2012年剑桥商务英语中级全真模拟试题（一）

2012年剑桥商务英语中级全真模拟试题（一）

PART ONE

Look at the statements below and the article about the development of future business leaders on the opposite page.

Which section of the article(A, B, C or D)does each statement(1-7)refer to? You will need to use some of these letters more than once.

1 Managers need to take action to convince high-flyers of their value to the firm.

2 Organisations need to look beyond the high-flyers they are currently developing.

3 There is a concern that firms investing in training for high-flyers may not gain the benefits themselves.

4 Managers need expert assistance from within their own firms in developing high-flyers.

5 Firms currently identify high-flyers without the support of a guidance strategy.

6 Managers are frequently too busy to deal with the development of high-flyers.

7 Firms who work hard on their reputation as an employer will interest high-flyers.

The Stars of the Future

A. Existing management research does not tell us much about how to find and develop high-flyers, those people who have the potential to reach the top of an organisation. As a result, organisations are left to formulate their own systems. A more effective overall policy for developing future leaders is needed, which is why the London Business School has launched the Tomorrow's Leaders

Research Group(TLRG). The group contains representatives from 20 firms, and meets regularly to discuss the leadership development of the organisations' high-flyers.

B. TLRG recognises just how significant line managers are in the process of leadership development. Unfortunately, with today's flat organisations, where managers have functional as well as managerial responsibilities, people development all too often falls victim to heavy workloads. One manager in the research group was unconvinced by the logic of sending his best people away on development courses, 'only to see them poached by another department or,worse still, another firm' . This fear of losing high-flyers runs deep in the organisations that make up the research group.

C. TLRG argues that the task of management is not necessarily about employee retention, but about creating 'attraction centres'. |We must help line managers to realise that if their companies are known as ones that develop their people, they will have a greater appeal to

high-flyers, ' said one advisor. Furthermore, selecting people for, say, a leadership development programme is a sign of commitment from management to an individual. Loyalty can then be more easily demanded in return.

D. TLRG has concluded that a company's HR specialists need to take action and engage with line managers individually about their role in the development of high-flyers. Indeed, in order to benefit fully from training high-flyers as the senior managers of the future. firms must actually address the development of all managers who will be supporting the high-flyers. Without this, managers will not be in a position to give appropriate advice. And when eventually the high-flyers do move on, new ones will be needed to replace them. The next challenge will be to find a new generation of high-flyers.

PART TWO

Read the article below about possible reasons for acquiring a company. Choose the best sentence from the opposite page to fill each of the gaps. Do not use any letter more than once.

ACOUISITION

When should a company consider acquisition as a way forward?

There are many circumstances in which a company may wish to take over another organisation through an acquisition. The need to keep up with a changing environment often dominates thinking about acquisitions. One compelling reason to develop by acquisition is the speed with which it allows the company to enter new product or market areas. This is particularly true of e-commerce.

The strength of competitors may influence a company to choose acquisition as a way forward. In markets that are static and where market shares of companies are reasonably steady, it can be difficult for a company to break into the market, since its presence may create excess capacity. (1)

The same arguments also apply when an established supplier in an industry acquires a competitor. This may either be to gain the competitor's market share or, in some cases, to shut down its capacity in order to restore a situation where supply and demand are more balanced. There may be financial motives for acquisition. If the share value of a company is high, the motive may be to spot and acquire a firm with a low share value. (2) An extreme example is asset stripping, where the main motive for the acquisition is short-term gain by buying up undervalued assets and selling them on bit by bit.

There may also be resource considerations. There may be a lack of resources or skills to compete successfully. So they must be acquired. (3) It may also be that it has knowledge of a particular type of production system, business process or market need. In an international context, acquisition is often a means of gaining market knowledge.

Sometimes there are reasons of cost efficiency which make acquisition look attractive. A cost efficiency could arise from the fact that an established company may already be very experienced and have achieved efficiencies which another company would find difficult to achieve quickly by internal means. (4) In consumer goods industries, cost efficiency is usually the reason for an acquisition.

Acquisition can also be driven by the expectations of key shareholders. Share-holders usually expect to see continuing growth, and acquisition may be a quick way to deliver this growth. But

there are considerable dangers that an acquisition ca …… 此处隐藏：8323字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……