题目内容
In the late years of the nineteenth century, "capital" and "labour" were enlarging and perfecting their rival organizations on modern lines. Many old firms were replaced by a limited liability company with a bureaucracy of salaried managers. The change met the technical requirements of the new age by engaging a large professional element and prevented the decline in efficiency that so commonly spoiled the fortunes of family firms in the second and third generation after the energetic founders. It was moreover a step away from individual initiative, towards collectivism and municipal and state-owned business. The railway companies, though still private business managed for the benefit of shareholders, were very unlike old family business. Meanwhile the great municipalities went into business to supply lighting, trams and other services to the taxpayers.
The growth of the limited liability company and municipal business had important consequences. Such large, impersonal manipulation of capital and industry greatly increased the numbers and importance of shareholders as a class, an element in national life representing irresponsible wealth detached from the land and the duties of the landowners; and almost equally detached from the responsible management of business. During the nineteenth century, America, Africa, India, Australia and parts of Europe were being developed by British capital, and British shareholders were thus enriched by the world's movement towards industrialisation. Towns like Bournemouth and Eastbourne sprang up to large house "comfortable" classes who had retired on their incomes, and who had no relation to the rest of the community except that of drawing dividends and occasionally attending a shareholders' meeting to dictate their orders to the management. On the other hand "shareholding" meant leisure and freedom which was used by many of the later Victorians for the highest purpose of a great civilisation.
The "shareholders" as such had no knowledge of the lives, thoughts or needs of employees in the company in which they held shares, and their influence on the relations of capital and labour was not good. The paid manager acting for the company was in more direct relation with the workers and their demands, but even he had seldom familiar personal knowledge of the workmen which the employers had often had under the more patriarchal system of the old family business. Indeed the mere size of operations and the numbers of workmen involved rendered such personal relations impossible. Fortunately, however, the increasing power and organization of the trade unions, at least in all skilled trades, enabled the workmen to meet on equal terms the managers of the companies who employed them. The creel discipline of the strike and lookout taught the two parties to respect each other's strength and understand the value of fair negotiation.
The author says that old family firms ______.
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【27】
Part A
Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D . Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1.
A finding in recent years shows that men cannot manufacture blood as efficiently as women can. This makes surgery riskier for men. Because they do not breathe as often as women, men also need more oxygen. But men breathe more deeply and this exposes them to another risk. They draw more of the air when it is polluted.
Men's bones are larger than women's and they are arranged somewhat differently. The feminine walk that evokes so many whistles is a matter of bone structure. A man has broader shoulders and a narrower pelvis, which makes him to stride out with no waste motion. A Woman's wider pelvis, designed for childbearing, forces her to put more movement into each step she takes with the result that she displays a bit of a jiggle and sway as she walks.
If you think a man is brave because he can climb a ladder to clean out the roof gutters, don't forget it is easier for him than for a woman. The angle at which a woman's thigh is joined to her knees makes climbing difficult for her, no matter whether it is a ladder or stairs or a mountain that she is tackling.
A man's skin is thicker than a woman's and not nearly as soft. This prevents the sun's radiation from getting through, which is why men wrinkle less than women do. Women have a thin layer of fat just under the skin and there is a plus to this greater fat reserve. It acts as an invisible fur coat to keep a woman warmer in the winter. Women also stay cooler in summer. Because the fat layer helps insulate them against heat. Men's fat is distributed differently. And they do not have that layer of it underneath their skin. In fact, they have considerably less fat than women and more lean mass. 41 percent of a man's body is muscle compared to 35 percent for women, which means that men have more muscle power. When we mention strength, almost 90 percent of a man's weight is strength compared to about 50 percent of a woman's weight.
The higher proportion of muscle to fat makes it easier for men to lose weight. Muscle bums up five more calories a pound than fat does just to maintain itself. So when a man wants to loss weight, the pounds roll off much faster. For all men's muscularity they do not have the energy reserves women do. They have more start-up energy, but the fat tucked away in women's nooks and crannies provides a rich energy reserve that men lack.
Cardiologists at the University of Alabama who tested healthy women on treadmills discovered that over the years the female capacity for exercise far exceeds the male capacity. A woman of sixty who is in good health can exercise up to 90 percent of what she could do when she was twenty. A man of sixty has only 60 percent left of his capacity as a twenty-year-old.
That boys suffer more from air pollution can possibly be justified by the fact that ______.
【29】
From the very beginning, water has furnished man with a source of food and a highway to travel. The first civilizations arose 【21】______ water was a dominant element in the environments, a challenge 【22】______ man's ingenuity. The Egyptians invented the 3655-day calendar (23 the Nile's annual flooding. The Babylonians, 【24】______ were among the most famous law-makers in ancient times, invented laws 【25】______ water usage. Water inspired the Chinese to build a 1000 【26】______ canal, a complex system 【27】______ , after 2500 years, remains practically 【28】______ and still commands the astonishment of engineers. But 【29】______ never found complete solutions 【30】______ their water problem. The Yellow River is also known 【31】______ "China's Sorrow". It is so unpredictable and dangerous 【32】______ in a single flood it has caused a million 【33】______ . Floods slowed the great 【34】______ of the Indus River Valleys, and innumerable damage mined 【35】______ of its land. Today, water dominates man 【36】______ it always has done. Its presence continues to 【37】______ the location of his homes and cities; its violent variability can 【38】______ man or his herds or his crops; its routes links him 【39】______ his fellows; its immense value may 【40】______ to already dangerous political conflicts. There are many examples of this in our own time.
【21】
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