单选题 One of the many pleasures of watching Mad Men , a television drama about the advertising industry in the early 1960s, is examining the ways in which office life has changed over the years. One obvious change makes people feel good about themselves: they no longer treat women as second-class citizens. But the other obvious change makes them feel a bit more uneasy : they have lost the art of enjoying themselves at work.
The ad-men in those days enjoyed simple pleasures. They puffed away at their desks. They drank throughout the day. They had affairs with their colleagues. They socialised not in order to bond , but in order to get drunk. Nowadays many companies are obsessed with fun. Software firms in Silicon Valley have installed rock-climbing walls in their reception areas and put inflatable animals in their offices. Wal-Mart orders its cashiers to smile at all and sundry. The cult of fun has spread like some disgusting haemorrhagic disease.
This cult of fun is driven by three of the most popular management fads of the moment: empowerment, engagement and creativity. Many companies pride themselves on devolving power to front-line workers. But surveys show that only 20% of workers are" fully engaged with their job ". Even fewer are creative. Managers hope that " fun" will magically make workers more engaged and creative. But the problem is that as soon as fun becomes part of a corporate strategy it ceases to be fun and becomes its opposite—at best an empty shell and at worst a tiresome imposition.
The most unpleasant thing about the fashion for fun is that it is mixed with a large dose of pressure. Boston Pizza encourages workers to send" golden bananas" to colleagues who are "having fun while being the best". Behind the" fun" there often lurks some crude management thinking: a desire to brand the company as better than its rivals, or a plan to boost productivity through team-building. Twitter even boasts that it has" worked hard to create an environment that spawns productivity and happiness".
While imposing fake fun on their employees, companies are battling against the real thing. Many force smokers to huddle outside like furtive criminals. Few allow their employees to drink at lunch time, let alone earlier in the day. A regiment of busybodies— from lawyers to human resources functionaries—is waging war on office romance, particularly between people of different ranks.
The merchants of fake fun have met some resistance. When Wal-Mart tried to impose alien rules on its German staff—such as compulsory smiling and a ban on affairs with coworkers—it touched off a guerrilla war that ended only when the supermarket chain announced it was pulling out of Germany in 2006. But such victories are rare. For most wage slaves forced to pretend they are having fun at work, the only relief is to poke fun at their tormentors . Mad Men reminds people of a world they have lost—a world where bosses did not tbink that"fun" was a management tool and where employees could happily quaff Scotch at noon. Cheers to that.
单选题 In the opening paragraph, the author introduces his topic by _____.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】写作方法题
[解析] 本题就引入主题的方式提问。第一段首先引入了电视剧《广告达人》的例子：观赏《广告达人》的众多乐趣之一就是能够看到自从20世纪60年代以来办公室发生的一些变化，有好的变化也有坏的变化。本文要讨论的是一个不太好的变化，就是办公室里快乐的艺术已经消失了。第二段通过列举20世纪60年代的快乐和现在办公室里的一些娱乐项目，想要达到的目的是对比。过去的快乐单纯，现在的快乐不再是自发的而是人为制造出来的。由此判断[D]正确。[B]错误，文中并没有先提出一种假设，然后证明这一假设。[C]迷惑性较强，posing an argument，意思是提出一种争论，但是本文开头并没有提出争论，只是将两个年代进行了对比。[A]选项，开篇只是提出了一个话题，还没有解释说明，因此错误。
单选题 Which of the following statements can Not be inferred from paragraphs 3 and 4?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】推理引申题
[解析] 第三段和第四段是文章的主体，作者剖析了“快乐崇拜”背后的深意，揭示了员工快乐不起来的原因。其中说理论证，引用论证非常多，很适合考查推理引申题。[A]来自于原文第四段的一句话a desire to brand the company as better than its rivals，各个公司绞尽脑汁想出“快乐”的方法，“快乐”也已经成了企业在竞争中成功的砝码。[B]揭示了公司想出的快乐方法却不能让员工快乐的原因，就是快乐本身不是公司追求的目的，而是实现企业战略目标的手段。[C]提到了第三段里几个关键词，empowerment，engagement，creativity。原文说这是时下最流行的管理理念，但是在公司内部施行的效果却并不理想。但是我们不能够就此推断这些理念是空洞的，无用的。[C]夸大其词。根据[D]的关键词Twitter锁定第四段最后一句话。第四段提到公司通过强化团队建设从而达到提高生产力的目的。引用了Twitter公司的一段话，他们认为自己的公司创造出了一种良好的气氛，这种气氛既有利于员工培养快乐情绪，又有利于提升企业生产率。虽然说话的重点应该是在生产率，而不在员工的幸福感，但是就字面意思上说[D]仍是正确的。
单选题 By citing Wal-mart"s example, the author intends to ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】作者意图题
[解析] 作者最后一段主要论述了员工对于企业快乐战略的态度。沃尔玛的例子反映了德国人对于普遍存在的快乐崇拜的管理模式的抗争，他们取得了最终的胜利。但是文中接着讲这种胜利非常罕见。大多数情况下心怀不满的员工只能拿开老板玩笑来解解气。由此可见作者之所以提到沃尔玛这个例子，他的目的是想要凸显出与快乐抗争成功的案例少之又少，从而侧面反映这种企业管理文化强大的渗透力和对员工的迫害。[C]正确。[A]选项，虽然沃尔玛退出德国市场的例子反映了跨国公司可能遇到的文化冲击，但这并不是本文的重点。[B]选项，文中作者只是揭示了企业管理中的一种现象，表达了对这种现象的不满，从头至尾都没有表露出要员工与老板抗争的意思，属过度引申，是对于作者意图的臆猜。[D]无中生有，偏离主题。
单选题 The restriction on smoking and drinking reflects company"s ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】推理引申题
[解析] 文中多次出现在办公室抽烟喝酒的问题。第二段作者以羡慕的口吻写道：20世纪60年代的广告达人们能够随心所欲地在办公桌前抽烟，可以不分时候不管场合把酒言欢。第五段是与第二段的对比，现在的企业在强加给员工快乐的同时，却不允许员工享受很多他们心目中真正的乐趣，不允许在办公室吸烟喝酒，甚至不允许发生办公室恋情。前后对比，不难看出企业这种南辕北辙的做法是因为他们不了解真正能给员工带来快乐的是什么，只是一味地从自身的利益出发。因此[B]正确。[A]言行不一致，文中公司口头上表达的意思是希望员工能够幸福，同样也做了很多自以为能够给员工带来幸福的事情，因此并不存在言行不一致的问题。文中并未将员工幸福和人权画等号，因此违反了基本人权，无从谈起。[C]错误。第四段讨论的出发点并不是想要追责公司管理制度上的问题，而是想要和第三段结合起来反映公司在对“快乐”一词的理解上存在的偏差，因此[D]偏离了第四段讨论的主题。
单选题 It can be inferred from the text that ad-men in 1960s are more happy than office workers today mainly because ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】推理引申题
[解析] 这一道推理引申题牵涉对全文主旨内容的理解。开篇即提出了20世纪60年代的广告达人们比现在的员工快乐，核心的原因应该是他们能够享受简单而又自发的快乐。[A]正确，要注意这里更强调“自发”这个词，与“强制”相对。[B]设置了干扰词，empower，这个词在文中第三段第一句中就提到过。20世纪60年代的广告人确实有权做很多现在的员工不能做的事情，比如在办公室抽烟，在午餐时间喝酒，但是“被赋权做出个人的选择”这一描述过于笼统，现在的员工也可能拥有很多20世纪60年代的广告人没有享受的权利。[C]中出现了干扰词“创造力”和“生产力”，这些词在第三段和第四段都提到过，这两段都暗示了“快乐崇拜”的企业理念背后是管理者希望提高生产力的愿望，虽然现在的员工确实因为意识到了这一点而变得不那么快乐，但是反过来说60年代的人更快乐是因为他们没有被迫去提高创造力和生产力，这种说法并不能成立。[D]设置干扰词poke fun at their boss，在最后一段，原文说现在的员工只能通过开开老板玩笑来抒发心中的郁闷，并不是指60年代的广告人，因此这里是偷梁换柱。