阅读理解   This is an approach to quality improvement based on the statistical work of Joseph Juran, one of two American pioneers of quality management in Japan. Sigma is a Greek letter used in mathematics to denote standard deviation, a statistical measure of the extent to which a series of numbers or readings deviates from its mean. One Sigma indicates a wide scattering of the readings. If the mean is the required quality standard of a particular process or product, then One Sigma quality is not very good. The higher the number, the closer the readings come to total perfection. At the Six Sigma level, there are only 3.4 defects per million.
    This may sound complicated, but in practice it has proved a popular way for managers to put quality management into effect. One of its great advantages is that it avoids the idea of aiming for 'zero defects', or total perfection-a frighteningly inaccessible goal for most. It presents a system for improving quality gradually. Companies or operational groups move step-by-step up the Sigma ladder, the ultimate goal being to reach the Six Sigma state-still just short of perfection. Reasonably unsophisticated computer programs do the necessary calculations when fed with data on the goals (the specifications of the perfect product or process) and the organization's actual achievements.
    Six Sigma sounds like some sort of secret coven. Its advocates insist that it is no such thing. But it has certain attributes of the exclusive society. Anyone in an organization who goes on a basic training course for a Six Sigma program is called a Green Belt. Anyone who is given the full-time job of leading a team that is embarking on a Six Sigma exercise is given further training and is called a Black Belt. Beyond this there are a special few who are trained even more, and they are called Master Black Belts. Their role is to champion the exercise throughout the organization and to watch over the Black Belts and ensure that they are consistently improving the quality of their team's output.
    Pioneered in the United States by Motorola in the 1980s, Six Sigma became hugely popular in the 1990s after Jack Welch adopted it at General Electric.
    To achieve Six Sigma quality at GE, a process must produce no more than 3.4 defects per million 'opportunities'. An opportunity is defined as 'a chance for non-conformance, or not meeting the required specifications'. The company says:  'Six Sigma has changed the DNA of GE. It is now the way we work-in everything we do and in every product we design'.
单选题     It can be inferred from Paragraph 1 that ______
 
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】推理判断题。根据第一段倒数第二句话“西格玛的数值越高，质量就越接近绝对完美”，可推断D项“六西格玛的质量要比四西格玛的质量相对要好”为正确答案。六西格玛理论的提出只是基于Juran的统计成果，并非Juran提出的，故A项错误；第二段指出六西格玛理论并不追求绝对完美，故B项曲解文意；C项“数学家和统计学专家最擅长六西格玛”，文中对此没有提及。
单选题     We can learn from the first two paragraphs that Six Sigma ______
 
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】推理判断题。第二段提到“六西格玛不追求‘零缺陷’或绝对完美，……它追求的是质量的逐步提高”，故C项正确。A项“与其说六西格玛是管理方法不如说是数学和统计办法”，推断错误，文中说到它是一种用于改进质量的方法；B项中的closest推理过度，只能说closer；D项是对文中mean(均值)和inaccessible(指的是total perfection)的错误理解。
单选题     People regard Six Sigma as a kind of secret coven in that it ______
 
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】事实细节题。根据secret coven定位到第三段。该段开头部分提到：六西格玛听起来像某种“秘密集会”……它的确具备非公开团体的某些特征，故C项正确。A项的mysterious只是对secret的片面理解；B项完全属于主观臆造；D项只是六西格玛运作时的特征，并不是将它比喻为“秘密集会”的原因所在。
单选题     The underlined word 'they' in Paragraph 3 refers to ______
 
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】事实细节题。they所在的句子“to watch over the Black Belts and ensure that they…”中and连接两个并列结构，故可知they指代的应也是watch over的对象，即黑带(the Black Belts)，故选B。D项中的team leaders(组织领导者)过于宽泛，不是所有的组织领导者都是黑带。
单选题     By saying 'Six Sigma has changed the DNA of GE', the company most probably means Six Sigma ______
 
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】语义理解题。最后一段最后的引用部分提到“六西格玛彻底改变了通用电气。六西格玛是我们现在的工作方式，我们做的每件事情，设计的每个产品，都是以六西格玛为准则的”，由此可以推知C项“改变了GE的运行方式”最符合题意，operation对应work，mode对应way。A、B两项都是外在结果，与DNA的属性不符；D项改革了GE的结构和组织形式只是外在形式的改变，不是最佳答案。