Text 4
The personal grievance provisions of New Zealand’s Employment Relations Act 2000 (ERA) prevent an employer from firing an employee without good cause. Instead, dismissals must be justified. Employers must both show cause and act in a procedurally fair way.
Personal grievance were designed to guard the jobs of ordinary workers from “unjustified dismissals”. The premise was that the common law of contract lacked sufficient safeguards for workers against arbitrary conduct by management. Long gone are the days when a boss could simply give an employee contractual notice.
But these provisions create difficulties for businesses when applied to highly paid managers and executives. As countless boards and business owners will attest, constraining firms from firing poorly performing, high-earning managers is a handbrake on boosting productivity and overall performance. The difference between C-grade and A-grade managers may very well be the difference between business success or failure. Between preserving the jobs of ordinary workers or losing them. Yet mediocrity is no longer enough to justify a dismissal.
Consequently – and paradoxically – laws introduced to protect the jobs of ordinary workers may be placing those jobs at risk.
If not placing jobs at risk, to the extent employment protection laws constrain business owners from dismissing under-performing managers, those laws act as a constraint on firm productivity and therefore on workers’ wages. Indeed, in “An International Perspective on New Zealand’s Productivity Paradox” (2014), the Productivity Commission singled out the low quality of managerial capabilities as a cause of the country’s poor productivity growth record.
Nor are highly paid managers themselves immune from the harm caused by the ERA’s unjustified dismissal procedures. Because employment protection laws make it costlier to fire an employee, employers are more cautious about hiring new staff. This makes it harder for the marginal manager to gain employment. And firms pay staff less because firms carry the burden of the employment arrangement going wrong.
Society also suffers from excessive employment protections. Stringent job dismissal regulations adversely affect productivity growth and hamper both prosperity and overall well-being.
Across the Tasman Sea, Australia deals with the unjustified dismissal paradox by excluding employees earning above a specified “high-income threshold” from the protection of its unfair dismissal laws. In New Zealand, a 2016 private members’ Bill tried to permit firms and high-income employees to contract out of the unjustified dismissal regime. However, the mechanisms proposed were unwieldy and the Bill was voted down following the change in government later that year.
36.The personal grievance provisions of the ERA are intended to
A.punish dubious corporate practices
B.improve traditional hiring procedures
C.exempt employers from certain duties
D.protect the rights of ordinary workers
37.It can be learned from paragraph 3 that the provisions may
A.hinder business development
B.undermine managers’ authority
C.affect the public image of the firms
D.worsen labor-management relations
38.Which of the following measures would be the Productivity Commission support?
A.Imposing reasonable wage restraints.
B.Enforcing employment protection laws.
C.Limiting the powers of business owners.
D.Dismissing poorly performing managers.
39.What might be an effect of ERA’s unjustified dismissal procedures?
A.Highly paid managers lose their jobs.
B.Employees suffer from salary cuts.
C.Society sees a rise in overall well-being.
D.Employers need to hire new staff.
40.It can be inferred that the “high-income threshold” in Australia
A.has secured managers’ earnings
B.has produced undesired results
C.is beneficial to business owners
D.is difficult to put into practice
阅读理解B（41-45题）
Directions:
In the following text, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41-45, choose the most suitable one from the fist A-G to fit into each of the numbered blanks. There are two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the gaps. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)
（41）Teri ByrdI was a zoo and wildlife park employee for years. Both the wildlife park and zoo claimed to be operating for the benefit of the animals and for conservation purposes. This claim was false. Neither one of them actually participated in any contributions whose bottom line is much more important than the condition of the animals.
Animals despise being captives in zoos. No matter how you “enhance” enclosures, they do not allow for freedom, a natural diet or adequate time for transparency with these institutions, and it’s past time to eliminate zoos from our culture.
(42) Karen R. Sime
As a zoology professor, I agree with Emma Marris that zoo displays can be sad and cruel. But she underestimates the educational value of zoos.
The zoology program at my university attracts students for whom zoo visits were the crucial formative experience that led them to major in biological sciences. These are mostly students who had no opportunity as children to travel to wilderness areas, wildlife refuges or national parks. Although good TV shows can help stir children’s interest in conservation, they cannot replace the excitement of a zoo visit as an intense, immersive and interactive experience. Surely there must be some middle ground that balances zoos’ treatment of animals with their educational potential.
(43) Greg Newberry
Emma Marris’s article is an insult and a disservice to the thousands of passionate who work tirelessly to improve the lives of animals and protect our planet. She uses outdated research and decades-old examples to undermine the noble mission of organization committed to connecting children to a world beyond their own.
Zoos are at the forefront of conservation and constantly evolving to improve how they care for animals and protect each species in its natural habitat. Are there tragedies? Of course. But they are the exception not the norm that Ms. Marris implies. A distressed animal in a zoo will get as good or bttter treatment than most of us at our local hospital.
(44) Dean Gallea
As a fellow environmentalist animal-protection advocate and 1ongtime vegetarian. I could properly be in the same camp as Emma Marris on the issue of zoos. But I believe that well-run zoos and the heroic animals that suffer their captivity so serve a higher purpose. Were it not for opportunities to observe these beautiful wild creatures close to home many more people would be driven by their fascination to travel to wild areas to seek out disturb and even hunt them down.
Zoos are in that sense similar to natural history and archeology museums serving to satisfy our need for contact with these living creatures while 1eaving the vast majority undisturbed in their natural environments.
(45) John Fraser
Emma Marris selectively describes and misrepresents the findings of our research. Our studies focused on the impact of z00 experiences on how people think about themselves and nature and the data points extracted from our studies.
Zoos are tools for thinking. Our research provides strong support for the value of zo0s in connecting people with animals and with nature. Zoos provide a critical voice for conservation and environmental protection. They afford an opportunity for people from all backgrounds to encounter a range of animals from drone bees to springbok or salmon to better understand the natural world we live in.
A Zoos which spare no effrt to take care of animals should not be subjected to unfair criticism.
B. To pressure zoos to spend 1ess on their animals would lead to inbumane outcomes for the precious creatures in their care.
C. While animals in captivity deserve sympathy, zo0s play a significant role in starting young people down the path of related sciences.
D. Zoos save people trips to wildemness areas and thus contribute to wildlife conservation.
E. For wild animals that cannot be returned to their natural habitats, zoos offer the best alternative.
F. Zoos should have been closed down as they prioritize money making over animals' wellbeing.
G. Marris distorts our findings which actually prove that zoos serve as an indispensable link between man and nature.
英译汉（46-50题）
46. It was also, and this is unknown even to many people well read about the period, a battle between those who made codes and those who broke them.
47.It listed many documents in code that had been captured from the French Army of Spain, and whose secrets had been revealed by the work of one George Scovell, an officer in British headquarters.
48.He could not analyze carefully what this obscure officer may not have contributed to that great struggle between nations or indeed tell us anything much about the man himself.
49. There may have been many spies and intelligence officers during the Napoleonic Wars, but it is usually extremely difficult to find the material they actually provided or worked on.
50.Just as the code-breaking has its wider relevance in the struggle for Spain, so his attempts to make his way up the promotion ladder speak volumes about British society.
46、甚至对许多了解这段时期的人来说都是未知的，一场在代码制定者和破译者之间的战争。
47、它在代码中列出了许多文件，这些文件是从西班牙法国军队手中夺取的，其中的秘密已被英国总部的一名军官乔治·斯科维尔 (George Scovell) 揭露。
48、他无法认真去分辨这位默默无闻的军官可能没有为国家之间的伟大斗争做出什么贡献，也无法告诉我们关于这个人本人的任何事情。
49、拿破仑战争期间可能有很多间谍和情报人员，但通常很难找到他们实际提供或工作的材料。
50、正如密码破解在西班牙的斗争中具有更广泛的相关性一样，他在晋升渠道上的尝试也充分展现了英国社会。
写作（51-52题）
51、Write a email to a professor at a British university, inviting him/her to organize a team for the international innovation to be held at your university .
52、两个学生站在一张校园讲座的海报前，其中一个说，不是我们专业的，听了也没多大用。另一个说，听了或许也有用。
2022年硕士研究生招生英语考试时间为2021年12月25日14：00-17：00，233考研考后及时更新真题及答案，考生们可以进行估分：
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考研英语一题型分值分布如下：
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