真题分析 五

　　2000年3月 section2 16-20

　　Reading Objectives: 熟悉先破后立的论证方式，巩固边读边做笔记的方法，重点是学会找主题句

　　Questions 16～20

　　Mitsubishi Motors just announced plans to cut 10,000 jobs. Last week Nissan, now owned by Renault and answering to its tough-minded foreign boss, pledged to slash 16,500. Similar reports from Tokyo for the past year have been greeted by American and British economists as signals that at last the famous Japanese practice of permanent employment is vanishing—a profound, traumatic transformation that they insist Japan needs.

　　本段中，由大公司的实例引出欧美学者的观点

　　But there is less to trend than meets the eye. Reading past the headlines, one discovers that Mitsubishi's cuts will not take full effect until March 2004. Even Nissan's new chief operating officer, Carlos Ghosn, known to the world as “The Cost Killer,” will spread out the downsizing over three years. And Japan's companies are making many of their adjustments through attrition, hiring freezes, voluntary retirement buyouts and reassignment of employees to subsidiaries. What is striking about what is happening now is not that is represents a change in the way companies deal with workers, but that it shows remarkable continuity in nearly desperate economic times.

　　But there is less to trend than meets the eye. Reading past the headlines

　　有强转折词，本句很有可能是主题句

　　第二句话很具体，不太可能是主题句

　　What is striking引导的内容需要重点读

　　17. Which of the following best paraphrases the statement “there is less to the

　　trend than meets the eye” (Para.2)

　　(A) Everything can be observed through the trend.

　　(B) The trend is superficial rather than fundamental.

　　(C) The trend shows the continuity of Japanese recruiting practice.?

　　(D) The trend tells us little about the Japanese employment system.?

　　For decades, American analysts have been predicting that a change in the Japanese ways of doing business was imminent. In good times, like the 60's or 80's, labor shortages and affluence were expected to lead employees to reject the status quo and start job hopping. In bad times, like the 70's or 90's, the pressure of the bottom line was expected to lead bosses “finally” to a proper market based system of employment.

　　Imminent：即将到来

　　In good times与In bad times的对应

　　job hopping：跳槽

　　The analysts who make these predictions do not understand the deep historical roots of Japan's employment practices, roots sunk in its legal system, the structure of schools, its systems of job recruiting and skill development, its decades-old cooperative relations between companies and unions, and the implicit expectations we call culture.

　　On the very day of the Nissan announcement, a back-page story in Japanese newspapers showed how firm the grip of these foots can be. The game maker Sega had fired a 35 -year-old man for “lack of ability”. He protested with a lawsuit, and the courts ruled in his favor. They called the termination an “abuse of the right to fire,”decided the company had made “insufficient effort to train the employee” and ordered Sega to pay back wages.

　　本段用实例证明作者观点，反驳欧美学者的观点。

　　20. The author uses the example of the game maker Sega to show ________.

　　(A) the importance of economic reform in Japan

　　(B) the progress of Japanese legal system

　　(C) the contradiction between labour and capital

　　(D) the cultural influence in employment practice

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