单选题ThepriceofinternationalcallsintoAmericais______.

单选题Success of New Rail Links in Europe The Eurostar company is now running frequent train services using the tunnel built beneath the sea between Britain and France. Millions of passengers have already travelled on Eurostar trains and there are now twenty services a day between London and Paris and nine between London and Brussels. Eurostar has already won 40% of all passengers from the UK to Paris and Brussels but further growth will depend on the business market. The early morning departure to Paris is proving popular, especially for business people from London who need to do a full day's work in the French capital. However. exactly how many of Eurostar's passengers are business travellers is unknown. While first-class accommodation has been 70% fill, many of these passengers are travelling on holiday: one travel agent estimates Eurostar has only 20% of the business travel market. Meanwhile, tour operators report a sharp rise in the sale of short trips to Paris. which, they claim, is largely due to the possibility of travelling by Eurostar. As Eurostar increases the frequency of daily journeys over the next year. it will need more business travellers than ever to fill its trains. However, business travel agents feel that some aspects of Eurostar service could be improved. According to one large business travel agent. "Eurostar's marketing has been poor and it needs to look more closely at doing commercial deals with large travel agents and corporations to become more attractive than airlines". British travel agents alone are now spending over ￡1 million a month with Eurostar. Naturally, they are expecting Eurostar to provide some good deals and flexible tickets. Eurostar is hoping to attract more customers as it expands its network of services. Already, train journeys between London and Paris stop at a few towns and cities enroute. There will also be daytime and overnight services front eighteen other British cities to Paris and Brussels, and planning is in progress for services from London to cities in Holland and Germany. Soon, many major towns and cities in Britain and other European countries will have regular direct connections within Eurostar's network. The demand for Eurostar is forcing airlines to use smaller planes on the London-Paris and London-Brussels service, two of the busiest air routes in the world. One British airline reports a 15% decline in ticket sales to both Paris and Brussels. The crucial marketing aspect in business travel is frequency, Rather than cut frequency, airlines have reduced the size of their aircraft to prevent further losses. However, the large airlines will find it easier to maintain their flight schedules by introducing lower capacity planes. Eurostar threatens mainly the smaller airlines, which already have fewer services and smaller planes.

单选题Why We Believe in the Euro Nearly all major European companies are in favor of the single currency. But having recently agreed on a historic, transatlantic merger with Chrysler Corp. of the United States, we feel especially attuned to the forces of global competition that make the euro so essential. For our new company, Daimler Chrysler AG, and for Germany and Europe as a whole, economic and monetary union will bring substantial and lasting benefits as we take our place in the interdependent world of the 21st century. Those benefits will take shape, indeed, are already occurring, in several realms at once. First and most fundamental is the political. The single currency will push the countries of Europe into cooperating more and more in seeking solutions to common economic problems. As they do so, they'll grow increasingly intertwined politically. At the same time, the euro will unleash powerful market forces certain to transform the way Europeans live and work. The years ahead will bring increased efficiency, greater productivity, higher overall living standards and lower unemployment. For businesses, a common currency will reduce transaction costs—eliminating, among other things, the unnecessary waste of resources involved in dealing with several European currencies. At present, doing business across borders means having to buy and sell foreign currencies and taking the risk that sudden changes in their relative value could upend an otherwise sound business strategy. The risks can be hedged, of course, but only at a cost that must ultimately be borne by customers. The market forces unleashed by the euro will be felt not just by corporate managers but also by political leaders. Business executives are already working to rationalize their companies, enhance productivity and improve labor flexibility. Elected officials, facing competition as they try to attract the investments that create jobs, will eventually lower corporate tax rates land streamline regulation. In so doing, governments will give corporations a boost, like the reduction in the cost of capital that came about as countries tightened their fiscal and monetary policies in preparation for EMU. These changes are mutually reinforcing. And as they take hold, Euroland companies will row more confident about committing resources to long-term projects. A look at the level of corporate mergers in recent years shows that managers have already stepped up making their strategic decision. Euroland will be a strong base for companies striving to compete globally. Euroland already trades with the rest of the world as much as the United States does, and the picture will change in favor of Europe as soon as the United Kingdom, and others who have stayed out of the first wave, join the currency union. Such a development—the sooner the better is something we would very much welcome. Launching the new euro is one thing; successfully managing the EMU process in the years ahead is quite another. Implementation poses major challenges. Some will be technical; others will have to do with maintaining a unity of purpose among a diverse group of nations, regions, peoples and cultures. I believe, however, that Europe possesses the unshakable political will and financial expertise needed to keep this endeavor on track.

单选题·Read the advertisement below.·Choose the best word or phrase to fill each gap from A, B, C, or D on the opposite page.·For each question 19--33, mark one letter (A, B, C, or D) on your Answer Sheet. {{B}}Advertisement{{/B}}Too much to read! It's impossible to find time to read today's top business books--and thousands are published each year. Yet not keeping up with those books could be a serious and {{U}}(19) {{/U}} mistake. Often the ideas and insights they contain are {{U}}(20) {{/U}} nowhere else. But how can you even know which {{U}}(21) {{/U}} are worthwhile--let alone find time to read them?Fortunately, there's a {{U}}(22) {{/U}} -- Soundview Executive Book Summaries. It really works. In fact, it's guaranteed to {{U}}(23) {{/U}}. It is ingenious and essential. Every month, you receive two or three quick-reading, time-saving summaries of the best new business books. Each {{U}}(24) {{/U}} all the key points in the original book. The big {{U}}(25) {{/U}} instead of 200 to 500 pages, the summary is only several pages. Instead of taking five, ten or more hours to read, it {{U}}(26) {{/U}} just 15 minutes.Of the thousands of business books published {{U}}(27) {{/U}} only a {{U}}(28) {{/U}} are really worth reading. To save your time, our Editorial Board goes {{U}}(29) {{/U}} them all eliminating 90%. Our {{U}}(30) {{/U}} are high, and the criteria rigorous.When a book meets all our {{U}}(31) {{/U}}, we prepare a summary, instead of a review or a digest. You get a skillful distillation that {{U}}(32) {{/U}} the content and spirit of the entire books. The titles cover every subject of {{U}}(33) {{/U}} to business people today. There's nothing else like Soundview Executive Book Summaries.

单选题WhatwasJoanna'sopinionofthefirm'sslogan,"H&Gisyourguarantee"?

单选题A The difference between being a manager and being a leader is simple. Management is a career. Leadership is a calling. You don''t have to be tall, well-spoken and good looking to be a successful leader. You don''t have to have that "special something" to fulfill the leadership role. B What you have to have is clearly defined convictions—and, more importantly, the courage of your convictions to see them manifest into reality. Only when you understand your role as guide and steward based on your own most deeply held truths can you move from manager to leader. C Whether the group you oversee is called employees, associates, co-workers, teammates or anything else, what they are looking for is someone in whom they can place their trust. Someone they know is working for the greater good—for them and for the organization. They''re looking for someone not only that they can—but that they want to—follow. D Because it is only when you have followers—people who have placed their trust in you—that you know you have moved into that leadership role. And the way you see it is that your organization is transcending all previous quality, productivity, innovation and revenue achievements. You''re operating at such a high level of efficiency that you''re giving budget back to the corporation—and you''re still beating your goals. 0. The move from a manager to a leader. (D)

单选题 Business and Social Responsibility Today more and more people believe that business should play an active role in improving society and solving social problems. For example, we expect that businesses will take care not to pollute the air we breathe or the water we drink. We also expect them to offer fair wages and employee benefits and to provide a satisfactory product or service at a reasonable price. Many companies recognize this and have stated publicly that they will act as a good citizen. They support local arts, build parks, raise funds for charities, and try to put back some of their profits into the community that has made their success possible. A good reason for businesses to be socially responsible is that society gives business organizations the right to exist. A social setting or environment, with its laws, customs, and other social and cultural norms, allows businesses to form and function. It is only right for businesses to participate in making the community in which they operate a better place. To be socially responsible also benefits businesses. In many cases, a company will make greater profits in the long run if it considers benefits to society. Customers actually vote for products and companies when they make a purchase. If a product is of good quality and priced fairly, they will probably buy it more than once. But when customers find out that a manufacturer produces only inferior or shoddy products that cheat them out of their money, they may become so angry that they will never purchase another of their products. Consumers may also shun firms that pollute the environment or engage in unethical practices by not buying their products. When enough people believe a business no longer serves society's best interests, they may pressure the firm into its doom by boycotting its goods or services, influencing officials against it, condemning it in the media, or patronizing other firms. A business whose goal is to maximize profits is not likely to act out of a sense of social responsibility although its activity will probably be legal. Only businesses that are concerned about society as well as about maintaining profitability are likely to invest voluntarily in socially responsible activities. For example, the former president of Pizza Hut, Orr Gunther, implemented a program called "Book-it." This program rewarded children with a free pizza for reading a certain number of books. Such a business may win the trust and respect of its customers andin the long run increase profits. To be successful, a business must determine what customers and society want or expect in terms of social responsibility. Although .social responsibility may seem an abstract idea, managers consider it on a daily basis as they deal with real issues. A business must monitor changes and needs in society in order to behave in a .socially responsible way.

单选题Read the magazine article below about Andy Seymour, the Chief Executive of a chain of book stores called Bookroom, and the questions on the opposite page. For each question(13-18), mark one letter(A, B, C or D)on your Answer Sheet. CHALLENGING TIMES AT BOOKROOMBookroom isn't a very successful company at the moment. It's heavily in debt, and it's rumoured that its owner, P&K, wouldn't turn down a suitable offer. Even its own store managers are said to be unhappy - those who haven't left, that is. A recent change in strategy is proving too much for many of them: they've been told to concentrate on giving more space to a limited number of bestsellers, advertised nationally by the company, and not to titles which sit on the shelves for weeks.The challenge of taking Bookroom back into profit falls to the Chief Executive, Andy Seymour, who was moved a year ago from P&K's music chain, MusicWorld, with an impressive record of efficiency improvements. He increased the floor space of the more successful MusicWorld stores and closed down the loss-making ones. New computer systems gave him better stock control, and allowed him to produce up-to-date charts of the top CDs for display in the stores, with a positive impact on turnover and profits. In addition, he negotiated a pay and productivity deal with the employees. All in all, it was a period which saw the chain reach its peak.Seymour, though, doesn't take any credit for MusicWorld's success. 'Even before I became Chief Executive, all the stores were run by top quality people doing everything they could, at a time when the public weren't spending much on leisure,' he says. 'They all stayed on, and that was the decisive factor. The only things I did were to change the advertising agency - they weren't keeping up with developments in the music industry - and make some minor innovations in the stores. Customers were coming into the shops, and it was up to us to make the most of this.'Luck had been against him in his previous job, though, as operations director of Clarkson's, the do-it-yourself retailer which P&K had just acquired. Soon after his move to the company, there was a recession, which meant that the market for home improvement products collapsed. Seymour was involved in endless consultations with the board, discussing ways to turn the company round. They were in a high-risk situation and, despite his efforts, Clarkson's lost millions. But even when things were at their worst, Seymour didn't resign, as most would have done, and he was highly thought of for that.He has a reasonable track record, certainly, but some would say not brilliant. And will he succeed at Bookroom? His first year has been disappointing, but there are signs of improvement. He's continued the strategy of opening new shops, and although many store managers have gone, their replacements have been picked carefully. He's also done something about one of the main reasons for the present difficulties, reducing targets to allow for the fact that the book market is still flat.Seymour is an experienced retail manager. At MusicWorld he proved himself a good manager of people with a particular gift for motivating his staff. But he's also strong on detail, and has already improved Bookroom's financial control. It looks as though his strategy will pay off in the long term. The only thing you could blame him for is not being strong enough in opposing all the negative talk about Bookroom, because that is what is damaging the company. And unless Seymour does something about that, he may find himself looking for a new job.

单选题The passage most probably is ______.

单选题The phrase "live up to" in Line 4, Paragraph 2 can be replaced by ______.

单选题·Read the article below about Smithson's, a British department store, and the questions on the opposite page.·For each question 13-18, mark one letter(A, B, C or D)on your Answer Sheet for the answer you choose. {{B}}Department Store Magic{{/B}}For most of the 20th century Smithson's was one of Britain's most successful department stores, but by the mid-1990s, it had become dull. Still profitable, thanks largely to a series of successful advertising campaigns, but decidedly boring. The famous were careful not to be seen there, and its sales staff didn't seem to have changed since the store opened in 1908. Worst of all, its customers were buying fewer and fewer of its own brand products, the major part of its business, and showing a preference for more fashionable brands.But now all the has changed, thanks to Rowena Baker, who became Smithson's first woman Chief Executive three years ago. Since then, while most major retailers in Britain have been losing money, Smithson's profits have been rising steadily. When Baker started, a lot of improvements had just been make to the building, without having any effect on sales, and she took the bold decision to invite one of Europe's most exciting interior designers to develop the fashion area, the heart of the store. This very quickly led to rising sales, even before the goods on display were changed. And as sales grew, so did profits.Baker had ambitious plans for the store from the start, 'We're playing a big game, to prove we're up there with the leaders in our sector, and we have to make sure people get that message. Smithson's had fallen behind the competition. It provide a traditional service targeted at middle-aged, middle-income customers, who'd been shopping there for years, and the customer base was gradually contracting. Our idea is to sell such an exciting variety of goods that everyone will want to come in, whether they plan to spend a little or a lot. 'Baker's vision for the store is clear, but achieving it is far from simple. At first, many employees resisted her improvements because they just wouldn't be persuaded that there was anything wrong with the way they'd always done things, even if they accepted that the store had to overtake its competitors. It took many long meetings, involving the entire workforce, to win their support. It helped when they realised that Baker was a very different kind of manager from the ones they had known.Baker's staff policies contained more surprises. The uniform that had hardly changed since day one has now disappeared. Moreover, teenagers now get young shop assistants, and staff in the sports departments are themselves sports fans in trainers. As Baker explains, 'How can you see jeans if you're wearing a black suit? Smithson's has a new identity, and this needs to be made clear to the customers. 'She's also given every sales assistant responsibility for ensuring customer satisfaction, even if it means occasionally breaking company rules in the hope company profits.Rowena Baker is proving successful, but the City's big investors haven't been persuaded. According to retail analyst, John Matthews, 'Money had already been invested in refurbishment of the store and in fact that led to the boost in sales. She took the credit, but hadn't done anything to achieve it. And in my view the company's shareholders are not convinced. The fact is that unless she opens several more stores pretty soon, Smithson's profits will start to fall because turnover at the existing store will inevitably start to decline.'

单选题·Read the article about managing a small business and the questions below.·For each question 13—18,mark one letter (A, B, C or D)on your Answer Sheet, for the answer you choose. {{B}}The Hardships of Operating A Small Business{{/B}}'The organisational weaknesses that entrepreneurs have to cope with every day would cause the managers of a mature company to panic,' Bill Wilson wrote recently in Times. This seems to suggest that the leaders of entrepreneurial or small businesses must be unlike other managers, or the problems faced by such leaders must be the subject of a specialised body of wisdom, or possibly both, Unfortunately, neither is true. Not much worth reading about managing the entrepreneurial or small business has been written, and the leaders of such businesses are made of flesh and blood, like the rest of us.Furthermore, little has been done to address the aspects of entrepreneurial or small businesses that are so difficult to deal with and so different from the challenges faced by management in big business. In part this is because those involved in gathering expertise about business and in selling advice to businesses have historically been more interested in the needs of big business. In part, in the UK at least, it is also because small businesses have always preferred to adapt to changing circumstances.The organisational problems of entrepreneurial or small businesses are thus forced upon the individuals who lead them. Even more so than for bigger businesses, the old saying is true—that people, particularly those who make the important decisions, are a business's most important asset. The research that does exist shows that neither money nor the ability to access more of it is the major factor determining growth. The main reason an entrepreneurial business stops growing is the lack of management and leadership resource available to the business when it matters. Give an entrepreneur an experienced, skilled team and he or she will find the funds every time. Getting the team, though, is the difficult bit.Part of the problem for entrepreneurs is the speed of change that affects their businesses. They have to cope with continuous change yet have always been suspicious about the latest 'management solution'. They regard the many offerings from business schools as out of date even before they leave the planning board and have little faith in the recommendations of consultants when they arrive in the hands of young, inexperienced graduates. But such impatience with 'management solutions' does not mean that problems can be left to solve themselves. However, the leaders of growing businesses are still left with the problem of who to turn to for advice.The answer is horribly simple: leaders of small businesses can ask each other. The collective knowledge of a group of leaders can prove enormously helpful in solving the specific problems of individuals. One leader's problems have certainly been solved already by someone else. These is an organisation called ZERO which enables those responsible for small businesses to meet. Its members, all of whom are chief executives, go through a demanding selection process, and then join a small group of other chief executives. They come from a range of business sectors and each offers a different corporate history. Each group is led by a 'moderator', an independently selected businessman or woman who has been specially trained to head the group. Each member takes it in turn to host a meeting at his or her business premises and, most important of all, group discussions are kept strictly confidential. This spurs a free sharing of problems and increases the possibility of solutions being unveiled.

单选题· Read the article below about teams and management and the questions on the opposite page.· For each question 13-18, mark one letter (A, B, C or D) on your Answer Sheet for the answer you choose. {{B}} Creative teams and management{{/B}} When Colgate launched its then revolutionary Colgate Gum Protection toothpaste in 1990, company executives were confident they had a hit on their hands. The toothpaste incorporated a groundbreaking antibacterial technology they thought was the biggest innovation since fluoride. But in the mouths after the toothpaste's six-country rollout, the product's market share reached a meager 1% -- one fifth of the company's projections. What went wrong? A new round of market research found that the original launch strategy mural the "breakthrough" message, the ads positioned the new toothpaste as a line extension instead of a revolutionary advance, and the public just didn't buy the product's broad claims. Up to this point, Colgate's president, Bill Shanahan, had attended only quarterly review meetings, now he rolled up his sleeves to rescue the product, establishing a worldwide marketing team and meeting regularly with global business vice president Kathleen Thornhill and CEO Reuben Mark to follow the team's progress. Shanahan and others at the very top sifted through the research and took pat in the advertising development meetings, working elbow to elbow with the marketing team. Renamed Colgate Total, and promoted with a retooled ad campaign that stressed the toothpaste's 12-hour protection, the product was a hit in most of the 103 countries outside the United States. Shanahan continued to lavish personal attention on the product, putting Colgate Total under the direct supervision of Jack Haber, then worldwide director of consumer oral care products, and committing $35 million and a team of 200 employees to the project. With that kind of senior-level backing, Haber pulled out the stops, spending $20 million to promote Colgate Total to U.S. dentists alone. Within two months of its domestic launch in 1997, the product captured 10.5% of the U.S. toothpaste market and within six months muscled perennial champ, Procter & Gamble's Crest, out of first place. Colgate Total has remained number one ever since. What transforms a good product idea like Colgate Total into a blockbuster? We spent ten years studying more than 700 new product development teams and interviewed over 4130 project leaders, team members, senior executives, and CEOs intimately involved in product development and launch. Of the hundreds of teams we studied, just 7% of them -- 49 in all -- created products that scored a perfect ten on our measure of blockbuster success. To achieve that score, products had to reach or exceed company goals, customer expectations, profit and sales targets, garner company and industry awards, and attract national attention. Products don't become blockbusters without the intense, personal involvement of senior management usually a CEO or division head. In every case studied, top management played an intimate, active, often daily role. This approach has been out of favor for decades, creative teams, the thinking goes, should be empowered by management and then left alone. Too much attention stifles innovation. To that we say "Baloney." Our work shows that, in the best case, management involvement should stat on day one. Ideally, senior managers work closely with the product team to establish must-have features and then help clear a path for the team. Top managers control resources, and they have the authority to allow the team to break rules and cut through red tape. And, crucially, senior managers serve as cheerleaders and visionaries, broadcasting a message of organizational commitment that attracts buy-in at all levels of the company.

单选题The Financial Crisis: The World at War No one could have imagined that Japan, the second largest economy in the world, would contract at a rate of nearly 13% on an annualized basis or that Korea's economic output could drop 20%. In the U.S., the GDP is shrinking at a rate of 6% now, but there is nothing in the economic or employment news that keeps us from believing that America will avoid a double-digit drop in GDP. If the U.S. skids at that rate, the other large economies in the world, all of which depend on the American consumer to some great degree, will have the hulls of their exports breached below the water line. One of the reasons that the drop in economic activity has accelerated is that there is no mechanism in place to cope with a failure of this magnitude. The world in which The Great Depression played itself out predated the globalization of credit and economic interdependence. Even the worst of the large post-war recessions rarely lasted more than a year. Even at their most inventive, government policy systems are incapable of operating in an environment where the pace of negative change quickens by the week. The largest issue between now and whenever the cataclysm ends is whether the major economic powers develop more intimate relationships or are driven to isolation in order to defend their economies through protectionism. This development would reach an epic level if nations such as China began to hold capital in their country and slow their purchase of U.S. debt. That would begin a lethal exchange between the greatest exporting and importing nations of the world, with America blocking the inflow of Chinese goods and China flailing back by throttling its appetite for Treasuries. Without the ability to borrow money at reasonable rates any hope of continuing to stimulate the U.S. economy would flag and China's manufacturing machine would lose its largest market. The most valuable treasure that will be lost is the fundamental economic transition from one generation to the next. In developed nations, the old will no longer have the means to retire, the middle-aged will face joblessness and an obliteration of the standard of living to which they believed they were entitled since they were very young, and the young may have to fight for a small number of jobs most of which pay little more than a fraction of what their parents made in 2004, 2005, and 2006. In the underdeveloped world the misery's fallout will be incomprehensible. Whatever social services and generosity that has come from the more wealthy nations will dry up along with the financial capacity that has created a history for large scale compassion. A hoarding of natural resources, especially those that are agriculturally based, will cause the cost of humanitarian aid to become unaffordable, especially when there is so little capital for charity efforts because of ruined economies. In places like East Africa, where millions of people look into the face of starvation every year, the misery could be apocalyptic. It is almost a betrayal to paint such a dark picture of the failure of the American financial system which has carried the nation through sixty years of prosperity. That system is now fractured mid-axle. It may take a lifetime or more for historians to sort out its causes, and the federal government feels the need to sift through that sand in the name of justice. When blame can be defined it will be too late to bring back the world we knew.