A young consultant"s life is tiring. A typical week starts before dawn on Monday, with a rush to the airport and a flight to wherever the client is based. A typical brain-for-hire can expect to stay in hotels at least three nights a week, texting a distant lover. " It"s quite normal to spend a year living out of a suitcase," sighs one London-based consultant. An ex-McKinseyite in New York adds that 15 to 18-hour weekdays are normal and six to eight-hour Saturdays and Sundays common. It can be draining, she admits.
So the job appeals to "
insecure over-achievers
"—a phrase widely used in the industry—"who are always worried that they haven"t done enough work," jokes a former employee of Bain & Company. Some 60—65% of consultants are recent college-leavers. Most drop out within a few years and take more settled jobs elsewhere in the business world, where their experience and contacts allow them to do better than their less-travelled counterparts.
The elite consultancies have offices in big cities, which is where ambitious young people want to live. The best-paid jobs are in places like London, New York and Shanghai. Such cities are also where the culture and dating opportunities are richest. "Everything that happens, happens in London," says Una Paulauskaite of the Young Management Consultancies Association, speaking of Britain. Other countries are less unipolar, but all have a divide between the big city and the remote areas.
Companies based outside the big cities also need " clever people doing clever stuff" , as one consultant puts it. "But" , he adds, citing a litany of dull suburban towns in which he has managed projects, " there is no way in hell I"d have taken a permanent job in one of those places. " A recent graduate working at a rival firm agrees: " I wouldn"t have considered working for a firm outside London. "
Such attitudes are frustrating for firms in Portsmouth or Peoria. But consultancies benefit from remote areas. They recruit bright young things in the metropolis and then hire out their brains to firms in the sticks. This is one reason why consultants have to travel so much.
The system works, more or less, for everyone. Firms in the provinces get to borrow talent they could not easily hire. And young consultants get to experience life in the real world before returning to the capital to party with their friends at the weekend. They have it all; except enough sleep.
单选题
McKinseyite is cited in the first paragraph to______.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】解析：从题干可以看出这是一道例证题。在做例证题的时候，我们要关注引用内容前后附近的内容，尤其是引用内容前面的内容。但我们发现四个选项都与引用内容前面的关系不大。这时我们要重点关注引用内容所在段落的主旨大意。通过首尾句“A young consultant"slife is tiring”，“It can be draining，she admits”可以了解到该段的大意：做一个年轻的顾问令人感到劳累。因此我们可以顺利选择选项[D]。选项[A]意为“证明做一个合格的年轻顾问的不可能性”，文章仅仅说该工作很累，并没说该工作不可能做好。选项[C]意为“表明年轻顾问工作时间很长”，这仅仅是一个事实，但并不能表达出引用麦肯锡的目的。选项[B]比较具有迷惑性，但“年轻顾问悲惨的生活”夸大了作者要表达的意思。综上所述，选项[D]为正确答案。
单选题
The underlined phrase "insecure over-achievers"(Para 2, Line 1)refers to______.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】解析：语义题要立足本句出处，结合邻近句子进行分析。所以该题答案原则上应该与“who are always worried that they haven"t done enough work”有关系，即与“那些总是担心自己工作做得不够的人”有关。能表达出这个意思的选项显然只有选项[C]“那些为了得到更加稳定工作而努力工作的人”。结合该段最后一句的内容“take more settled jobs”，我们更加能确定选项[C]为正确答案。选项[A]意为“那些对生活和未来缺乏安全感的人”；选项[B]意为“那些正在找工作的失业者”；选项[D]意为“那些很有经验但缺乏安全感的有钱人”。这三项都是对文章的曲解。
单选题
Which of the following is true according to Paragraph 3 ?
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】解析：选项[A]意为“年轻人想生活在大城市”，这似乎是人之常情，但跟原文“ambitiousyoung people”即“有抱负的年轻人”表达有差距。其实并不是所有年轻人都这么想。选项[B]中的only一词将表达绝对化了，必须排除。文中并没有说“高薪工作只能在大城市找到”。选项[D]“伦敦应有尽有”只是作者表达的字面意思，只是一种夸大的描述。我们在选择答案的时候一方面要考虑到忠实于原文，还要考虑到选项是否符合全文主题。综上所述，只有选项[C]“一流顾问常常在大城市工作”，与该段第一句“The elite consultancies have offices in bigcities”吻合。