阅读理解
Artists routinely mock businesspeople as money-obsessed bores. Or worse, Many businesspeople, for their part, assume that artists are a bunch of pretentious wasters. Bosses may stick a few modernist paintings on their boardroom walls. But they seldom take the arts seriously as a source of inspiration.
The bias starts at business school, where "hard" things such as numbers rule. It is reinforced by everyday experience. Bosses constantly remind their underlings that if you can't count it, it doesn't count. Few read deeply about art. Sun Tzu's The Art of War does not count. Some popular business books rejoice in their vulgarism: consider Wess Robert's Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun.
But lately there are welcome signs of a thaw on the business side of the great cultural divide. Business presses are publishing a series of books such as The Fine Art of Success, by Jamie Anderson.
Mr. Anderson points out that many artists have also been superb entrepreneurs. Damien Hirst was even more enterprising. He not only realised that nouveau-riche collectors would pay extraordinary sums for dead cows and jewel-encrusted skulls. He upturned the art world by selling his work directly through Sotheby's, an auction house. Whatever they think of his work, businesspeople cannot help admiring a man who parted art-lovers from ￡ 75.5 million on the day that Lehman Brothers collapsed.
Studying the arts can help businesspeople communicate more eloquently. Most bosses spend a huge amount of time "messaging" yet few are much good at it. Half an hour with George Orwell's Why I Write would work wonders.
Studying the arts can also help companies learn how to manage bright people. Rob Goffee of the London Business School points out that today's most productive companies are dominated by what they call "clevers" , who are the devil to manage. They hate being told what to do by managers, whom they regard as dullards. They refuse to submit to performance reviews. In short, they are prima donnas.
Studying the art world might even hold out the biggest prize of all-helping business become more innovative. Companies are scouring the world for new ideas. In their quest for creativity, they surely have something to learn from the creative industries. Look at how modern artists adapted to the arrival of photography, a technology that could have made them redundant, or how J. K. Rowling kept trying even when publishers rejected her novel.
The bias starts at business school, where "hard" things such as numbers rule. It is reinforced by everyday experience. Bosses constantly remind their underlings that if you can't count it, it doesn't count. Few read deeply about art. Sun Tzu's The Art of War does not count. Some popular business books rejoice in their vulgarism: consider Wess Robert's Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun.
But lately there are welcome signs of a thaw on the business side of the great cultural divide. Business presses are publishing a series of books such as The Fine Art of Success, by Jamie Anderson.
Mr. Anderson points out that many artists have also been superb entrepreneurs. Damien Hirst was even more enterprising. He not only realised that nouveau-riche collectors would pay extraordinary sums for dead cows and jewel-encrusted skulls. He upturned the art world by selling his work directly through Sotheby's, an auction house. Whatever they think of his work, businesspeople cannot help admiring a man who parted art-lovers from ￡ 75.5 million on the day that Lehman Brothers collapsed.
Studying the arts can help businesspeople communicate more eloquently. Most bosses spend a huge amount of time "messaging" yet few are much good at it. Half an hour with George Orwell's Why I Write would work wonders.
Studying the arts can also help companies learn how to manage bright people. Rob Goffee of the London Business School points out that today's most productive companies are dominated by what they call "clevers" , who are the devil to manage. They hate being told what to do by managers, whom they regard as dullards. They refuse to submit to performance reviews. In short, they are prima donnas.
Studying the art world might even hold out the biggest prize of all-helping business become more innovative. Companies are scouring the world for new ideas. In their quest for creativity, they surely have something to learn from the creative industries. Look at how modern artists adapted to the arrival of photography, a technology that could have made them redundant, or how J. K. Rowling kept trying even when publishers rejected her novel.
单选题
16.Artists and businesspeople routinely_____.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】细节题。根据题干关键词routinely定位到第一段。第一段指出“艺术家们常常嘲笑管理者是无趣的爱财者……对于管理者来说，艺术家就是一群自命不凡的浪荡子……他们从没有把艺术看作是灵感之源”。由此可见，艺术家和管理者通常是彼此看不起的。故A项为正确答案。
单选题
17.Damien Hirst is mentioned as_____.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】细节题。根据题干关键词Damien Hirst定位到第四段。第四段首句指出“许多艺术家同时也是出色的企业家”，随后作者用迪米尔-赫斯特为例说明了这一点，迪米尔-赫斯特“通过苏富比拍卖公司直接销售自己的作品”颠覆了艺术界，他在经济不景气的时候还能将其画作卖出天价，这足以说明他是一个擅长做生意的艺术家。故C项为正确答案。
单选题
18.Which book might be thought by the author as having the least value?
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】推断题。根据题干和选项中的书名回归到原文进行定位。第二段末尾大意为：管理者虽然不会研读艺术书籍，可是却会读粗俗易懂的《阿蒂拉的领导诀窍》。由此可见，作者认为这本书粗俗易懂、价值不大。故B项为正确答案。
单选题
19."Prima donnas" (Para. 6) most probably refer to people who are_____.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】含义题。根据题干关键词Prima donna定位到第六段。该段指出“研究艺术还能够帮助企业学会如何管理“聪明人”，……当今世界上最高产的公司就是那些由他们所称的“聪明人”主宰的公司。这些人非常难以管理。他们讨厌被那些他们认为是“笨蛋”的经理们告知该做什么”，由此可见，arrogant“自负的”是对前文的概括，故B项为正确选项。
单选题
20.By learning from the art world, businesses can_____.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】细节题。根据题干关键词the an world，businesses定位到第七段。第七段中提到“研究艺术甚至能带来的最大回报是提升企业的创新力”，随后作者列举了两个例子：一个是现代画家通过创新避免了被相机替代的命运，另一个是J．K．罗琳在小说屡次被拒后依然坚持继续尝试。通过这两个事例，作者向我们说明了管理者可以向艺术界学习对“形成创新力”来说很重要的“坚韧性”和“适应性”。故D项为正确答案。