Text 2
It is true that CEO pay has gone up-top ones may make 300 times the pay of typical workers on average, and since the mid-1970s CEO pay for large publicly traded American corporations has, by varying estimates, gone up by about 500%. The typical CEO of a top American corporation now makes about S18.9 million a year.
The best model for understanding the growth of CEO pay is that of limited CEO talent in a world where business opportunities for the top firms are growing rapidly.The efforts of America's highest-earning 1% have been one of the more dynamicelements of the global economy. It's not popular to say, but one reason their pay has gone up so much is that CEOs really have upped their game relative to many other workers in the U.S. economy.
Today's CEO, at least for major American firms, must have many mere skills than simply being able to“run the company" CEOs must have a good sense of financial markets and maybe even how the company should trade in them. They also need better public relations skills than their predecessors, as the costs of even a minor slip up can be significant. Then there' s the fact that large American companies are much more globalized than ever before,with supply chains spread across a larger number of countries. To lead in that system requires knowledge that is farly mind-boggling plus, virtually all major American companies are beyond this major CEOs still have to do all the day-to-day work they have always done.
The common idea that high CEO pay is mainly about ripping people off doesn't explain history very well. By most measures, corporate governance has become a lot tighter and more rigorous since the 1970s. Yet it is principally during this period of stronger governance that CEO pay has been high and rising. That suggests it is in the broader corporate interest to recruit top candidates for increasingly tough jobs.” Furthermore, the highest CEO salaries are paid to outside candidates, not to the cozy insider picks, another sign that high CEO pay is not some kind of depredation at the expense of the rest of the company. And the stock market reacts positively when companies tie CEO pay to, say, stock prices, a sign that those practices build up corporate value not just for the CEO.
26. Which of the following has contributed to CEO pay rise?
[A] The growth in the number of corporations.
[B] The general pay rise with a better economy.
[C] Increased business opportunities for top firms.
[D] Close cooperation among leading economies.
27. Compared with their predecessors, today's CEOs are required to______
[A] foster a stronger sense of teamwork.
[B] finance more research and development.
[C] establish closer ties with tech companies.
[D] operate more globalized companies.
28. CEO pay has been rising since the 1970s despite______
[A] continual internal opposition.
[B] strict corporate governance.
[C] conservative business strategies.
[D] Repeated government warnings.
29. High CEO pay can be justified by the fact that it helps______
[A] confirm the status of CEOs.
[B] motivate inside candidates.
[C] boost the efficiency of CEOs.
[D] increase corporate value.
30. The most suitable title for this text would be______.
[A] CEOs Are Not Overpaid
[B] CEO Pay: Past and Present
[C] CEOs' challenges of Today
[D] CEO Traits: Not Easy to Define
【参考答案】CDBDA
Text 3
Madrid was hailed as a public health beacon last November when it rolled out ambitious restrictions on the most polluting cars. Seven months and one election day later, a new conservative city council suspended enforcement of the clean air zone, a first step toward its possible demise. Mayor Jose Luis Martinez -Almeida made opposition to the zone a centrepiece of his election campaign, despite its success in improving air quality. A judge has now overruled the city 's decision to stop levying fines, ordering them reinstated. But with legal battles ahead, the zone's future looks uncertain at best.
Among other weaknesses, the measures cities must employ when left to tackle dirty air on their own are politically contentious, and therefore vulnerable. That s because they inevitably put the costs of cleaning the air on to individual drivers 一 who must pay fees or buy better vehicles 一 rather than on to the car manufacturers whose cheating is the real cause of our toxic pollution.
It's not hard to imagine a similar reversal happening in London. The new ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) is likely to be a big issue in next year's mayoral election. And if Sadiq Khan wins and extends it to the North and South Circular roads in 2021 as he intends, it is sure to spark intense opposition from the far larger number of motorists who will then be affected. It's not that measures such as London's Ulez are useless. Far from it. Local officials are using the levers that are available to them to safeguard residents' health in the face of a serious threat. The zones do deliver some improvements to air quality, and the science tells us that means real health benefits - fewer heart attacks, strokes and premature births, less cancer, dementia and asthma. Fewer untimely deaths.
But mayors and councillors can only do so much about a problem that is far bigger than any one city or town. They are acting because national governments 一 Britain s and others across Europe - have failed to do so. Restrictions that keep highly polluting cars out of certain areas - city centres, school streets", even individual roads - are a response to the absence of a larger effort to properly enforce existing regulations and require auto companies to bring their vehicles into compliance. Wales has introduced special low speed limits to minimise pollution. We re doing everything but insist that manufacturers clean up their cars.
31. Which of the following is true about Madrid's clean air zone?
[A] Its effects are questionable
[B] It has been opposed by a judge
[C] It needs tougher enforcement
[D] Its fate is yet to be decided
32. Which is considered a weakness of the city-level measures to tackle dirty air?
[A] They are biased against car manufacturers.
[B] They prove impractical for city councils.
[C] They are deemed too mild for politicians.
[D] They put too much burden on individual motorists.
33. The author believes that the extension of London's Ulez will .
[A] arouse strong resistance.
[B] ensure Khan's electoral success.
[C] improve the city s traffic.
[D] discourage car manufacturing.
34. Who does the author think should have addressed the problem?
[A] Local residents
[B] Mayors.
[C] Councilors.
[D] National governments.
35. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that auto companies.
[A] will raise low-emission car production
[B] should be forced to follow regulations
[C] will upgrade the design of their vehicles
[D] should be put under public supervision
【参考答案】DDADB
Text4
Now that members of Generation Z are graduating college this spring, the most commonly-accepted definition says this generation was born after 1995, give or take a year-the attention has been rising steadily in recent weeks. GenZs are about to hit the streets looking for work in a labor market that's tighter than it's been in decades. And employers are planning on hiring about 17 percent more new graduates for jobs in the U.S. this year than last, according to a survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Everybody wants to know how the people who will soon inhabit those empty office cubicles will differ from those who came before them.
If "entitled" is the most common adjective, fairly or not, applied to millennials(those born between 1981 and 1995), the catchwords for Generation Z are practical and cautious. According to the career counselors and expert who study them,Generation Zs are clear-eyed, economic pragmatists. Despite graduating into the best economy in the past 50 years, Gen Zs know what an economic train wreck looks like.They were impressionable kids during the crash of 2008, when many of their parents lost their jobs or their life savings or both. They aren't interested in taking any chances. The booming economy seems to have done little to assuage this underlying generational sense of anxious urgency, especially for those who have college debt. College loan balances in the U.S. now stand at a record $1.5 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve.
One survey from Accenture found that 88 percent of graduating seniors this year chose their major with a job in mind. In a 2019 survey of University of Georgia students, meanwhile, the career office found the most desirable trait in a future employer was the ability to offer secure employment (followed by professional development and training, and then inspiring purpose). Job security or stability was the second most important career goal (work-life balance was number one), followed by a sense of being dedicated to a cause or to feel good about serving the great good.
36. Generation Zs graduating college this spring_____.
[A] are recognized for their abilities
[B] are in favor of job offers
[C] are optimistic about the labor market
[D] are drawing growing public attention
37. Generation Zs are keenly aware_____.
[A] what a tough economic situation is like
[B] what their parents expect of them
[C] how they differ from past generations
[D] I how valuable a counselors advice is
38. The word"assuage"(line 9, para 2)is closet in meaning to_____.
[A]define
[B]relieve
[C] maintain
[D] deepen
39.It can be learned from Paragraph 3 that Generation Zs_____.
[A] care little about their job performance
[B] give top priority to professional training
[C] think it hard to achieve work-Life balance
[D] have a clear idea about their future job
40 Michelsen thinks that compared with millennials, Generation Zs are_____.
[A]less realistic
[B] less adventurous
[C] more diligent
[D]more generous
【参考答案】DABDB
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