Are you a team player?
We hear a lot about team building these days. Team-building experts are hired by some corporations to lecture us on how to work more effectively with each other. And they organize awaydays(息工日) - a time employees spend together away from their usual workplace.
Here in the UK, employees can take part in activities such as Zombie boot camps where military instructors train you how to fight walking 'dead people'. For the brainier office workers amongst us there are crime investigations modelled on popular TV dramas like Sherlock Holmes and CSI.
Stressed-out city workers might have ukulele lessons made available to them. Why is that a good team-building exercise? Ukulele teacher Lorraine Bow says: "The fact that they can play a musical instrument within an hour is quite a fulfilling thing, really. It's not competitive – it's quite easy to do and a bit less intimidating than a guitar…"
Actually, a horse might be a bit more intimidating than an instrument. The animals are used by a company in Abu Dhabi which teaches leadership through horse training. Basically, you have to go in a yard with a horse and persuade it that you're the boss by using body language.
Kelly Eide, co-founder of True Leadership, says: "The horses don't care if your hair is purple, if you're a man or a woman, if you're old or young... It transcends all of those cultural boundaries – age, gender, religion, tradition etc. – so that's a perfect fit. And in an organization where you really need groups of people to gel, who come from backgrounds which have no common norms, you can teach that most efficiently with a horse."
And the horse feels instinctively whether or not you are a natural leader. So if after you've done a good presentation your boss offers you a carrot, you'll know where he might have learnt it from.
32. What are awaydays for?
A. To gather employees to join a meeting on how to work more effectively with each other.
B. To building team spirit among people who work for the same company.
C. To criticize employer who have not satisfied outstanding achievement.
D. To teach people how to make team more united.
33. Which of the following is true according to the passage?
A. The one in which you learn to 'kill' Zombies is more physically demanding.
B. Ukulele lessons are designed for people who are highly intelligent.
C. Stressed-out city workers both have ukulele lessons made available to them.
D. A horse must be a bit more intimidating than an instrument.
34. How long does it take for you to learn how to play the ukulele?
A. One hour B. Two-hour C. 15 minutes D. half hour
35. We can infer that the word "gel" (Line 4, Para5) refers to______.
A. invitation B. recreate C. cooperate D. help
BAAC