Question

From bankers to factory staff, employees in the West face a cold prospect of losing their jobs as a global recession(衰退) starts to bite. For colleagues in the East, the pain is more likely to come through a pay cut.

      Human resource experts say cultural differences explain why Asian companies try harder to preserve jobs in difficult times, which will prevent unemployment and may help Asian economies survive at a time of slowing exports. The East Asian attitude may also make it easier for companies to recover quickly from the economic downturn since they will not need to rehire or train new staff, but build up a more loyal and devoted group.

      "In the Confucian mindset(儒家思想), the right thing to do is to share the burden（负担）, which is the sense of collective responsibility. While in the West, it's more about individual survival," said Michael Benoliel, associate professor of organizational behavior at Singapore Management University (SMU).

      In contrast, local Western companies from General Motors to Goldman Sachs plan to lay off workers by the thousands, but at the Asian units of Western multinationals or western units of Asian groups, job cuts will probably be less severe.

      Japan's jobless rate was 4 percent in September, up from 3.8 percent in January, while Hong Kong's was flat at 3.4 percent. But US unemployment is expected to have jumped to 6.3 percent last month from below 5 percent in January.

      Experts say that while there are noticeable differences in labor practices in East and West, the gap will narrow as more firms become more multinational and competition forces firms to adopt the best practices of rivals(对手) from abroad.

1.The underlined word "prospect" in the first paragraph most probably means _________.

A. future           B. scene

C. weather           D. place

2.Compared with job cuts, pay cuts can bring the following benefits EXCEPT that _________.

A. it's helpful to the economy recovery

B. it can form a team working harder and more loyally

C. it will keep the experienced and skilled workers

D. it costs the company less money to survive

3.According to Michael Benoliel, the Confucian mindset focuses on _________.

A. human rights

B. personal profits

C. sharing responsibility

D. individual survival

4.The passage mainly tells us ________.

A. the difficulties all the companies around the world will meet with today

B. the different labor solutions of Asian and Western in global recession

C. the ways to cut down the cost of the companies in economic downturn

D. the cultural differences between Eastern and Western world at present

Answer

1.A

2.D

3.C

4.B

【解析】

试题分析：文章大意：本文主要介绍了在全球经济衰退的背景之下，亚洲和西方是如何不同地解决劳工问题。

1.词义猜测题。根据文章第一段首句From bankers to factory staff, employees in the West face a cold prospect of losing their jobs as a global recession(衰退) starts to bite.可以推测出prospect为“前景”之意。选A

2.理解题。根据文章第二段中The East Asian attitude may also make it easier for companies to recover quickly from the economic downturn since they will not need to rehire or train new staff, but build up a more loyal and devoted group.的内容可知D选择项与文中事实不相符合。选D

3.In the Confucian mindset(儒家思想), the right thing to do is to share the burden（负担）, which is the sense of collective responsibility. While in the West, it's more about individual survival可以判断出儒家更重视的是分享责任。选C

4.文章大意：本文主要介绍了在全球经济衰退的背景之下，亚洲和西方是如何不同地解决劳工问题。选B

考点：考查社会类短文阅读