题目内容
Part A
Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. (40 points)
Optimation Ltd., a polymer packaging and converting specialist, is one small company that is suffering. Its highly specialised engineering work is in great demand but a lack of qualified staff has hindered growth.
"We have a number of potential clients awaiting a visit to discuss new projects, but we are tied up on existing orders because we are short of the necessary skills on the shop floor," Helen Mitchell, the company's founder, says.
And according to Alice Teague, the education and training officer at the Federation of Small Businesses, Ms. Mitchell's experience is not unique. Many small businesses suffer skill shortages—particularly those at the technical craft level such as engineering and construction companies.
"Small companies tend to be more vulnerable to skill shortages because they are unable to offer the same pay or benefits as larger companies so they struggle in the recruitment market."
This is borne out by the experiences of Optimation. "Last year, we lost one of our best engineers to a rival company who offered him a better package. Being able to afford the salaries such skills demand is difficult for us," Ms. Mitchell says.
The government-funded Learning and Skills Council (LSC) says that apprenticeships offer a solution to the skill shortage problem. "By addressing skills gaps directly apprenticeships can make businesses, small or large, more productive and competitive," Stephen Gardner, the LSC's director of worked based learning, says. "Apprenticeships allow businesses to develop the specialist skills they need for the latest technology and working practices in their sector."
There are 160 different apprenticeships available across 80 different industry sectors. They are open to businesses of all sizes and offer work-based training programmes for 16 to 24-year-olds. The training is run in conjunction with the Sector Skills Council to ensure industry specific skills are taught.
Businesses are responsible for the wages of apprentices but the LSC contributes between ￡1,500 and ￡10,000 towards the cost of the training, depending on the industry sector.
Slack ＆ Parr Ltd., a manufacturer of precision equipment for the aerospace industry, is one small company that has benefited from the scheme. More than 50 percent of the Kegworth-based company's employees started as apprentices.
"We opened an on-site training centre to ensure apprentices benefited from the highest quality of training," Richard Hallsworth, the managing director, says. "Sixteen of our former apprentices are now in management positions. The scheme works for us because it helps keep costly external recruitment to a minimum."
But Ms. Teague of the FSB warns that apprenticeships might not suit all small businesses.
The apprenticeship scheme offers valuable vocational training but often small companies don't have sufficient time or resources to devote to the apprentice. In the past there has also been a problem of poor quality candidates and low completion rates.
"But some of these problems are being addressed. I know the Learning and Skills Council is looking at how small businesses might be able to share apprentices and so lessen the risk. Completion rates also seem to be improving so the scheme is certainly worth investigating."
We can learn from the text that
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A．knocked downB．knocked againstC．knocked fromD．knocked out
The student believes that highways ______.
The professor suggests that in five years' time ______.
听力原文：Tutor: We're very pleased to welcome Professor lsaac Nebworth to our tutorial group today and he's come to share one of his pet passions with us - city traffic and our western dependence on the motor car. I believe questions are quite welcome throughout.
Professor: Thank you. Well, I know you're all very familiar with the super highway here in Melbourne. But do super highways automatically lead to super wealth, as our politicians would have us believe？ I think not.
Tutor: Can you give us an example of what you mean exactly？ Professor: Sure ... well, by continuing to encourage this dependence on the motor car, we simply create more congestion and more urban sprawl. And you can see that here in Melbourne right under your nose.
Student: Excuse me. I would just like to say that I feel the sprawl is part of the city. The freeways mean people can
enjoy the benefits of living away from the centre ... on larger blocks with gardens… but still be able to drive back into the city centre for work or entertainment.
Professor: Well, I'm not convinced that people want to do that. And is our money being well spent？ It may be OK for you now but come back to me in five years time! Let's take City Link, for example, the new freeway here in Melbourne.
Student: Well ... I use the freeway all the time. I think it's great.
Professor: Ah yes, but it cost ＄2 billion to build, and you could have gotten ten times the value by putting the money into public transport. If you give the automobile road space, it will fill that space ... and you'll soon find you'll be crawling along your City Link.
Tutor: But surely, you cannot simply blame the car. Some of the blame must rest with governments and city planners？
Student: Well there is an argument, surely, that building good roads is actually beneficial because most new cars these days are highly efficient - they use far less petrol than in the past and emissions of dangerous gases are low. Old congested roads, on the other hand, encourage traffic to move slowly and it's the stationary cars that cause the pollution and smog ... whereas good roads increase traffic speeds and thus the amount of time cars are actually on the roads.
Professor: Well ... this is the old argument put forward by the road lobby but, for me it's clear cut. Roads equal cars which equal smog. Public transport is the way to go.
Tutor: Now ... on that topic of public transport, I read somewhere recently that Australia isn't doing too badly in the challenge to increase the use of public transport.
Professor: Better than America, granted, but by comparison with Canada, it's not so good. For instance, if you compare Toronto with the US metropolis of Detroit only 160 kilometres away ... in Detroit only 1% of passenger travel is by public transport whereas in Toronto it's 24%, which is considerably better than Sydney which can only boast 16%.
Tutor: Well I think it's encouraging that our least cardependent city is actually our largest city. 16% of trips being taken on public transport in Sydney, isn't too bad.
Professor: But it's a long way behind Europe. Take both London and Paris for instance ... where 30% of all trips taken are on public transport.
Tutor: Well, they do both have an excellent underground system.
Professor: ... and Frankfurt comes in higher still at 32%.
Tutor: I understand that they've been very successful in Copenhagen at ridding the city of the car. Can you tell us anything about that experiment？
Professor: Yes indeed. Copenhagen is a wonderful example of a city that has learnt to live without the motor car. Back in the 1960s they adopted a number of policies designed to draw people back into the city. For instance, they paid musicians and artists to perform. in the streets. They also built cycle lanes and now 30% of the inhabitants of Copenhagen use a bicycle to go to work. Sydney, by comparison, can only boast 1% of the population cycling to wo
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