单选题
Society was fascinated by science and things
scientific in the nineteenth century. Great breakthroughs in engineering, the
use of steam power, and electricity were there for all to see, enjoy, and
suffer. Science was fashionable and it is not surprising that, during this great
period of industrial development, scientific methods should be applied to the
activities of man, particularly to those involved in the processes of
production. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, international competition
began to make itself felt. The three industrial giants of the day, Germany,
America, and Great Britain, began to find that there was a limit to the
purchasing power of the previously apparently inexhaustible markets. Science and
competition therefore provided the means and the need to improve industrial
efficiency. Frederick Winslow Taylor is generally acknowledged
as being the father of the scientific management approach, as a result of the
publication of his book, The Principles of Scientific Management, published in
1911. However, numerous other academics and practitioners had been actively
applying such approaches since the beginning of the century. Charles Babbage,
and English academic, well-known for his invention of the mechanical computer
(with the aid of a government grant as long as 1820) applied himself to the
costing of processes, using scientific methods, and indeed might well be
recognized as one of the fathers of cost accounting. Taylor was
of well-to-do background and received an excellent education but, partly owing
to troubles with his eyesight, decided to become an engineering apprentice. He
spent some twenty-five years in the tough, sometimes brutal, environment of the
US steel industry and carefully studied methods of work when he eventually
attained supervisory status. He made various significant innovations in the area
of steel processing, but his claim to fame is through his application of methods
of science to methods of work, and his personal efforts that proved they could
succeed in a hostile environment. In 1901, Taylor left the
steel industry and spent the rest of his life trying to promote the principles
of managing scientifically and emphasizing the human aspects of the method, over
the slave-driving methods common in his day. He died in 1915, leaving a huge
school of followers to promote his approach worldwide.
单选题
According to the passage, what was badly needed to improve industrial
efficiency?
A. Great breakthroughs.
B. Unlimited purchasing power.
C. Science and competition.
D. International competition.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] 见第一段最后一句。
单选题
Taylor is most famous for ______.
A. his application of scientific methods to work
B. his book "The Principles of Scientific Management"
C. his various innovations in steel processing
D. the spreading of his scientific management method
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[解析] 见第二段第一句。
单选题
Charles Babbage, an English academic ______.
A. tried to use computers in production processes
B. first used computers in the area of cost accounting
C. was the father of modern computers
D. tried a scientific management approach
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 见第二段第三句。
单选题
Taylor's scientific management method was described as ______.