Read the following advertisement of a job. For each question (23-28) on the opposite page, choose the correct answer. Ma

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问题     Read the following advertisement of a job.
    For each question (23-28) on the opposite page, choose the correct answer.
    Mark one letter (A, B or C) on your Answer Sheet.
                        In Praise of Short-termism
    For economies in free fall, managers still need up-to-date information about what is happening to their businesses, so that they can change course rapidly if necessary. Cisco, an American network-equipment giant, has invested over many years in the technology needed to generate such data. Frank Cal-deroni, the firm’s CFO, says that every day its senior executives can track exactly what orders are coming in from sales teams around the world, and identify emerging trends in each region and market segment. And at the end of each month, the firm can get reliable financial results within four hours of closing its books. Most firms have to wait days or even weeks for such certainty.
    Admittedly, Cisco’s financial results have not made happy reading recently because, in common with many other large technology companies, it has seen demand for its products falter in the downturn. In early February it announced that its fiscal second-quarter revenues of $9. 1 billion were 7. 5% lower than the same period in 2008 and that its profit had fallen by 27%, to $1.5 billion.
    In response to hard times, Cisco plans to cut $1 billion of costs this year by, among other things, harnessing its own video-conferencing and other communications technologies to reduce the amount its executives travel. It is also using these facilities to relay information from employees on the ground to its senior managers, and to get instructions from Cisco’s leaders back out to its 67,000 staff. A rapid exchange of information and instructions is especially valuable if the company wants to alter course in stormy times.
    If everybody in a company can rapidly grasp what they have to do and how it is changing, they are more likely to get the job done. But some firms are reluctant to share their goals with the wider world. Unilever, a big Anglo-Dutch consumer-goods group, has decided against issuing a 2009 financial forecast to investors, arguing that it is difficult to predict what is going to happen, given the parlous state of the world economy. "We’re not just going to provide numbers for the sake of it," explains James Allison, the company’s head of investor relations. Other companies that have decided not to provide annual earnings estimates for 2009 include Costco, a big American retailer, and Union Pacific, an American railway company.
    Some firms, such as Intel, seem to have chosen to take things quarter by quarter. The giant chip maker said in January that it would not issue an official forecast for the first quarter of 2009 after its fourth-quarter 2008 profit plunged by 90%. Several retail chains have also stopped providing monthly sales estimates because they cannot see what the future holds. Retailers, chip makers and firms in many other industries may have a long wait before the economic fog finally lifts?
Why are the senior executives of Cisco much more effective than those of other firms?

选项 A、Because they can get to know what happened on their sales around the world accurately.
B、Because they can acknowledge exactly how much money has been earned for the exports.
C、Because they can be informed about their competitors’ performances.

答案A

解析 文中第一段第9行提到: …its senior executives can track exactly what orders arecoming in from sales teams around the world,and identify emerging trends ineach region and market segment.即:……该公司的高级主管们每天都能准确得知公司在全球范围内的销售状况,并据此分析每个地区市场的未来走向。文中的what orders are coming in from sales teams around the world与选项A中的what hap—pened on their sales around the world accurately所表达的内容吻合。选项B中how much money has been earned for the exports缩小了销售的概念,涉及的范围应包括国内市场,并非仅限于出口市场;选项C中的can be informed about theircompetitors’performances,这里文中没有提及过,考生切勿根据自己的推断选择答案。
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