单选题 "What's the difference between God and Larry Ellison?" asks an old software industry joke. Answer: God doesn't think he's Larry Ellison. The boss of Oracle is hardly alone among corporate chiefs in having a reputation liar being rather keen on himself. Indeed, until the bubble burst and the public turned nasty at the start of the decade, the cult of the celebrity chief executive seemed to demand bossily narcissism, as evidence that a firm was being led by an all-conquering hero.
Narcissus met a nasty end, of course. And in recent years, boss-worship has come to be seen as bad for business. In his management bestseller, "Good to Great", Jim Collins argued that the truly successful bosses were not the sell-proclaimed stars who adorn the covers of Forbes and Fortune, but instead self-effacing, thoughtful, monkish sorts who lead by inspiring example.
A statistical answer may be at hand. For the first time. a new study, "'It's All About Me", to be presented next week at the annual gathering of the American Academy of Management, offers a systematic, empirical analysis of what effect narcissistic bosses have on the firms they run. The authors, Artijit Chatterjee and Donald Hambrick, of Pennsylvania State University, examined narcissism in the upper levels of 105 firms in the computer and software industries.
To do this, they had to solve a practical problem: studies of narcissism have hitherto relied on surveying individuals personally, something for which few chief executives are likely to have time or inclination. So the authors devised an index of narcissism using six publicly available indicators obtainable without the co-operation of the boss. These are: the prominence of the boss's photo in the annual report; his prominence in company press releases: the length of his "Who's Who" entry: the frequency of his use of the first person singular in interviews; and the ratios of his cash and non-cash compensation to those of the firm's second-highest paid executive.
Narcissism naturally drives people to seek positions of power and influence, and because great self-esteem helps your professional advance, say the authors, chief executives will tend on average to be more narcissistic than the general population. How does that affect a firm? Messrs Chatterjee and Hambrick found that highly narcissistic bosses tended to make bigger changes in the use of important resources, such as research and development, or in spending and leverage; they carried out more and bigger mergers and acquisitions; and their results were both more extreme (more big wins or big losses) and more transient than those of firms run by their humbler peers. For shareholders that could be good or bad.
Although (oddly) the authors are keeping their narcissism ranking secret, they have revealed that Mr.Ellison did not come top. Alas for him, that may be because the study limited itself to people who became the boss after 1991 — well after he took the helm. In every respect Mr.Ellison seems to be the classic narcissistic boss, claims Mr.Chatterjee. There is life in the old joke yet.

单选题 The old software industry joke is used in the passage to

A. show the difference between God and Larry Ellison.
B. emphasize the success of the boss of Oracle.
C. illustrate how chief executives manage their companies.
D. introduce the topic of narcissism on top managerial level.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 推理判断题。题干问第一段中提到的God and Larry Ellison的例子在全文的作用，属于对写作手法的考查。很明显，本文介绍的主题是narcissism(自恋)，作者在第一段用God and Larry Ellison的例子，是以自恋老板的典型引出文章的主题。所以，D正确地点出了文章第一段提到的joke的作用，为本题答案。A只停留在了字面意思故排除。Oracle只在第一段提到，并不是全文的主题，所以B也不正确。C偏离了例子的真正用意，文章的重点并不是在介绍管理者是如何管理公司的。

单选题 Jim Collins seems to believe that truly successful managers

A. should encourage the staff by setting up examples.
B. should not be regarded as stars by their employees.
C. should ban boss-worship in the companies they lead.
D. should be as humble as possible in their company.

单选题 A practical problem of the "It's all about me" study is that

A. the survey takes too much time to be completed.
B. the subjects for the survey may not be very cooperative.
C. the bosses who are narcissistic are likely to tell lies to the surveyors.
D. the six available indicators require the co-operation of the bosses.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 事实细节题。根据题干中的关键词a practical problem可以将答案定位在文章的第四段。首句提到，阿里伊特·查特叶和唐纳德·汉姆布里克要对公司上层领导的自恋程度进行研究，但是他们需要解决一个实际问题：首席执行官们可能很少有人有时间或愿意接受这种调查。也就是说，他们可能不会很好地配合调查，B正确地表达了原文意思，所以为本题答案。在文中并没有提到调查的时间问题，所以A可以排除。C在文中没有提到。D表述的恰恰是解决问题的办法，而不是问题，且与文中提到的“无需老板合作”不符，所以也排除。

单选题 According to the researchers, compared with humbler managers, narcissistic bosses are more likely to

A. have faster professional advances.
B. draw attention from the general population.
C. dramatize the changes in their companies.
D. use resources of the company in extreme ways.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 事实细节题。题干中提到的信息出现在文章的第五段。我们需要注意的是，题干中间的是与humbler managers相比，自恋老板们的特点。既然是managers，那主要关注点应该是对公司的管理方面的特点。A和B都是与普通人相比的，所以排除；文章第五段第三句提到"narcissistic bosses tended to make bigger changes in the use of important resources", to make bigger changes与C中的dramatize the changes对应，也就是“他们往往会给公司带来较大的变化”。因此，本题答案为C。D是对第三句信息的胡乱拼凑。