Question

In business, there’s a speed difference: It’s the difference between how important a firm’s leaders say speed is to their competitive(競爭的) strategy(策略) and how fast the company actually moves.The difference is important regardless of industry and company size. Companies fearful of losing their competitive advantage spend much time and money looking for ways to pick up the speed.
In our study of 343 businesses, the companies that chose to go, go, go to try to gain an edge ended up with lower sales and operating incomes than those that paused at key moments to make sure they were on the right track.What's more, the firms that “slowed down to speed up” improved their top and bottom lines, averaging 40% higher sales and 52% higher operating incomes over a three-year period.
How did they disobey the laws of business physics, taking more time than competitors yet performing better? They thought differently about what “slower” and “faster” mean.Firms sometimes fail to understand the difference between operational speed (moving quickly) and strategic speed (reducing the time it takes to deliver value)．Simply increasing the speed of production, for example, may be one way to try to reduce the speed difference.But that often leads to reduced value over time, in the form of lower-quality products and services.
In our study, higher-performing companies with strategic speed always made changes when necessary. They became more open to ideas and discussion.They encouraged new ways of thinking.And they allowed time to look back and learn.By contrast (相比而言), performance suffered at firms that moved fast all the time, paid too much attention to improving efficiency, stuck to tested methods, didn't develop team spirit among their employees, and had little time thinking
about changes.
Strategic speed serves as a kind of leadership.Teams that regularly take time to get things right, rather than plough ahead full bore, are more successful in meeting their business goals.That kind of strategy must come from the top

1. 1.
   What does the underlined part “gain an edge” in Paragraph 2 mean?
   1. A.
      Increase the speed. 　　　
   2. B.
      Reach the limit
   3. C.
      Get an advantage
   4. D.
      Set a goal
2. 2.
   The underlined part “the laws of business physics” in Paragraph 3 means ________
   1. A.
      spending more time and performing worse
   2. B.
      spending more time and performing better
   3. C.
      spending less time and performing worse
   4. D.
      spending less time and performing better
3. 3.
   What can we learn from the text?
   1. A.
      How fast a firm moves depends on how big it is
   2. B.
      How competitive a firm is depends on what it produces
   3. C.
      Firms guided by strategic speed take time to make necessary changes
   4. D.
      Firms guided by operational speed take time to develop necessary team spirit
4. 4.
   Which could be the best title for the text?
   1. A.
      Improve quality? Serve better
   2. B.
      Deliver value? Plough ahead
   3. C.
      Reduce time? Move faster
   4. D.
      Need speed? Slow down

Answer 1

CDCD
試題分析：這是一篇議論文，主要講述在商場上的競爭策略；有些公司減緩速度以更好地發(fā)展，花費(fèi)的時間多卻獲得更好收效。
1.詞義理解題。原句是go to try to gain an edge ended up with lower sales and operating incomes，所以gain an edge的意思是與收入降低相反，即獲得優(yōu)勢。所以選C
2.推斷題。根據(jù)第三段開頭的 disobey the laws of business physics，可以推斷出laws of business physics強(qiáng)調(diào)快速高成果，與那些以慢速獲勝的公司不同，在短時間內(nèi)做得更好，所以選D
3.主旨大意題。文章主要議論了策略性減速的優(yōu)點(diǎn)，而且根據(jù)最后一段Teams that regularly take time to get things right可以看出公司改變需要時間，所以選C
4.標(biāo)題選擇題。根據(jù)文章的大意可以確認(rèn)標(biāo)題應(yīng)當(dāng)與slow和speed有關(guān)，所以D是更恰當(dāng)?shù)臉?biāo)題。
考點(diǎn)：考查社會現(xiàn)象類短文