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Snap decisions can be important defense mechanisms; if we are judging whether someone is dangerous, our brains and bodies are hard-wired to react very quickly, within milliseconds. But we need more time to assess other factors. To accurately tell whether someone is sociable, studies show, we need at least a minute, preferably five. It takes a while to judge complex aspects of personality, like neuroticism or open-mindedness.
But snap decisions in reaction to rapid stimuli aren’t exclusive to the interpersonal realm. Psychologists at the University of Toronto found that viewing a fast-food logo for just a few milliseconds primes us to read 20 percent faster, even though reading has little to do with eating. We unconsciously associate fast food with speed and impatience and carry those impulses into whatever else we’re doing, Subjects exposed to fast-food flashes also tend to think a musical piece lasts too long.
Yet we can reverse such influences. If we know we will overreact to consumer products or housing options when we see a happy face (one reason good sales representatives and real estate agents are always smiling), we can take a moment before buying. If we know female job screeners are more likely to reject attractive female applicants, we can help screeners understand their biases-or hire outside screeners.
John Gottman, the marriage expert, explains that we quickly “thin slice” information reliably only after we ground such snap reactions in “thick sliced” long-term study. When Dr. Gottman really wants to assess whether a couple will stay together, he invites them to his island retreat for a muck longer evaluation; two days, not two seconds.
Our ability to mute our hard-wired reactions by pausing is what differentiates us from animals: doge can think about the future only intermittently or for a few minutes. But historically we have spent about 12 percent of our days contemplating the longer term. Although technology might change the way we react, it hasn’t changed our nature. We still have the imaginative capacity to rise above temptation and reverse the high-speed trend.
The time needed in making decisions may____ .
A.vary according to the urgency of the situation
B.prove the complexity of our brain reaction
C.depend on the importance of the assessment
D.predetermine the accuracy of our judgment
John Gottman says that reliable snap reaction are based on____ .
A.critical assessment
B.“thin sliced”study
C.sensible explanation
D.adequate information
The author’s attitude toward reversing the high-speed trend is____ .A.tolerant
B.uncertain
C.optimistic
D.doubtful
Our reaction to a fast-food logo shows that snao decisions____ .A.can be associative
B.are not unconscious
C.can be dangerous
D.are not impulsive
To reverse the negative influences of snap decisions,we should____ .A.trust our first impression
B.do as people usually do
C.think before we act
D.ask for expert advice
We who take sight for granted can draw pictures of scent, but we have no language for doing it the other way about, no way to represent something visually familiar by means of actual scent. Most humans cannot know, with their limited noses, what they can imagine about being deaf, blind, mute, or paralyzed. The sighted can, for example, speak if a blind person a "in the darkness," but there is no corollary expression for what it is that we are in relationship to scent. If we tried to coin words, we might come up with something like "scent-blind." But what would it mean？ It couldn't have the sort of meaning that "color-blind" and "tone-deaf' do, because most of us have experienced what "tone" and "color" mean in those expressions "scent-blind." Scent for many of us can be only a theoretical, technical expression that we use because our grammar requires that we have a noun to go in the sentences we are prompted to utter about animals' tracking. We don't have a sense of scent. What we do have is a sense of smell-for Thanksgiving dinner and skunks and a number of things we call chemicals.
So if Fido and sitting on the terrace, admiring the view, we inhabit worlds with radically different principles of phenomenology. Say that the wind is to our backs. Our world lies all before us, within a 180 degree angle. The dog's-well, we don't know, do we？
He sees roughly the same things that I see but he believes the scents of the garden behind us. He marks the path of the black-and-white cat as she moves among the roses in search of the bits of chicken sandwich I let fall as I walked from the house to our picnic spot. T can show that Fido is alert to the kitty, but not how, for my picture-making modes of thought too easily supply falsifyingly literal representations of the cat and the garden and their modes of being hidden from or revealed to me.
The phrase "other senses are largely ancillary" (paragraph 1) is used by the author to suggest that______.
A．only those events experienced directly can be appreciated by the senses
B．for many human beings the senses of sights is the primary means of knowing about the world
C．smell is in many respects a more powerful sense than sight
D．people rely on at least one of their other senses in order to confirm what they see
Introduction
The following is an interview with Mick Kazinski, a senior marketing executive with Bridge Co, a Deeland-based construction company. It concerns their purchase of Custcare, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software package written by the Custcare Corporation, a software company based in Solland, a country some 4,000 km away from Deeland. The interview was originally published in the Management Experiences magazine.
Interviewer: Thanks for talking to us today Mick. Can you tell us how Bridge Co came to choose the Custcare software package？
Mick: Well, we didn’t choose it really. Teri Porter had just joined the company as sales and marketing director. She had recently implemented the Custcare package at her previous company and she was very enthusiastic about it. When she found out that we did not have a CRM package at Bridge Co, she suggested that we should also buy the Custcare package as she felt that our requirements were very similar to those of her previous company. We told her that any purchase would have to go through our capex (capital expenditure) system as the package cost over $20,000. Here at Bridge Co, all capex applications have to be accompanied by a formal business case and an Invitation to Tender (ITT) has to be sent out to at least three potential suppliers. However, Teri is a very clever lady. She managed to do a deal with Custcare and they agreed to supply the package at a cost of $19,995, just under the capex threshold. Teri had to cut a few things out. For example, we declined the training courses (Teri said the package was an easy one to use and she would show us how to use it) and also we opted for the lowest level of support, something we later came to regret. Overall, we were happy. We knew that Custcare was a popular and successful CRM package.
Interviewer: So, did you have a demonstration of the software before you bought it？
Mick: Oh yes, and everyone was very impressed. It seemed to do all the things we would ever want it to do and, in fact, it gave us some ideas about possibilities that we would never have thought of. Also, by then, it was clear that our internal IT department could not provide us with a bespoke solution. Teri had spoken to them informally and she was told that they could not even look at our requirements for 18 months. In contrast, we could be up and running with the Custcare package within three months. Also, IT quoted an internal transfer cost of $18,000 for just defining our requirements. This was almost as much as we were paying for the whole software solution!
Interviewer: When did things begin to go wrong？
Mick: Well, the implementation was not straightforward. We needed to migrate some data from our current established systems and we had no-one who could do it. We tried to recruit some local technical experts, but Custcare pointed out that we had signed their standard contract which only permitted Custcare consultants to work on such tasks. We had not realised this, as nobody had read the contract carefully. In the end, we had to give in and it cost us $10,000 in fees to migrate the data from some of our internal systems to the new package. Teri managed to get the money out of the operational budget, but we weren’t happy.
We then tried to share data between the Custcare software and our existing order processing system. We thought this would be easy, but apparently the file formats are incompatible. Thus we have to enter customer information into two systems and we are unable to exploit the customer order analysis facility of the Custcare CRM.
Finally, although we were happy with the functionality and reliability of the Custcare software, it works very slowly. This is really very disappointing. Some reports and queries have to be aborted because the software appears to have hung. The software worked very quickly in the demonstration, but it is painfully slow now that it is installed on our IT platform.
Interviewer: What is the current situation？
Mick: Well, we are all a bit deflated and disappointed in the package. The software seems reasonable enough, but its poor performance and our inability to interface it to the order processing system have reduced users’ confidence in the system. Because users have not been adequately trained, we have had to phone Custcare’s support desk more than we should. However, as I said before, we took the cheapest option. This is for a help line to be available from 8.00 hrs to 17.00 hrs Solland time. As you know, Solland is in a completely different time zone and so we have had to stay behind at work and contact them in the late evening. Again, nobody had closely read the terms of the contract. We have taken legal advice, but we have also found that, for dispute resolution, the contract uses the commercial contract laws of Solland. Nobody in Bridge Co knows what these are! Our solicitor said that we should have asked for this specification to be changed when the contract was drawn up. I just wish we had chosen a product produced by a company here in Deeland. It would have made it much easier to resolve issues and disputes.
Interviewer: What does Teri think？
Mick: Not a lot! She has left us to rejoin her old company in a more senior position. The board did ask her to justify her purchase of the Custcare CRM package, but I don’t think she ever did. I am not sure that she could!
Required:
(a) Suggest a process for evaluating, selecting and implementing a software package solution and explain how this process would have prevented the problems experienced at Bridge Co in the Custcare CRM application. (15 marks)
(b) The CEO of Bridge Co now questions whether buying a software package was the wrong approach to meeting the CRM requirements at Bridge Co. He wonders whether they should have commissioned a bespoke software system instead.
Explain, with reference to the CRM project at Bridge Co, the advantages of adopting a software package approach to fulfilling business system requirements compared with a bespoke software solution. (10 marks)
Informal rules, often called "manners", describe correct and incorrect behavior. in such situations as eating in a restaurant, going on a date, or working in an office. If one is impolite or misbehaves in these situations, other people often consider offender insensitive. And although we can strongly disagree to such misconduct, we can no legally punish someone for simply being inconsiderate or unpleasant.
Neither laws nor manners are inflexible; both changes as society develops. For example, in the early twentieth century, the selling of strong spirits was forbidden. This law, however, had to be changed because the government found it impossible to force people to drink only soft drinks. More recently, many people who were dissatisfied with the unequals between the rights of men and women worked to pass the equal rights law, as women became more independent and took on new roles, a new law was considered necessary to reflect that change.
According to the passage, people who offended the law may be ______.
A．put to death
B．put on afire
C．doing fine
D．put into prison
Trying to Find a Partner
One of the most striking findings of a recent poll in the UK is that of the people interviewed, one in two believes that it is becoming more difficult to meet someone to start a family with.
Why are many finding it increasingly difficult to start and sustain intimate relationships？ Does modern life really make it harder to fall in love？ Or are we making it harder for ourselves？
It is certainly the case today that contemporary couples benefit in different ways from relationships. Women no longer rely upon partners for economic security or status. A man doesn't expect his spouse to be in sole charge of running his household and raising his children.
But perhaps the knowledge that we can live perfectly well without a partnership means that it takes much more to persuade people to abandon their independence.
In theory, finding a partner should be much simpler these days. Only a few generations ago, your choice of soul mate (心上人) was constrained by geography, social convention and family tradition. Although it was never explicit, many marriages were essentially arranged.
Now those barriers have been broken down. You can approach a builder or a brain surgeon in any bar in any city on any given evening. When the world is your oyster (牡蛎), you surely have a better chance of finding a pearl.
But it seems that the old conventions have been replaced by an even tighter constraint: the tyranny of choice.
The expectations of partners are inflated to an unmanageable degree: good looks, impressive salary, kind to grandmother, and right socks. There is no room for error in the first impression.
We think that a relationship can be perfect. If it isn't, it is disposable. We work to protect ourselves against future heartache and don't put in the hard emotional labor needed to build a strong relationship. Of course, this is complicated by realities. The cost of housing and child-rearing creates pressure to have a stable income and career before a life partnership.
What does the recent poll show？
A．It is getting more difficult for a woman to find her husband.
B．It is getting increasingly difficult to start a family.
C．It is getting more difficult for a man to find his wife.
D．It is getting increasingly difficult to develop an intimate relationship with your spouse.
Although the manager spoke ______ of their products, we didn't buy it at last.
A．good
B．high
C．well
D．highly
[2] What somebody from one area may find hilarious may not be amusing at all to somebody from another location. Whether or not someone gets a joke is determined by their interpretation, filtered by the cultural context.
[3] What about when both countries speak the same mother tongue？ Does that mean that they will then share the same sense of humor, or can differences still occur？ Let’s take the example of Britain and America. Not only do Americans and Brits spell the word “humor” differently, most claim that American humor and British humor are quite different in nature. Time and time again, people say that Brits and Americans don’t “get” each other’s sense of humor. To what extent is this true, if at all？
[4] There’s a received wisdom in the U.K. that Americans don’t get irony. It is often believed to be one of the most common differences between the British and American sense of humor. This is of course not true. One of the major differences seems to be how often both countries use irony. Brits use irony on a daily basis. We use it as liberally as prepositions in every day speech. We tease our friends. We use sarcasm as a shield and a weapon. We avoid sincerity until it’s absolutely necessary. We mercilessly take the piss out of people we like or dislike basically. And ourselves. This is very important. Our brashness and swagger is laden with equal portions of self-deprecation. This is our license to hand it out.
[5] But it is not the foundation of American humor. I think Americans understand British irony (most of the time anyway!); what they don’t understand is the need to use it so frequently. When Americans use irony they tend to state that they were “only kidding”. They feel the need to make a joke more obvious than Brits do, maybe this stems from a fear of offending people.
[6] The American sense of humor is generally more slapstick than that in Britain. I think this arises from a cultural difference between the two. Their jokes are more obvious and forward, a bit like Americans themselves. British jokes, on the other hand, tend to be more subtle but with a dark or sarcastic undertone. There is usually a hidden meaning. This may stem from the fact that British culture is more reserved than American culture.
[7] Americans say, “Have a nice day” whether they mean it or not. Brits are terrified to say this. We tell ourselves it’s because we don’t want to sound insincere, but I think it might be for the opposite reason. We don’t want to celebrate anything too soon. Failure and disappointment lurk around every corner. This is due to our upbringing. Americans are brought up to believe they can be the next president of the United States. Brits are told, “It won’t happen for you.”
[8] Yet certain American comedies have gained huge success in Britain and vice versa. Therefore, although there are differences between both comic styles, there is still an appreciation and understanding of the other sense of humor. Both the British and American versions of the comedy The Office are hugely successfully on both sides of the Atlantic. Both shows have their own cultural differences, yet they portray a lifestyle. which both Americans and Brits alike can relate to. Although both nations have subtle differences in their wit, they can appreciate the other’s sense of humor.
46、According to this passage, all of the following factors influence how funny a person finds a certain incident except __________.
A.age
B.gender
C.personal experience
D.level of education
47、What is the main idea of the third paragraph？()
A.In this paragraph, the question whether Brits and Americans share the same sense of humor or not is put forward.
B.In this paragraph, the author emphasizes that Brits and Americans don’t understand each other’s sense of humor.
C.In this paragraph, the author emphasizes that American humor and British humor are quite different in nature.
D.In this paragraph, the question that to what extent American humor is different from British humor is put forward.
48、What is the topic sentence of the fourth paragraph？()
A.The first sentence.
B.The fourth sentence.
C.The fifth sentence.
D.The second sentence.
49、According to the fourth paragraph, the difference between American humor and British humor lies in the use of ___________.
A.joke
B.sarcasm
C.irony
D.metaphor
50、Why are British jokes more subtle than American jokes？()
A.Because Brits are more straightforward.
B.Because Brits are more slapstick.
C.Because Brits are more open.
D.Because British culture is more reserved than American culture.
Fashion is a hard business. There is a continuous amount of stress because work is at a constant breakneck (高速而危险的) speed to prepare for the next season's collections. It is extremely competitive and there is the constant need to cultivate good coverage in newspapers and magazines. It al so requires continual freshness because the appetite for new ideas is hard to satisfy. "We try to warn people before they come to us about how tough it is," says Lydia Kemeny, the Head of Fashion at St. Martin's School of Art in London. "And we point out that drive and determination are essential."
This may seem far removed from the popular image of fashionable young people spending their time designing pretty dresses, That may well be what they do in their first year of study but a good college won't be slow in introducing students to commercial realities. "We don't stamp on the blossoming flower of creativity but in the second year we start introducing the constraints of price, manufacturability, marketing and so on."
Almost all fashion design is done to a brief. It is not a form. of self-expression as such, although there is certainly room for imagination and innovation. Most young designers are going to end up as employees of a manufacturer or fashion house and they still need to be able to work within the characteristic style. of their employer. Even those students who are most avant-garde (标新立异的) in their own taste of clothes and image may need to adapt to produce designs which are right for the main stream of market. They also have to be able to work at both tire exclusively expensive and the cheap end of the market and the challenge to produce good design inexpensively may well be demanding.
To be successful as a fashion designer you must ______.
A．have excellent academic qualifications
B．be able to handle business problems
C．be well established before you are 20
D．have taken an intensive commercial course
A．computers are only machines, while managers are humans
B．computers can't think
C．computers can't individually solve problems or make decisions both
D．B and C
Section B – TWO questions ONLY to be attempted
iCompute was founded twenty years ago by the technology entrepreneur, Ron Yeates. It initially specialised in building bespoke computer software for the financial services industry. However, it has expanded into other specialised areas and it is currently the third largest software house in the country, employing 400 people. It still specialises in bespoke software, although 20% of its income now comes from the sales of a software package designed specifically for car insurance.
The company has grown based on a ‘work hard, play hard work ethic’ and this still remains. Employees are expected to work long hours and to take part in social activities after work. Revenues have continued to increase over the last few years, but the firm has had difficulty in recruiting and retaining staff. Approximately one-third of all employees leave within their first year of employment at the company. The company appears to experience particular difficulty in recruiting and retaining female staff, with 50% of female staff leaving within 12 months of joining the company. Only about 20% of the employees are female and they work mainly in marketing and human resources.
The company is currently in dispute with two of its customers who claim that its bespoke software did not fit the agreed requirements. iCompute currently outsources all its legal advice problems to a law firm that specialises in computer contracts and legislation. However, the importance of legal advice has led to iCompute considering the establishment of an internal legal team, responsible for advising on contracts, disputes and employment legislation.
The support of bespoke solutions and the car insurance software package was also outsourced a year ago to a third party. Although support had been traditionally handled in-house, it was unpopular with staff. One of the senior managers responsible for the outsourcing decision claimed that support calls were ‘increasingly varied and complex, reflecting incompetent end users, too lazy to read user guides.’ However, the outsourcing of support has not proved popular with iCompute’s customers and a number of significant complaints have been made about the service given to end users. The company is currently reviewing whether the software support process should be brought back in-house.
The company is still regarded as a technology leader in the market place, although the presence of so many technically gifted employees within the company often creates uncertainty about the most appropriate technology to adopt for a solution. One manager commented that ‘we have often adopted, or are about to adopt, a technology or solution when one of our software developers will ask if we have considered some newly released technology. We usually admit we haven’t and so we re-open the adoption process. We seem to be in a state of constant technical paralysis.’
Although Ron Yeates retired five years ago, many of the software developers recruited by him are still with the company. Some of these have become operational managers, employed to manage teams of software developers on internal and external projects. Subba Kendo is one of the managers who originally joined the company as a trainee programmer. ‘I moved into management because I needed to earn more money. There is a limit to what you can earn here as a software developer. However, I still keep up to date with programming though, and I am a goalkeeper for one of the company’s five-a-side football teams. I am still one of the boys.’
However, many of the software developers are sceptical about their managers. One commented that ‘they are technologically years out of date. Some will insist on writing programs and producing code, but we take it out again as soon as we can and replace it with something we have written. Not only are they poor programmers, they are poor managers and don’t really know how to motivate us.’ Although revenues have increased, profits have fallen. This is also blamed on the managers. ‘There is always an element of ambiguity in specifying customers’ requirements. In the past, Ron Yeates would debate responsibility for requirements changes with the customer. However, we now seem to do all amendments for free. The customer is right even when we know he isn’t. No wonder margins are falling. The managers are not firm enough with customers.’
The software developers are also angry that an in-house project has been initiated to produce a system for recording time spent on tasks and projects. Some of the justification for this is that a few of the projects are on a ‘time and materials’ basis and a time recording system would permit accurate and prompt invoicing. However, the other justification for the project is that it will improve the estimation of ‘fixed-price’ contracts. It will provide statistical information derived from previous projects to assist account managers preparing estimates to produce quotes for bidding for new bespoke development contracts.
Vikram Soleski, one of the current software developers, commented that ‘managers do not even have up-to-date mobile phones, probably because they don’t know how to use them. We (software developers) always have the latest gadgets long before they are acquired by managers. But I like working here, we have a good social scene and after working long hours we socialise together, often playing computer games well into the early hours of the morning. It’s a great life if you don’t weaken!’
Required:
(a) Analyse the culture of iCompute, and assess the implications of your analysis for the company’s future performance. (13 marks)
(b) iCompute is currently re-considering three high level processes:
(i) Advice on legal issues (currently outsourced)
(ii) Software support (currently outsourced)
(iii) Time recording (in-house, bespoke software development)
Evaluate, using an appropriate framework or model, the suitability of iCompute’s current approach to EACH of these high level processes. (12 marks)
