Last week I had lunch with a man who used to be one of the most senior bankers in the UK. The trouble with business today, he complained over coffee, was that there was no common sense any more. Such sense, he insisted, had always been uncommon—but now was extinct. The reason common sense is squashed in this way is insecurity. Most people in business live in fear of being found out, and sounding clever seems a safer bet than being understood. As more people try to sound clever, the standard gets tougher, and before long formerly sensible people start talking absolute rot. Recently I read an interview with a senior manager at Amazon in which he explained the secret to his hiring success: "Your bar raiser should also run the debrief after every hiring loop." The next enemy of common sense is self-importance, which not only makes business people lose the plot at work, but at home too. On LinkedIn the other day a former chief operating officer of eBay boasted that he was so busy he bought a house without even looking at it properly, and that his wife once delivered clean underwear to the office after he had worked all night. A five-year old could have told him that this is no way to live, and that if you are caught without clean underpants, or end up buying a house having hardly looked at it, it is better to keep quiet. Human weakness is not the only destroyer of common sense; the corporate machine does so equally powerfully. Departments such as HR and PR routinely eliminate any lurking pools of rationality, while interdepartmental rivalries, budgets and regulations of any kind all tend to ensure that few things are ever done sensibly. The only way of safeguarding common sense in business is to grow your own, and become an entrepreneur. A couple of months ago I helped judge a competition for new businesses. One of the winners made charging points for electric cars; another had developed a sort of Netflix for magazines. Both were good ideas, with good business plans and founders who spoke lucidly about what they were doing. I don't know if either will succeed. But I do know that if they do, their good sense will be under attack.
单选题
The common sense is squashed because______.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】解析：细节题。根据题干关键词定位到第二段第一句：The reason common sense is squashed in this way is insecurity．(常识以这种方式被碾碎，原因在于人们没有安全感。)故B项“企业中的大多数人缺乏安全感”符合题意，为正确答案。其中lack security是对insecurity的同义替换。A项“常识已经消失了”，C项“企业中的大多数人想更加聪明”，D项“面试正在变得越来越严格”，均不符合题意。
单选题
The case of "a former chief operating officer of eBay" demonstrated that self-importance will make people______.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】解析：细节题。根据题干关键词定位到第三段。本题考查作者给出这个例子的目的，其实就是考查此段的主旨，而段落的主旨句一般位于句首或句末，观察此段可知，段落主旨句为第一句：The next enemy of common sense is self-importance，which not only makes business people lose the plot at work，but at home too．(常识的另一个敌人是自负，自负不仅会让企业家在工作中失去理智，在家里也一样。)故A项“失去理性”符合题意，为正确答案。B项“爱好吹嘘”，C项“浪费钱财”，D项“穿不干净的内衣”，均属于断章取义，故排除。
单选题
It can be learned from Paragraph 4 that______.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】解析：推断题。根据题干关键词定位到第四段。此题可利用选项信息回原文定位，然后进行比对。A项“人性弱点是破坏常识的唯一因素”与此段Human weakness is not the only destroyer of common sense不符。B项“企业机制也是破坏常识的一个重要因素”与the corporate machine does so equally powerfully相符，故为正确答案。C项“人力和公关是保护理性的主要部门”与Departments such as HR and PR routinely eliminate any lurking pools of rationality不符。D项“适当的部门竞争对公司是好事”是对本段最后一句的过度推断，故排除。
单选题
The right way to safeguard common sense in business is to______.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】解析：细节题。根据题干关键词定位到文章最后一段：The only way of safeguarding common sense in business is to grow your own，and become an entrepreneur．(在企业守卫常识的唯一方法，是你自己创业并成为一名企业家。)故C项“自己创业”符合题意，为正确答案。A项“在公司中发展自己”：B项“努力成为一个伟大的人”和D项“有足够的创造性想法”均属于过度推断，故排除。