"Lifelong learning" is a phrase beloved by business schools. But not, it seems, by their clients. According to a recent survey b

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问题     "Lifelong learning" is a phrase beloved by business schools. But not, it seems, by their clients. According to a recent survey by Mannaz, a management-development firm, the number of professionals taking part in formal corporate training drops rapidly after the age of 55. Are these wise, old heads being overlooked?
    It is tempting to conclude that older executives are falling victim to age discrimination, as firms focus resources on younger talent. But Jorgen Thorsell, Mannaz’s vice-president, attributes this to the employees themselves instead of to the organizations.
    This doesn’t mean that more seasoned executives have completely abandoned the idea of personal and career development, however. Instead, Mr. Thorsell says that this group prefers a do-it-yourself approach, conducting their own research and swapping war stories with their peers rather than take a place at business school.
    This self-taught approach carries two potential dangers. The first is that a wealth of knowledge and experience is lost from the classroom, which reduces the value of the training for everyone else. But non-participation may also be the beginning of a process of detachment from the organization, its aims and aspirations, which in time will damage both parties. Furthermore, Stephen Burnett, associate dean of a management school close to Chicago, says that as executives start to stretch their careers into their seventies, education makes even more sense for this group.
    One solution is to throw money at the problem. When senior managers are offered the chance to mix with their peers at a top business school, they seem to be quickly won over. IMD in Switzerland, for example, maintains that it does not see any drop in the number of older managers on its programs, and goes on to say that it has actually witnessed organizations investing heavily in them throughout the downturn.
    Few organizations could afford to put all of their veteran managers through the sort of prestigious programs that IMD offers. But firms do need to engage those managers below the C-suite—whom one management consultant describes as the "magnificent middle"—because these are the front-liners who make things happen within any business and who carry around in their heads the secrets of how the organization works.
    One way in which this can be done is to make training less about abstract theory and more about the actual workplace. This means steering clear of the case studies that business schools are so fond of and instead relating new ideas directly to what is happening on a day-to-day basis within the organization. To accomplish this, training should be delivered in short, sharp bursts so that executives can take a lesson, put it into practice, assess its effectiveness and then return to shape it further in light of this "trial by fire".
According to Mr. Thorsell, why are older professionals getting less formal corporate training?

选项 A、Because firms pay more attention to training younger talents.
B、Because older professionals have given up career development.
C、Because experienced professionals like another way of training.
D、Because older talents prefer informal corporate training.

答案C

解析 事实细节题。由定位句可知,据Thorsell所说,年长的管理者们更倾向于采取自主的方式,自发地开展实践研究,与同行们交流实战经验,而不是到商学院上课,因此C)为本题答案。A)“因为公司更加关注年轻员工的培训”,第二段中Mr.Thorsell否定了这一说法,故排除;B)“因为年长的管理者已经放弃了事业的发展”与原文不符,故排除;D)“因为年长的管理者更喜欢非正式的企业培训”是对原文的曲解,故排除。
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