重科研活动，故排除选项[A]。文中提到对于教授的评价标准可以参考其著作的销售量及其受媒体的关注度(A scholar...should be evaluated on book sales and attention from the news media)，这样教授会有更多的读者，也不会被人指责为一群只会写论文的糟糕作家。但拥有大批观众只是对教授学术成绩的评价标准之一，选项[C]将其引申为“评判教授成功与否的标准”，太过绝对，故排除。文中只提到，AACSB认为授予教授终身职位的评价标准应该更加灵活，而没有提到一种将科研成果应用于实践的灵活方式，故排除选项[D]。

单选题 It can be inferred from the passage that______.
[A] the best schools in the popular media rankings guarantee graduates high salary
[B] doing research may help students to be better paid later
[C] professors should be evaluated on the basis of popularity
[D] Jan Williams may not agree with AACSB on the issue about doing research

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[试题类型] 推理引申题。
[解题思路] 第三段提到AACSB认为，对教授的评价应该以其著作的销售量及其受媒体的关注度为准，而不以其发表的学术文章的数量为准(A scholar...should be evaluated book sales and attention from the news media, not on articles in research journals)，即AACSB认为教授不应该过于重视科研。而在第四段中作者指出，一些人认为商业研究的实用性没有得到重视，并引用Jan Williams的话，他认为从事科研活动可以使教授始终站在本学科的前沿并提高教学水平(doing research allows faculty members to stay at the forefront of their subject, and that in turn improves their teaching)。由此可见，Jan Williams认为科研活动对于教学来说很重要，即在科研活动的重要性问题上，AACSB与Jan Williams存在分歧，故正确选项为[D]。
[干扰排除] 第五段虽提到这样的观点：教职员的研究能力与学生的收入成正比，但后文If business schools with better researchers produce better-paid graduates...表明作者认为学校研究能力与学生收入不一定是成正比的，故选项[A]“排名最好的学校一定可以使学生们收入高”，选项[B]做研究可帮助学生获得更高收入都是不正确的，故排除。第三段指出，AACSB认为，授予终身职位时，应该参考教授的著作销售量以及受媒体的关注度，教授的受欢迎程度只是评价标准的一个方而，故排除选项[C]。

单选题 According to the author, after entering a business school a student should first______.
[A] learn to process incoming information effectively
[B] contribute to the reputation of his school
[C] find a professor who is popular in his research field
[D] help teachers with their research

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[试题类型] 推理引申题。
[解题思路] 由第五段可知，学习MBA的学生最需要的是专业的教授方法和批判性思维的培养(skillful teaching and help in developing their critical thinking skills)，其次才是从事前沿领域的研究，而批判性思维就是“正确地判断和有效地处理接收的信息和知识”，故选项[A]最符合文意。
[干扰排除] 文中没有提到学生入校后要首先为增加学校的声誉做贡献，故排除选项[B]。第五段指出，如果商学院有更好的科研人员就能培养出高收入的毕业生，那么或许学生在申请学校时候应该考虑老师的科研能力，但后文指出，教师的科研能力只是一个方面，即对学生的收入不会有太大影响，故选择一位在科研领域著名的教授不是学生入校首先要做的事情，排除选项[C]。文中没有提到学生进入商学院要帮助老师做研究，故排除选项[D]。