2009年考研英語沖刺閱讀理解專項(xiàng)訓(xùn)練179

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The most important contribution of management in the 20th century was the 50fold increase in the Droductivity of the manual worker in manufacturin9,"wrote the management guru Peter Drucker.“The most important contribution management needs to make in the 21 st century is similarly to increase the productivity of the knowledge worker.  
     But how?While manual workers toiling on assembly lines can be reorganised in a top-down way to imDrove efficiencY,information workers are more selbdirected,and must find efficient routines to process a constant flow of information on their own.o The problem is akin to rewriting a piece of software to make it run more reliably. And just as programmers like to exploit tricks or“hacks"to get results auickly,a new“l(fā)ife hackin9”movement is now applying the same approach to reorganising life off the screen t00.
     Dannv O'Brien,an internet activist and writer,introduced the term in a presentation at the 0’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference in 2004.He sent long questionnaires to dozens of“over-prolific alpha geeks”asking them how they managed to accomplish so much and avoid technological distractions.Mr O'Brien’s hypothesis was that these geeks had hit upon a set of strategies for working efficiently in a self-managed,infinitely diverting world.“I saw the people around me employing all these tricks,”he recalls.“But they kept their tricks to themselves.Some life hackers get self-conscious about talking about it tOO much.”
     Mr O'Brien’s presentation resonated with many technologists,including Merlin Mann,who started a weblog in September 2004 called 43 Folders that synthesised life hackin9’s high-tech perspective with that of“Getting Things Done”,a bestselling productivity book by David Allen.“Getting Things Done’ advocates breaking down all projects into single steps that can be accomplished in a few minutes and keeping track of these steps on categorised lists--productivity software for the mind,in short.④ Although this kind of regimented approach is Of particular appeal to geeks,it could have wider application among information workers in general.“Geeks are the canaries in the coal mine,”says Mr Mann.“We were the first to be overwhelmed by e-mail.The tools used by geeks today often end up being more widely adopted tomorrow.
     Life hacking does not rely on the use of technology for the sake of it,however.Indeed,perhaps Mr Mal3.il’s greatest claim to fame is the ironically named“Hipster PDA”一a stack of index cards held together by a bulldog clip that is,he contends,superior to an electronic personal organiser.④Mr Mann’ s presentation of the idea resembles a comedy routine,but his point is a serious one:there is not much fiddlin9,configuration and customisation to be done with a stack of index cards,so users must instead get on with doing something useful.[460 words]
     1.Peter Drucker believes that management______.
     A.contributes more to the productivity of manual workers
     B.contributes less to the productivity of white-collar workers
     C.may contribute to the increase of the productivity of all workers
     D.will contribute more in the 2 1 st century than it did in the 20th century
     2.It is less easy for the management to improve the efficiency of knowledge workers because______.
     A.the work they do is totally different from that of manual workers
     B.they tend to direct and organize their work by themselves
     C.a(chǎn) piece of more reliable software has to be developed
     D.a(chǎn) new“l(fā)ife hackin9”movement is under way
     3.The phrase“over—prolific alpha geeks”in paragraph 3 refers t0______.
     A.creative information workers with high efficienc)/
     B.1ife hackers who often boast about their tricks in life
     C.those who have to process a lot of information every day
     D.those attending the 0’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference
     4.Danny 0’Brien______.
     A.is famous primarily for the idea of“Hipster PDA”
     B.a(chǎn)dvocates the adoption of life hacker’s“hacks’’in life
     C.spares no efforts to support the perspective of David Allen
     D.introduced the regimented approach to the knowledge workers
     5.The text is mainly about______.
     A.the application of a programmer’s tricks to reprogramming life and work
     B.what contribution management will make in the 21st century
     C.how to increase the productivity of workers in all lines
     D.Mr 0’Brien and the new“l(fā)ife hackin9”movement
     超綱詞匯
     PDA abbr.(Personal Digital Assistant)個(gè)人數(shù)字助理
     Canary n.金絲雀
     hack n.出租,做幫手
     hacker n.電腦黑客,從網(wǎng)絡(luò)中擅自存取的人
     prolific adj.多產(chǎn)的,豐富的
     stack-staek:n.摞,疊
     svnlhesise vt.人工合成,綜合處理
     resonate vt,諧振,共鳴,回晌,調(diào)諧
     distraction n.娛樂,分心,分心的事物
     fold n.折,倍數(shù)
     divert 轉(zhuǎn)移,轉(zhuǎn)向,使高興
     geek n.做低級滑稽表演的人