A child who has once been pleased with a tale likes, as a rule, to have it retold in almost the same words, but this should not lead parents to treat printed fairy stories as formal texts. It is always much better to tell a story than read it out of a book, and, if a parent can produce what, in the actual situation of the time and the child, is an improvement on the printed text, so much the better.
A charge made against fairy tales is that they harm the child by frightening him or making him sad thinking. To prove the latter, one would have to show in a controlled experiment that children who have read fairy stories were more often sorry for cruelty than those who had not. As to fears, there are, I think, some cases of children being dangerously terrified by some fairy story. Often, however, this arises from the child having heard the story once. Familiarity with the story by repetition turns the pain of fear into the pleasure of a fear faced and mastered.There are also people who object to fairy stories on the grounds that they are not objectively true, that giants, witches, two-headed dragons, magic carpets, etc. do not exist; and that, instead of being fond of the strange side in fairy tales, the child should be taught to learn the reality by studying history. I find such people, I must say so peculiar that I do not know how to argue with them. If their case were sound, the world should be full of mad men attempting to fly from New York to Philadelphia on a stick or covering a telephone with kisses in the belief that it was their beloved girl-friend. No fairy story ever declared to be a description of the real world and no clever child has ever believed that it was.
A:fairy stories are still being made up B:there is some misunderstanding about fairy tales C:people try to modernize old fairy stories D:there is more concern for children’s fears nowadays
A child who has once been pleased with a tale likes, as a rule, to have it retold in almost the same words, but this should not lead parents to treat printed fairy stories as formal texts. It is always much better to tell a story than read it out of a book, and, if a parent can produce what, in the actual situation of the time and the child, is an improvement on the printed text, so much the better.
A charge made against fairy tales is that they harm the child by frightening him or making him sad thinking. To prove the latter, one would have to show in a controlled experiment that children who have read fairy stories were more often sorry for cruelty than those who had not. As to fears, there are, I think, some cases of children being dangerously terrified by some fairy story. Often, however, this arises from the child having heard the story once. Familiarity with the story by repetition turns the pain of fear into the pleasure of a fear faced and mastered.There are also people who object to fairy stories on the grounds that they are not objectively true, that giants, witches, two-headed dragons, magic carpets, etc. do not exist; and that, instead of being fond of the strange side in fairy tales, the child should be taught to learn the reality by studying history. I find such people, I must say so peculiar that I do not know how to argue with them. If their case were sound, the world should be full of mad men attempting to fly from New York to Philadelphia on a stick or covering a telephone with kisses in the belief that it was their beloved girl-friend. No fairy story ever declared to be a description of the real world and no clever child has ever believed that it was.
A:fairy stories are still being made up B:there is some misunderstanding about fairy tales C:people try to modernize old fairy stories D:there is more concern for children’s fears nowadays
Yamato, the ancient name of Japan, essentially means "big harmony". To achieve such balance, Japanese society has refined a plethora of cultural traits: humility, loyalty, respect and consensus. In the field of business, however, this often results in a lack of leaders who are willing to stand out from the crowd, promote themselves and act decisively. "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down" is a common Japanese refrain; "the hawk with talent hides his talons" is another. Whereas American and European bosses like to appear on the covers of global business magazines, their Japanese counterparts are comfortable in their obscurity. Business in Japan is generally run as a group endeavor.
Such democratic virtues served the country well in the post-war period. But today they hold too many Japanese firms back. Japan boasts some of the best companies in the world: Toyota, Canon and Nintendo are the envy of their industries. But they operate on a global scale and have tentatively embraced some unconsensual American methods. In much of the Japanese economy-especially its huge domestic services sector-managers are in something of a funk. Firms do not give promising youngsters responsibility early on, but allocate jobs by age. Unnecessarily long working hours are the norm, sapping productivity. And there are few women and foreigners in senior roles, which narrows the talent pool.
So how pleasing it is to be able to report the success of a business leader who breaks the mould. Young, dynamic and clever, he is not afraid to push aside old, conservative know- nothings. He disdains corporate politics and promotes people based on merit rather than seniority. He can make mistakes (he got involved in a questionable takeover-defence scheme), but he is wildly popular with salarymen: his every move is chronicled weekly. In June he was given the top job at one of Japan’s biggest firms. Kosaku Shima of Hatsushiba Goyo Holdings has only one serious shortcoming: he is not a real person, but a manga, or cartoon, character. For many critics of Japan, that says it all: Mr. Shima could exist only in fiction. In fact there is room for the country’s managers and even its politicians to learn from him.
Most of the lessons are for Japan’s managers. At present, bosses rarely say what they think because it might disrupt the harmony, or be seen as immodest. Their subordinates are reluctant to challenge ideas because that would cause the boss to lose face. So daft strategies fester rather than getting culled quickly. There is little risk-taking or initiative. The crux of the problem is Japanese companies’ culture of consensus-based decision-making. Called nemawashi ( literally, "going around the roots" ) or ringi ( bottom-up decisions), it helped to establish an egalitarian workplace. In the 1980s Western management consultants cooed that it was the source of Japan’s competitive strength. Sometimes it can be, as in periods of crisis when an entire firm needs to accept new marching orders quickly. But most of the time it strangles a company.
Relying on consensus means that decisions are made slowly, if at all. With so many people to please, the result is often a mediocre morass of compromises. And with so many hands involved, there is no accountability; no reason for individuals to excel; no sanction against bad decisions so that there are fewer of them in future. Of course, sometimes the consensus of the Japanese workplace is just a veneer and decisions are still made from on high. But then why persist with the pretence, particularly if it drains a company’s efficiency
Which of the following best illustrates the meaning of nemawashi
A:An important decision is made by the boss himself. B:An important decision is made by the boss and senior managers. C:An important decision is made by all the salarymen in the company. D:An important decision is made by the boss with the points of view of all the members being directed into consensus.
Text 3
Yamato, the ancient name of Japan,
essentially means "big harmony". To achieve such balance, Japanese society has
refined a plethora of cultural traits: humility, loyalty, respect and consensus.
In the field of business, however, this often results in a lack of leaders who
are willing to stand out from the crowd, promote themselves and act decisively.
"The nail that sticks up gets hammered down" is a common Japanese refrain; "the
hawk with talent hides his talons" is another. Whereas American and European
bosses like to appear on the covers of global business magazines, their Japanese
counterparts are comfortable in their obscurity. Business in Japan is generally
run as a group endeavor. Such democratic virtues served the country well in the post-war period. But today they hold too many Japanese firms back. Japan boasts some of the best companies in the world: Toyota, Canon and Nintendo are the envy of their industries. But they operate on a global scale and have tentatively embraced some unconsensual American methods. In much of the Japanese economy-especially its huge domestic services sector-managers are in something of a funk. Firms do not give promising youngsters responsibility early on, but allocate jobs by age. Unnecessarily long working hours are the norm, sapping productivity. And there are few women and foreigners in senior roles, which narrows the talent pool. So how pleasing it is to be able to report the success of a business leader who breaks the mould. Young, dynamic and clever, he is not afraid to push aside old, conservative know- nothings. He disdains corporate politics and promotes people based on merit rather than seniority. He can make mistakes (he got involved in a questionable takeover-defence scheme), but he is wildly popular with salarymen: his every move is chronicled weekly. In June he was given the top job at one of Japan’s biggest firms. Kosaku Shima of Hatsushiba Goyo Holdings has only one serious shortcoming: he is not a real person, but a manga, or cartoon, character. For many critics of Japan, that says it all: Mr. Shima could exist only in fiction. In fact there is room for the country’s managers and even its politicians to learn from him. Most of the lessons are for Japan’s managers. At present, bosses rarely say what they think because it might disrupt the harmony, or be seen as immodest. Their subordinates are reluctant to challenge ideas because that would cause the boss to lose face. So daft strategies fester rather than getting culled quickly. There is little risk-taking or initiative. The crux of the problem is Japanese companies’ culture of consensus-based decision-making. Called nemawashi ( literally, "going around the roots" ) or ringi ( bottom-up decisions), it helped to establish an egalitarian workplace. In the 1980s Western management consultants cooed that it was the source of Japan’s competitive strength. Sometimes it can be, as in periods of crisis when an entire firm needs to accept new marching orders quickly. But most of the time it strangles a company. Relying on consensus means that decisions are made slowly, if at all. With so many people to please, the result is often a mediocre morass of compromises. And with so many hands involved, there is no accountability; no reason for individuals to excel; no sanction against bad decisions so that there are fewer of them in future. Of course, sometimes the consensus of the Japanese workplace is just a veneer and decisions are still made from on high. But then why persist with the pretence, particularly if it drains a company’s efficiency |
A:An important decision is made by the boss himself. B:An important decision is made by the boss and senior managers. C:An important decision is made by all the salarymen in the company. D:An important decision is made by the boss with the points of view of all the members being directed into consensus.
阅读下面的短文,文中有15处空白,每处空白给出了4个选项,请根据短文的内容从4个选项中选择1个最佳答案。
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? ? ? ? ?A Most Important Period in Greek{{/B}} ? ?One of the most important periods in Greek history was the Hellenistic Age which began after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B. C., and lasted almost 200 years. It was during this time in history that Greek ideas and Greek culture spread into Egypt and throughout the Near East. A Greek state even existed{{U}} ?(51) ?{{/U}}India. During the Hellenistic Age, there were great advances{{U}} ?(52) ?{{/U}}in Greek scholarship in such areas as philosophy, science, religion, art and social justice. Important discoveries were made in the{{U}} ?(53) ?{{/U}}. Eratosthenes, for instance, made an accurate calculation{{U}} ?(54) ?{{/U}}the diameter of the earth, while Aristarchus declared that the earth{{U}} ?(55) ?{{/U}}round. Social reformers attempted to{{U}} ?(56) ?{{/U}}debt and{{U}} ?(57) ?{{/U}}a program of land redistribution among the poor hut met with little success. Women achieved a better social{{U}} ?(58) ?{{/U}}and among the middle class education became widespread. ? ?Peace of mind was the great concern of the philosophers of the Hellenistic Age. The Stoics insisted that happiness could be achieved when{{U}} ?(59) ?{{/U}}learned to accept the events which were{{U}} ?(60) ?{{/U}}his control and, at the same time, did his duty. The Epicureans{{U}} ?(61) ?{{/U}}the idea that moderation in pleasure and the avoidance of pain produced the desired result. The Cynics turned away from all desires and pleasures, and{{U}} ?(62) ?{{/U}}pursuit of virtue. In religion, many Greeks{{U}} ?(63) ?{{/U}}the worship of such Egyptian gods as Serapis and Isis. ? ?During the Hellenistic Age, the area of Greek influence included such political powers as the Ptolemies of Egypt, the Seleucids of Syria, the Antigonids of Macedon and the Attalids of Pergamum, and it was their fighting against each other and{{U}} ?(64) ?{{/U}}themselves that{{U}} ?(65) ?{{/U}}the way for the aggressive Romans to conquer Greece and most of the Hellenistic world in the 100’s B.C. The Romans brought the Hellenistic Age to a close when they conquered the last major power, Egypt, in 30 B. C. |
A:made B:making C:being made D:to make
A child who has once been pleased with a tale likes, as a rule, to have it retold in almost the same words, but this should not lead parents to treat printed fairy stories as formal texts. It is always much better to tell a story than read it out of a book, and, if a parent can produce what, in the actual situation of the time and the child, is an improvement on the printed text, so much the better.
A charge made against fairy tales is that they harm the child by frightening him or making him sad thinking. To prove the latter, one would have to show in a controlled experiment that children who have read fairy stories were more often sorry for cruelty than those who had not. As to fears, there are, I think, some cases of children being dangerously terrified by some fairy story. Often, however, this arises from the child having heard the story once. Familiarity with the story by repetition turns the pain of fear into the pleasure of a fear faced and mastered.There are also people who object to fairy stories on the grounds that they are not objectively true, that giants, witches, two-headed dragons, magic carpets, etc. do not exist; and that, instead of being fond of the strange side in fairy tales, the child should be taught to learn the reality by studying history. I find such people, I must say so peculiar that I do not know how to argue with them. If their case were sound, the world should be full of mad men attempting to fly from New York to Philadelphia on a stick or covering a telephone with kisses in the belief that it was their beloved girl-friend. No fairy story ever declared to be a description of the real world and no clever child has ever believed that it was.
A:fairy stories are still being made up B:there is some misunderstanding about fairy tales C:people try to modernize old fairy stories D:there is more concern for children’s fears nowadays
A child who has once been pleased with a tale likes, as a rule, to have it retold in almost the same words, but this should not lead parents to treat printed fairy stories as formal texts. It is always much better to tell a story than read it out of a book, and, if a parent can produce what, in the actual situation of the time and the child, is an improvement on the printed text, so much the better.
A charge made against fairy tales is that they harm the child by frightening him or making him sad thinking. To prove the latter, one would have to show in a controlled experiment that children who have read fairy stories were more often sorry for cruelty than those who had not. As to fears, there are, I think, some cases of children being dangerously terrified by some fairy story. Often, however, this arises from the child having heard the story once. Familiarity with the story by repetition turns the pain of fear into the pleasure of a fear faced and mastered.There are also people who object to fairy stories on the grounds that they are not objectively true, that giants, witches, two-headed dragons, magic carpets, etc. do not exist; and that, instead of being fond of the strange side in fairy tales, the child should be taught to learn the reality by studying history. I find such people, I must say so peculiar that I do not know how to argue with them. If their case were sound, the world should be full of mad men attempting to fly from New York to Philadelphia on a stick or covering a telephone with kisses in the belief that it was their beloved girl-friend. No fairy story ever declared to be a description of the real world and no clever child has ever believed that it was.
A:fairy stories are still being made up B:there is some misunderstanding about fairy tales C:people try to modernize old fairy stories D:there is more concern for children’s fears nowadays
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