单选题 What do the extraordinarily successful companies have in common? To find out, we looked for correlations. We know that correlations are not always reliable; nevertheless, in the 27 survivors, our group saw four shared personality traits that could explain their longevity.
Conservatism in financing. The companies did not risk their capital gratuitously. They understood the meaning of money in an old-fashioned way; they knew the usefulness of spare cash in the kitty. Money in hand allowed them to snap up options when their competitors could not. They did not have to convince third-party financiers of the attractiveness of opportunities they wanted to pursue. Money in the kitty allowed them to govern their growth and evolution.
Sensitivity to the world around them. Whether they had built their fortunes on knowledge (such as Dupont’s technological innovations) or on natural resources (such as the Hudson's Bay Company's access to the furs of Canadian forests), the living companies in our study were able to adapt themselves to changes in the world around them. As wars, depressions, technologies, and politics surged and ebbed, they always seemed to excel at keeping their feelers out, staying attuned to whatever was going on. For information, they sometimes relied on packets carried over vast distances by portage and ship, yet they managed to react in a timely fashion to whatever news they received. They were good at learning and adapting.
Awareness of their identity. No matter how broadly diversified the companies were, their employees all felt like parts of a whole. Lord Cole, chairman of Unilever in the 1960s, for example, saw the company as a fleet of ships. Each ship was independent, but the whole fleet was greater than the sum of its parts. The feeling of belonging to an organization and identifying with its achievements is often dismissed as soft. But case histories repeatedly show that a sense of community is essential for long-term survival. Managers in the living companies we studied were chosen mostly from within, and all considered themselves to be stewards of a longstanding enterprise. Their top priority was keeping the institution at least as healthy as it had been when they took over.
Tolerance of new ideas. The long-lived companies in our study tolerated activities in the margin: experiments and eccentricities that stretched their understanding. They recognized that new businesses may be entirely unrelated to existing businesses and that the act of starting a business need not be centrally controlled. W.R. Grace, from its very beginning, encouraged autonomous experimentation. The company was founded in 1854 by an Irish immigrant in Peru and traded in guano, a natural fertilizer, before it moved into sugar and tin. Eventually, the company established Pan American Airways. Today it is primarily a chemical company, although it is also the leading provider of kidney dialysis services in the United States.
By definition, a company that survives for more than a century exists in a world it cannot hope to control. Multinational companies are similar to the long-surviving companies of our study in that way. The world of a multinational is very large and stretches across many cultures. That world is inherently less stable and more difficult to influence than a confined national habitat. Multinationals, like enduring companies, must be willing to change in order to succeed.
These four traits form the essential character of companies that have functioned successfully for hundreds of years. Given this basic personality, what priorities do the managers of living companies set for themselves and their employees?

单选题 Which of the following does not belong to conservatism in financing?
A. Money burns a hole in one's pocket.
B. Money doesn't grow on trees.
C. Money called for is money well spent.
D. Money breeds money.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】阅读文章时，标题、醒目字体等部分是特别需要关注的。此外，为本篇短文设置的多项选择题的顺序与原文的顺序是一致的。本题题干中的关键词是not和conservatism(保守主义)。根据文中的黑体段落标题(Conservatism in financing)，答案很可能在第二段。此外还可凭借逻辑推断，“信贷中的保守主义”做法必然不会“有钱就花完”(Money burns a hole in one's pocket)，而是遇事谨慎、累积资金以待时机，所以答案是A。选项B、C在文中没有提及。 D的意思太泛，因为“钱生钱”(Money breeds money)是所有投资的最终目的。
单选题 The longevity of successful companies is determined by ______.
A. knowledge on which they built their fortunes
B. easy access to natural resources from which they made money
C. their ability to learn and adapt to changes
D. information on packets carried over vast distances by portage and ship
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】第二题的答案在第三段。根据短文，选项A是某些公司的投资领域而非个性特质 (personality trait)。选项B中的easy以及选项D在第三段中没有提及。只有C符合原文的意思，成功的公司都“善于学习、善于调整应变”(They were good at learning and adapting)。
单选题 Awareness of their identity means ______.
A. knowing who they are in a community
B. knowing what role they should play in society
C. knowing that they are connected with the fortune of their company
D. knowing which positions they belong to
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】题干的主语awareness of their identity明示答案在第四段，选项A、B意思相近，比较宽泛，而选项D的意思不明确，只有C与原文贴切。
单选题 W.R. Grace is a typical long-lived company that has run the following business except ______.
A. sugar and tin
B. natural fertilizer
C. chemical products
D. air planes
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】根据题干的主语(W.R.Grace)，首先在短文中寻找包含该公司名称的段落(在第五段)，然后确定哪些选项被提及过，没有明指或提到的即是答案。第五段中有sugar and tin、a natural fertilizer和a chemical company，所以选项A、B、C不是答案，只有D符合题意。W.R.Grace公司成立了“泛美航空公司”，经营航空运输而不是飞机本身。
单选题 In what way are multinational companies similar to the long-surviving companies studied?
A. keeping central control
B. willing to change
C. saving money in an old-fashioned way
D. choosing managers from within the company
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】答案在第六段：多国公司和老牌公司一样，要想成功，必须愿意变化(willing to change)。选项A、C、D在原文中均未提到。