If you ask 20 random graduates to explain why they went to business school, a large majority will list networking as one of the top reasons. Makes sense, too, since the connections one makes in business school can be useful down the road in finding jobs and excelling at them. Which is why it's all the more curious that if you comb through the course curriculum of 20 random business schools, you'd be hard-pressed to turn up more than a handful that actually teach their students how to network. An article by David Kahn, chief revenue officer at the Wall Street Journal Office Network, complained the fact that most businesses do a poor job teaching their employees how to network, especially those workers who are not directly connected to obvious revenue-generation functions.By any name—"networking", "relationship capital", "social capital"—the sum and substance of one's connections and networks has value far beyond job searches. They are essential to all sorts of organizational priorities—not only sales, but also recruiting, lobbying and various types of "sourcing", from partnerships to acquisition targets to industry experts. A few business schools take networking seriously—most notably the University of Michigan's Stephen M. Ross School, where a growing number of academic professors have started to research social networks from a variety of angles. But most business schools and pretty much all undergraduate institutions ignore networking as a discipline entirely or give it passing attention in modules embedded (嵌入) in broader leadership or management sections. Why? For two primary reasons. First, the idea of trading on one's personal relationships for professional gain continues to strike some academics as unseemly. Networking still has something of a bad reputation to some. Second, even those who understand and value relationship capital's role in commerce often think of it as a collections of so-called soft skills, with which some small percentage of fortunate folks were born and the rest of humankind can only admire. But while there's truth in the first notion, the second is just plain wrong. Networking, Kahn says is a learnable skill.
单选题 Why is networking listed as one of the top reasons of going to business school?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】解析:题干所述与第1段第1句的内容相符,第2句since引导的原因状语从句则表明原因,该句提到,商学院中建立的人际关系有利于以后的求职与晋升,B中的career development“职业发展”是对原文finding jobsand excelling at them的概括,故为答案。
单选题 What can we learn from David Kahn's article?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】解析:该段提到,David Kahn在他的文章中抱怨这样一个事实:大部分企业在教员工建立人际关系网方面都做得很糟糕,A中的A majority of与文中的most同义,bad at teaching则与do a poor job teaching同义,故确定A为本题答案。
单选题 What does the author say about one's connections and networks?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】解析:第3段第2句首的They指代one’s connections and networks,该句指出,一个人的关系群及人际网对各种组织优先考虑事项也意义非凡,B“对组织很多重要方面至关重要”中的of vital importance与原文的essential同义,故为本题答案。
单选题 Why do most business schools ignore networking as a discipline?
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】解析:第4段最后一句提到,大部分的商学院都忽略建立人际关系,不把它当作一门学科,最后一段解释了原因,其中第一个原因就是利用个人关系获得职业收益的想法被认为是不体面的,建立关系网仍有点身负恶名,D中的not justified“没有正当理由的”与文中的unseemly“不体面的”意思相近,故为答案。
单选题 What does Kahn say about the skill of networking?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】解析:该段提到,有人认为networking是一种软技能的集合(a collections of...soft skills),是天生的,而最后一句则指出Kahn认为networking是一种“可习得的技能”(learnable skill),故C“该技能可通过学习来获得并提高”符合文意。