Part Ⅱ
Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)
Passage One
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:
Professor Kumar Bhatt, founder and head of Warwick Manufacturing Group(WMG), and Rob Meakin, a personnel director at Marconi, have developed a partnership to train engineers and managers to BEComee-literate. The New Knowledge Partnership will include a team of 40 Marconi managers in what Professor Bhatt calls electronic engineering management or E2. A wide range of engineering and non-engineering companies has expressed interest in these exciting programs.Professor Bhatt believes that e-commerce is changing the business environment to a huge extent. Many chief executives do not understand the power of the new technologies and, in some cases, are actually resisting change. He says that “As long as enough industry leaders realize its potential benefits, e-business will make possible a second productivity revolution in Britain. This could take the economy close to eliminating the still substantial competitiveness gap with its main rivals. Over the last five years in the US there has been a 30% improvement in manufacturing sector productivity because of information technology. In Britain we can achieve more than that and successful e-business will be worth billions to the UK economy.”Already Britain makes more use of computer-aided design and manufacture (CAD/CAM) and management information technology systems than other European countries, and has a government that actively promotes e-business. But, observes Professor Bhatt, Britain has never used technology as a growth driver. “The thing about electronic engineering management is that you can keep your legacy systems; you just need to link those systems with an information engine. At the touch of a button it will allow project managers to see the status of a project, identify problems precisely and make virtually immediate decisions based on information that will be much more complete than in the past.”
The E2 program is the result of an alliance by the Warwick Manufacturing Group with America’s leading e-commerce study center,Carnegie Mellon. The latter will be responsible for training many of the Marconi managers in America, where the group has half its business. In Britain, Professor Bhatt has linked up with Sun Microsystems, Oracle and Parametric Technology, to set up amulti-million pound E2 design and manufacturing center at theuniversity which will be used for training and research.Professor Bhatt believes that e-commerce is changing business tosuch an extent that WMG is likely to be renamed Warwick ElectronicManufacturing Group. But, he warns “The move to globalize because ofe-commerce is racing ahead. Although the net allows British industryto overtake their European peers, it also offers Asian countries toleapfrog(相互超越) the West. For the first time it is not the privilegeof the western world because this technology is universal.”
21.Professor Bhatt and Rob Meakin have developed a method to___.
A) teach electronic engineering management
B) train employees to be acquainted with e-commerce
C) train employees to be engineers and managers
D) teach employees about developing a partnership
22.How does Professor Bhatt feel about many leaders in companies?
A) They do not understand a possible second productivity revolution in Britain.
B) They are excited about change.
C) They are ready for e-business.
D) They sometimes are against the change resulted from new technologies.
23.According to the passage, what do you know about e-business in Britain?
A)E-business has eliminated many competitive rivals.
B)E-business has done many benefits to big companies.
C)Many companies have joined in the E2 business program.
D) E-business has great potential and will make changes in the country.
24.According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?
A) Britain can be competitive to US in the area of information technology.
B) Britain has already taken the advantages of running engineering management.
C) As with many other European countries, Britain has made use of computer-aided systems.
D) E-commerce has offered opportunities to European countries to eliminate the competitiveness gap with all the rivals.
25.WMG would like to change its name because ___.
A)Britain is going to catch up with all other European countries in the field of electronic engineering management
B)business has been influenced so much by e-commerce
C)the e-commerce has offered Asian countries the chance to overtake Britain and the rest of Europe
D)e-business is very popular and will become universal
