GMAT阅读练习及答案(11)

文章作者 100test 发表时间 2007:04:29 12:33:12
来源 100Test.Com百考试题网

　　Passage 2

　　Since the late 1970s， in the face of a severe loss of

　　market share in dozens of industries， manufacturers in

　　the United States have been trying to improve produc-

　　tivity-and therefore enhance their international

　　（5） competitiveness-through cost-cutting programs. （Cost-

　　cutting here is defined as raising labor output while

　　holding the amount of labor constant.） However， from

　　1978 through 1982， productivity-the value of goods

　　manufactured divided by the amount of labor input-

　　（10） did not improve； and while the results were better in the

　　business upturn of the three years following， they ran 25

　　percent lower than productivity improvements during

　　earlier， post-1945 upturns. At the same time， it became

　　clear that the harder manufacturers worked to imple-

　　（15） ment cost-cutting， the more they lost their competitive

　　edge.

　　With this paradox in mind， I recently visited 25

　　companies； it became clear to me that the cost-cutting

　　approach to increasing productivity is fundamentally

　　（20） flawed. Manufacturing regularly observes a “40， 40， 20”

　　rule. Roughly 40 percent of any manufacturing-based

　　competitive advantage derives from long-term changes

　　in manufacturing structure （decisions about the number，

　　size， location， and capacity of facilities） and in approaches

　　（25） to materials. Another 40 percent comes from major

　　changes in equipment and process technology. The final

　　20 percent rests on implementing conventional cost-

　　cutting. This rule does not imply that cost-cutting should

　　not be tried. The well-known tools of this approach-

　　（30） including simplifying jobs and retraining employees to

　　work smarter， not harder-do produce results. But the

　　tools quickly reach the limits of what they can

　　contribute.

　　Another problem is that the cost-cutting approach

　　（35） hinders innovation and discourages creative people. As

　　Abernathys study of automobile manufacturers has

　　shown， an industry can easily become prisoner of its

　　own investments in cost-cutting techniques， reducing its

　　ability to develop new products. And managers under

　　（40） pressure to maximize cost-cutting will resist innovation

　　because they know that more fundamental changes in

　　processes or systems will wreak havoc with the results on

　　which they are measured. Production managers have

　　always seen their job as one of minimizing costs and

　　（45） maximizing output. This dimension of performance has

　　until recently sufficed as a basis of evaluation， but it has

　　created a penny-pinching， mechanistic culture in most

　　factories that has kept away creative managers.

　　Every company I know that has freed itself from the

　　（50） paradox has done so， in part， by developing and imple-

　　menting a manufacturing strategy. Such a strategy

　　focuses on the manufacturing structure and on equip-

　　ment and process technology. In one company a manu-

　　facturing strategy that allowed different areas of the

　　（55） factory to specialize in different markets replaced the

　　conventional cost-cutting approach； within three years

　　the company regained its competitive advantage.

　　Together with such strategies， successful companies are

　　also encouraging managers to focus on a wider set of

　　objectives besides cutting costs. There is hope for

　　manufacturing， but it clearly rests on a different way of

　　managing.

　　1.The author of the passage is primarily concerned with

　　（A） summarizing a thesis

　　（B） recommending a different approach

　　（C） comparing points of view

　　（D） making a series of predictions

　　（E） describing a number of paradoxes

　　2. It can be inferred from the passage that the

　　manufacturers mentioned in line 2 expected that

　　the measures they implemented would

　　（A） encourage innovation

　　（B） keep labor output constant

　　（C） increase their competitive advantage

　　（D） permit business upturns to be more easily predicted

　　（E） cause managers to focus on a wider set of objectives