I once had my Chinese MBA students brainstorming on “two-hour business plans”. I separated them into six groups and gave them an example: a restaurant chain. The more original their idea, the better, I said. Finally, five of the six groups presented plans for restaurant chains. The sixth proposed a catering service. Though I admitted the time limit had been difficult, I expressed my disappointment.
My students were middle managers, financial analysts and financiers from state owned enterprises and global companies. They were not without talent or opinions, but they had been shaped by an educational system that rarely stressed or rewarded critical thinking or inventiveness. The scene I just described came in different forms during my two years’ teaching at the school. Papers were often copied from the Web and the Harvard Business Review. Case study debates were written up and just memorized. Students frequently said that copying is a superior business strategy, better than inventing and creating.
In China, every product you can imagine has been made and sold. But so few well developed marketing and management minds have been raised that it will be a long time before most people in the world can name a Chinese brand.
With this problem in mind, partnerships with institutions like Yale and MIT have been established. And then there’s the “thousand talent scheme”: this new government program is intended to improve technological modernization by attracting top foreign trained scientists to the mainland with big money. But there are worries about China’s research environment. It’s hardly known for producing independent thinking and openness, and even big salary offers may not be attractive enough to overcome this.
At last, for China, becoming a major world creator is not just about setting up partnerships with top Western universities. Nor is it about gathering a group of well-educated people and telling them to think creatively. It’s about establishing a rich learning environment for young minds. It’s not that simple.
1.Why does the author feel disappointed at his students?
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A．Because there is one group presenting a catering service. |
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B．Because the six groups made projects for restaurant chains. |
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C．Because all the students copied a case for the difficult topic. |
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D．Because the students’ ideas were lacking in creativeness. |
2.We can infer from the passage that ________.
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A．China can make and sell any product all over the world |
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B．high pay may not solve the problem of China’s research environment |
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C．cooperation with institutions has been set up to make a Chinese brand |
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D．the new government program are aimed at encouraging imagination |
3.Which is the best title of the passage?
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A．Look for a New Way of Learning. |
B．Reward Creative Thinking. |
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C．How to Become a Creator. |
D．Establish a technical Environment. |
For each blank in the following passage there are four words or phrases marked A, B, C and D. Fill in each blank with the word or phrase that best fits the context.
In 1867 the United States faced the task of rebuilding after the destruction of the Civil War, so it looked westward for the raw materials needed to fuel industrial growth. Geological surveys and mapping journeys were set forth to explore this 1 territory. These groups, in turn, hired mapmakers, scientists, cooks, drivers, and doctors. They also hired painters and photographers as part of the teams. Painters needed few supplies, making it relatively easy for them to travel in the wilderness, ____2____ photographers were not so lucky; they had to transport a fully stocked darkroom on the __3____.
Until the late 1870s, most photographers used the __4___ wet-collodion process. The first step was to wash a clean sheet of glass with a sticky mixture of collodion and chemicals, (collodion or "gun-cotton" was a recent medical discovery used to cover wounds because the viscous (粘性的) solution turned into a protective film when dry.) After it was washed, the plate went into another bath that the picture was __5___ getting darker; Finally, the glass negative (底片) was washed clean with fresh water. __6__ a photograph from the negative had to wait until the photographer went back to the studio. The ___7___ of the negative depended on the size of the camera. Some negatives could be as large as 20 by 24 inches.
Imagine the __8____ of taking photographs in the 1860s and 1870s in the remote western wilderness! Photographers went over Rocky Mountains and through rushing rivers. They were __9____ in the terrible desert heat, with cameras, sheets of glass, and vats of chemicals. Bad weather, equipment failures, and accidents were frequent problems. They persevered, but success in creating a negative did not ___10___ the production of a photograph; plates still had to be ___11___ transported back to the studio before the image could be printed on paper. A photographer could carry 120 pounds of many miles to ____12____ a magnificent view only to have the easily broken plate ___13___ in transportation.
__14___, once photographers were successful, the results were superb and much admired. Photographs were put on exhibition, and people bought albums filled with pictures by Timothy O'Sullivan, Carleton Watkins, and William Henry Jackson. Jackson's photographs of Yellowstone's
natural wonders, along with the paintings of fellow Thomas Moran, even helped ___15___ Congress to preserve thousands of acres of this land in 1872 as the nation's first national park.
Complete the passage by choosing the proper words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.
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A. reward B. ignore C. unique D. completed E. persevering F. solution G. ride H. recovery I. brush J. challenging |
What is your dream? What is the goal that you have set for yourself and are working to achieve? Realizing your dreams is not an easy ___1___.
Last fall I decided to write a new book for my publisher. Writing a book is a __2___ goal, which got off to a terrific start last October. The writing is flowing well. Then I got sick. In fact, I got ill that I needed surgery and the ___3___ was long and exhausting. I did not work from the first week of November until the second week of January. By then I was nervous about meeting the April deadline for submitting the new manuscript to my publisher.
Worried, I asked my author friends for some help, and they gave me this key piece of advice, “Let’s start writing!" they all said. So I did. It was not an immediate ___4___ to my depression, but after a few weeks of ___5___, I got back to normal. Several people in my circle of supporters helped me make some good connections and I got the book ___6___, and to the publisher on time. It was an exciting goal for me to reach, so I took my family to Hawaii as my ___7___.
Sometimes you ___8___ your own dreams because of self-doubt, fear, or external complications. You can think of many different excuses to ___9___ those dreams aside, but, if you go after your dreams, your world will become more exciting and you will begin to live a more passionate and meaningful life.
So, now, take a minute to write down three goals you want to accomplish this year.
_______ they may have, the CEO of the corporation calls on all the staff to gather their courage to strive it.
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A．What a serious problem |
B．However a serious problem |
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C．How serious a problem |
D．Whatever a serious problem |
Fortunately, what the witness reported to the police on the phone led to ___________.
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A．the suspect's being captured |
B．capture the suspect |
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C．the suspect having captured |
D．be captured by the suspect |
The new lecture course differs from the old one, ________ the students aren't required to attend lectures.
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A．which that |
B．that |
C．which |
D．in which |
