Directions: In this part there is a short passage with five questions or incomplete statements. Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete the statements in the fewest possible words .
One summer my wife Chris and I were invited by friends to row down the Colorado River in a boat. Our expedition included many highly successful people the kind who have staffs to take care of lifes daily work. But in the wilder rapids, all of us naturally set aside any pretenses and put out backs into every stroke to keep the boat from tumbling over. At each nights encampment, we all hauled supplies and cleaned dishes. After only two days in the river, people accustomed to being spoiled and indulged had become a team, working together to cope with the unpredictable twists and turns of the river.
I believe that in life as well as on boat trips teamwork will make all our journeys successful ones. The rhythms of teamwork have been the rhythms of my life. I played basketball alongside famous players, and the team I now coach, the New York Knicks, has recovered from years of adversity to become a major contender in the 1990s.
Im persuaded that teamwork is the key to making dreams come true. We all play on a number of teams in our livesas part of a family, as a citizen, as a member of an agreement, written or unwritten. It contains the values and goals for every team member.
For example, in the late 1970s a General Motors plant in Fremont, Calif, was the scene of constant warfare between labor and management. Distrust ran so high that the labor contract was hundreds of pages of tricky legal terms. GM spent millions trying to keep the facility up to date, but productivity and quality were continually poor. Absenteeism was so out of control that the production line couldnt even start up on some mornings. Finally in the early 1980s, GM shut down the plant.
GM became convinced that it had to create new production systems based on teamwork. In the mid-1980s it reopened the Fremont plant with Toyota, starting from scratch with a much simpler and shorter labor contract. It promised that executive salaries would be reduced and jobs performed by outside sellers would be given to employees before any layoffs were considered. Over a hundred job classifications were cut to just two. Instead of doing one boring job over and over, workers agreed to be part of small teams, spending equal time on various tasks.
Questions:
S1. What comment did the author make about the highly successful people travelling with him?
S2. Why was it easy for boats to tumble over in the Colorado?
S3. What happened to the New York Knicks in the 1980s?
S4. What caused the sharp conflict in the GM plant in the late 1970s?
S5. What spirit was encouraged in the reopened GM plant?
Unit 2
1. They were accustomed to being spoiled and indulged.
They were used to being spoiled and indulged.
They were accustomed to being taken care of by others.
They usually left lifes daily work in others hand.
2. Because of the twists and the turns of the river.
Because of the wilder rapids.
Because the river is full of unpredictable twists and turns.
Because there are wilder rapids in the river.
Because there are unpredictable twists and turns.
3. It was in adversity.
It was by no means a major contender.
It was suffering from years of adversity.
Teamwork was not brought into full play.
4. The lack of teamwork.
Teamwork was neglected.
Distrust and lack of teamwork.
5. Teamwork.
The spirit of teamwork.
The spirit to work as a team.