厦门大学2004年博士研究生入学考试英语试题附答案和详解.doc

厦门大学2004年博士研究生入学考试英语试题附答案和详解
Part I prehension (40 points)
Part A (20 points)
Directions: There are two reading passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.
Passage One
It seemed to me, and still does, that the system of American business often produces wrong, immoral and irresponsible decisions, even though the personal morality of the people running the businesses is often above reproach. The system has a different morality as a group than the people do as individuals, which permits it to willfully produce ineffective or dangerous products, deal dictatorially and often unfairly with suppliers, pay bribes for business, abrogate the rights of employees by demanding blind loyalty to management or tamper with the democratic process of government through illegal political contributions.
I am not a psychologist, so I can't offer a professional opinion on what happens to the freedom of individual minds when they are blended into the group management through process of business. But my private analysis is this: morality has to do with people. If an action is viewed primarily from the perspective of its effect on people, it is put into the moral realm.
Business in America, however, is impersonal. This is particularly true of large American multi-national corporations. They are viewed by their employees and publics as faceless. They have no personality. The ultimate measure of ess and failure of these businesses is not their effect on people but rather their earnings per share of stock. If earnings are high, the business is considered good. If they are low or in the red ink, it is considered a failure. The first question to greet any business proposal is how will it affect profits? People do not enter the equation of a business deci