Reading Comprehension
Reading Comprehension: English Reading Comprehension Exercises with Answers, Sample Passages for Reading Comprehension Test for GRE, CAT, IELTS preparation
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Q241. > Management education gained new academic stature within US
> Universities and greater respect from outside during the 1960s and
> 1970s. Some observers attribute the competitive superiority of US
> corporations to the quality of business education. In 1978, a
> management professor, Herbert A. Simon of Carnegie Mellon University,
> won the Nobel Prize in economics for his work in decision theory. And
> the popularity of business education continued to grow since 1960’s
> and the MBA has become known as the passport to the good life. By the
> 1980s, however, US business schools faced critics who charged that
> learning had little relevance to real business problems. Some went so
> far as to blame business schools for the decline in US
> competitiveness. Amidst the criticisms, four distinct arguments may be
> discerned. The first is that business schools must be either
> unnecessary or deleterious because Japan does so well without them.
> Underlying these arguments is the idea that management ability cannot
> be taught-one is either born with it or must acquire it over years of
> practical experience. A second argument is that business schools are
> overly academic and theoretical. They teach quantitative models that
> have little application to real world problems. Third, they give
> inadequate attention to shop floor issues, to production processes and
> to management resources. Finally, it is argued that they encourage
> undesirable attitudes in students, such as placing value in the short
> term, on bottom line targets, while neglecting longer term
> developmental criteria. In summary, some business executives complain
> that MBA’s are incapable of making day-to-day peritoneal decisions,
> unable to communicate and to motivate people, and unwilling to accept
> responsibility for following through implementation plans. We shall
> analyze these criticisms after having reviewed experiences in other
> countries. In contrast to be the expansion and development of business
> education in the United States and more recently in Europe, Japanese
> business schools graduate no more than two hundred MBA’s each year.
> The Keio Business School (KBS) was the only graduate school of
> management in the entire country until the mid 1970s and it still
> boasts the only two-year masters programme. The absence of business
> schools in Japan would appear in contradiction with the high priority
> placed upon learning by its Confucian culture. Confucian colleges
> taught administrative skills as early as 1630 and Japan wholeheartedly
> accepted Western learning following the Meiji restoration of 1868 when
> hundreds of students were dispatched to universities in the U.S.A.,
> Germany, England and France, to learn the secrets of western
> technology and modernization. Moreover, the Japanese educational
> system is highly developed and intensely competitive and can be
> credited for raising the literary and mathematical abilities of the
> Japanese to the highest level in the world. Until recently, Japanese
> corporations have not been interested in using either local or foreign
> business schools for the development of their future executives. Their
> in-company-training programmers have sought the socialization of
> newcomers, the younger the better. The training is highly specific and
> those who receive it. Have neither the capacity nor the incentive to
> quit. The prevailing belief says Imai, is that management should be
> borne out of experience and many years of effort and not learnt from
> educational institutions. A 1960 survey of Japanese senior executives
> confirmed that a majority (54%) believed that managerial capabilities
> can be attained only on the job and not in universities. However, this
> view seems to be changing, the same survey revealed that even as early
> as 1960, 37% of senior executives felt that the universities should
> teach integrate professional management. In the 1980s, a combination
> of increased competitive pressures and greater multi-nationalisation
> of Japanese business are making the Japanese take a fresh look at
> Management Education.
The author argues that the Japanese system
- is better that the American system
- is highly productive and gives corporate leadership a long-term view as a result of its strong traditionis highly productive and gives corporate leadership a long-term view as a result of its strong traditions.
- is slowly becoming Americanised.
- succeeds without business schools, whereas the U.S. system fails because of it.
- Japanese corporations do not hire MBAs because of traditions of universal and rigorous academic education, lifelong employment and strong group identification.
Solution : is highly productive and gives corporate leadership a long-term view as a result of its strong traditionis highly productive and gives corporate leadership a long-term view as a result of its strong traditions.
Q242. > How quickly things change in the technology business! A decade ago,
> IBM was the awesome and undisputed king of the computer trade,
> universally feared and respected. A decade ago, two little companies
> called Intel and Microsoft were mere blips on the radar screen of the
> industry, upstart startups that had signed on to make the chips and
> software for IBM’s new line of personal computers. Though their
> products soon became industry standards, the two companies remained
> protected children of the market leader. What has happened since is a
> startling reversal of fortune? IBM is being ravaged by the worst
> crisis in the company’s 79-year history. It is undergoing its fifth
> restructuring in the past seven years as well as seemingly endless
> rounds of job cuts and firings that have eliminated 100,000 jobs since
> 1985. Last week, IBM announced to its shell-shocked investors that it lost $4.97 billion last year-the biggest loss in American corporate
> history. And just when IBM is losing ground in one market after
> another, Intel and Microsoft have emerged as the computer industry’s
> most fearsome pair of competitors. The numbers on Wall Street tell a
> stunning story. Ten years ago, the market value of the stock of Intel
> and Microsoft combined amounted to about a tenth of IBM’s. Last week,
> with IBM’s stock at an 11 year low, Microsoft’s value surpassed its
> old mentor’s for the first time even ($26.76 billion to $26.48
> billion), and Intel ($24.3 billion) is not far behind. While IBM is
> posting losses, Intel’s profits jumped 30% and Microsoft’s rose 44%.
> Both Intel, the world’s largest supplier of computer chips, and
> Microsoft, the world’s largest supplier of computer software, have
> assumed the role long played by Big Blue as the industry’s pacesetter.
> What is taking place is a generational shift unprecedented in the
> information age – one that recalls transition in the U.S. auto
> industry 70 years ago, when Alfred Sloan’s upstart General Motors
> surpassed Ford Motors as America’s No. 1 car maker. The transition
> also reflects the decline of computer manufacturers such as IBM, Wang
> and Unisys, and the rise of companies like Microsoft, Intel and AT & T
> that create the chips and software to make the computers work. Just
> like Dr. Frankenstein, IBM created these two monster competitors, says
> Richard Shaffer, publisher of the Computer Letter. Now, even IBM is in
> danger of being trampled by the creations it unleashed. Although Intel
> and Microsoft still have close relationships with Big Blue, there is
> little love lost between IBM and its potent progeny. IBM had an ugly
> falling-out with former partner Microsoft over the future of
> personal-computer software. Microsoft developed the now famous disk
> operating system for the IBM-PC called DOS–and later created the
> operating software for the next generation of IBM personal computers,
> the Personal System/2. When PS/2 and its operating system, OS/3,
> failed to catch on, a feud erupted over how the two companies would
> upgrade the system. Although they publicly patched things up, the
> partnership was tattered. IBM developed its own version of OS/3, which
> has so far failed to capture the industry’s imagination, Microsoft’s
> competing version, dubbed New Technology, or NT, will debut in a few
> moths and will incorporate Microsoft’s highly successful Windows
> program, which lets users juggle several programs at once. Windows NT
> however, will offer more new features, such as the ability to link
> many computers together in a network and to safeguard them against
> unauthorized use. IBM and Intel have also been parting company. After
> relying almost exclusively on the Santa Clara California company for
> the silicon chips that serve as computer brains, IBM has moved to
> reduce its dependence on Intel by turning to competing vendors. In
> Europe, IBM began selling a low-cost line of PCs called Ambra, which
> runs on chips made by Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices. IBM also
> demonstrated a sample PC using a chip made by another Intel enemy,
> Cyrix. And last October, IBM said it would begin selling the company’s
> own chips to outsiders, in direct competition with Intel. IBM clearly
> feels threatened. And the wounded giant still poses the biggest threat
> to any future dominance by Intel and Microsoft. Last year, it teamed
> up with both companies’ most bitter rivals–Apple Computers and
> Motorola–to develop advanced software and microprocessors for a new
> generation of desktop computers. In selecting Apple and Motorola, IBM
> bypassed its longtime partners. Just as Microsoft’s standard
> operations system runs only on computers built around Intel’s computer
> chips, Apple’s software runs only on Motorola’s chips. Although IBM
> has pledged that the new system will eventually run on a variety of
> machines, it will initially run only computer programs written for
> Apple’s Macintosh or IBM’s OS/2. Its competitive juices now flowing,
> IBM last week announced that it and Apple Computer will deliver the
> operating system in 1994–a year ahead of schedule.
As a result of greater competition in the US Computer industry:
- Some computer companies are expanding while others are contracting.
- Employment in the industry is going down.
- The industry is becoming more monopolized.
- The share value of IBM is going up relative to that of Intel and Microsoft.
- General Motors broke away from Ford Motors.
Solution : Some computer companies are expanding while others are contracting.
Q243. > How quickly things change in the technology business! A decade ago,
> IBM was the awesome and undisputed king of the computer trade,
> universally feared and respected. A decade ago, two little companies
> called Intel and Microsoft were mere blips on the radar screen of the
> industry, upstart startups that had signed on to make the chips and
> software for IBM’s new line of personal computers. Though their
> products soon became industry standards, the two companies remained
> protected children of the market leader. What has happened since is a
> startling reversal of fortune? IBM is being ravaged by the worst
> crisis in the company’s 79-year history. It is undergoing its fifth
> restructuring in the past seven years as well as seemingly endless
> rounds of job cuts and firings that have eliminated 100,000 jobs since
> 1985. Last week, IBM announced to its shell-shocked investors that it lost $4.97 billion last year-the biggest loss in American corporate
> history. And just when IBM is losing ground in one market after
> another, Intel and Microsoft have emerged as the computer industry’s
> most fearsome pair of competitors. The numbers on Wall Street tell a
> stunning story. Ten years ago, the market value of the stock of Intel
> and Microsoft combined amounted to about a tenth of IBM’s. Last week,
> with IBM’s stock at an 11 year low, Microsoft’s value surpassed its
> old mentor’s for the first time even ($26.76 billion to $26.48
> billion), and Intel ($24.3 billion) is not far behind. While IBM is
> posting losses, Intel’s profits jumped 30% and Microsoft’s rose 44%.
> Both Intel, the world’s largest supplier of computer chips, and
> Microsoft, the world’s largest supplier of computer software, have
> assumed the role long played by Big Blue as the industry’s pacesetter.
> What is taking place is a generational shift unprecedented in the
> information age – one that recalls transition in the U.S. auto
> industry 70 years ago, when Alfred Sloan’s upstart General Motors
> surpassed Ford Motors as America’s No. 1 car maker. The transition
> also reflects the decline of computer manufacturers such as IBM, Wang
> and Unisys, and the rise of companies like Microsoft, Intel and AT & T
> that create the chips and software to make the computers work. Just
> like Dr. Frankenstein, IBM created these two monster competitors, says
> Richard Shaffer, publisher of the Computer Letter. Now, even IBM is in
> danger of being trampled by the creations it unleashed. Although Intel
> and Microsoft still have close relationships with Big Blue, there is
> little love lost between IBM and its potent progeny. IBM had an ugly
> falling-out with former partner Microsoft over the future of
> personal-computer software. Microsoft developed the now famous disk
> operating system for the IBM-PC called DOS–and later created the
> operating software for the next generation of IBM personal computers,
> the Personal System/2. When PS/2 and its operating system, OS/3,
> failed to catch on, a feud erupted over how the two companies would
> upgrade the system. Although they publicly patched things up, the
> partnership was tattered. IBM developed its own version of OS/3, which
> has so far failed to capture the industry’s imagination, Microsoft’s
> competing version, dubbed New Technology, or NT, will debut in a few
> moths and will incorporate Microsoft’s highly successful Windows
> program, which lets users juggle several programs at once. Windows NT
> however, will offer more new features, such as the ability to link
> many computers together in a network and to safeguard them against
> unauthorized use. IBM and Intel have also been parting company. After
> relying almost exclusively on the Santa Clara California company for
> the silicon chips that serve as computer brains, IBM has moved to
> reduce its dependence on Intel by turning to competing vendors. In
> Europe, IBM began selling a low-cost line of PCs called Ambra, which
> runs on chips made by Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices. IBM also
> demonstrated a sample PC using a chip made by another Intel enemy,
> Cyrix. And last October, IBM said it would begin selling the company’s
> own chips to outsiders, in direct competition with Intel. IBM clearly
> feels threatened. And the wounded giant still poses the biggest threat
> to any future dominance by Intel and Microsoft. Last year, it teamed
> up with both companies’ most bitter rivals–Apple Computers and
> Motorola–to develop advanced software and microprocessors for a new
> generation of desktop computers. In selecting Apple and Motorola, IBM
> bypassed its longtime partners. Just as Microsoft’s standard
> operations system runs only on computers built around Intel’s computer
> chips, Apple’s software runs only on Motorola’s chips. Although IBM
> has pledged that the new system will eventually run on a variety of
> machines, it will initially run only computer programs written for
> Apple’s Macintosh or IBM’s OS/2. Its competitive juices now flowing,
> IBM last week announced that it and Apple Computer will deliver the
> operating system in 1994–a year ahead of schedule.
Why is something that happened 70 years ago in the US auto industry being mentioned here?
- General Motors broke away from Ford Motors.
- A new company went ahead of an established market leader.
- Like Dr. Frankenstein, Ford Motor created a monster in General Motors.
- Microsoft, Intel and AT & T were originally created by IBM.
- Consumers gain because of competition among producers.
Solution : A new company went ahead of an established market leader.
Q244. > How quickly things change in the technology business! A decade ago,
> IBM was the awesome and undisputed king of the computer trade,
> universally feared and respected. A decade ago, two little companies
> called Intel and Microsoft were mere blips on the radar screen of the
> industry, upstart startups that had signed on to make the chips and
> software for IBM’s new line of personal computers. Though their
> products soon became industry standards, the two companies remained
> protected children of the market leader. What has happened since is a
> startling reversal of fortune? IBM is being ravaged by the worst
> crisis in the company’s 79-year history. It is undergoing its fifth
> restructuring in the past seven years as well as seemingly endless
> rounds of job cuts and firings that have eliminated 100,000 jobs since
> 1985. Last week, IBM announced to its shell-shocked investors that it lost $4.97 billion last year-the biggest loss in American corporate
> history. And just when IBM is losing ground in one market after
> another, Intel and Microsoft have emerged as the computer industry’s
> most fearsome pair of competitors. The numbers on Wall Street tell a
> stunning story. Ten years ago, the market value of the stock of Intel
> and Microsoft combined amounted to about a tenth of IBM’s. Last week,
> with IBM’s stock at an 11 year low, Microsoft’s value surpassed its
> old mentor’s for the first time even ($26.76 billion to $26.48
> billion), and Intel ($24.3 billion) is not far behind. While IBM is
> posting losses, Intel’s profits jumped 30% and Microsoft’s rose 44%.
> Both Intel, the world’s largest supplier of computer chips, and
> Microsoft, the world’s largest supplier of computer software, have
> assumed the role long played by Big Blue as the industry’s pacesetter.
> What is taking place is a generational shift unprecedented in the
> information age – one that recalls transition in the U.S. auto
> industry 70 years ago, when Alfred Sloan’s upstart General Motors
> surpassed Ford Motors as America’s No. 1 car maker. The transition
> also reflects the decline of computer manufacturers such as IBM, Wang
> and Unisys, and the rise of companies like Microsoft, Intel and AT & T
> that create the chips and software to make the computers work. Just
> like Dr. Frankenstein, IBM created these two monster competitors, says
> Richard Shaffer, publisher of the Computer Letter. Now, even IBM is in
> danger of being trampled by the creations it unleashed. Although Intel
> and Microsoft still have close relationships with Big Blue, there is
> little love lost between IBM and its potent progeny. IBM had an ugly
> falling-out with former partner Microsoft over the future of
> personal-computer software. Microsoft developed the now famous disk
> operating system for the IBM-PC called DOS–and later created the
> operating software for the next generation of IBM personal computers,
> the Personal System/2. When PS/2 and its operating system, OS/3,
> failed to catch on, a feud erupted over how the two companies would
> upgrade the system. Although they publicly patched things up, the
> partnership was tattered. IBM developed its own version of OS/3, which
> has so far failed to capture the industry’s imagination, Microsoft’s
> competing version, dubbed New Technology, or NT, will debut in a few
> moths and will incorporate Microsoft’s highly successful Windows
> program, which lets users juggle several programs at once. Windows NT
> however, will offer more new features, such as the ability to link
> many computers together in a network and to safeguard them against
> unauthorized use. IBM and Intel have also been parting company. After
> relying almost exclusively on the Santa Clara California company for
> the silicon chips that serve as computer brains, IBM has moved to
> reduce its dependence on Intel by turning to competing vendors. In
> Europe, IBM began selling a low-cost line of PCs called Ambra, which
> runs on chips made by Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices. IBM also
> demonstrated a sample PC using a chip made by another Intel enemy,
> Cyrix. And last October, IBM said it would begin selling the company’s
> own chips to outsiders, in direct competition with Intel. IBM clearly
> feels threatened. And the wounded giant still poses the biggest threat
> to any future dominance by Intel and Microsoft. Last year, it teamed
> up with both companies’ most bitter rivals–Apple Computers and
> Motorola–to develop advanced software and microprocessors for a new
> generation of desktop computers. In selecting Apple and Motorola, IBM
> bypassed its longtime partners. Just as Microsoft’s standard
> operations system runs only on computers built around Intel’s computer
> chips, Apple’s software runs only on Motorola’s chips. Although IBM
> has pledged that the new system will eventually run on a variety of
> machines, it will initially run only computer programs written for
> Apple’s Macintosh or IBM’s OS/2. Its competitive juices now flowing,
> IBM last week announced that it and Apple Computer will deliver the
> operating system in 1994–a year ahead of schedule.
Who is mentioned as the principal supplier or silicon chips to IBM?
- HCL
- AT & T
- Microsoft
- Cyrix
- Intel
Solution : Intel
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Q245. > How quickly things change in the technology business! A decade ago,
> IBM was the awesome and undisputed king of the computer trade,
> universally feared and respected. A decade ago, two little companies
> called Intel and Microsoft were mere blips on the radar screen of the
> industry, upstart startups that had signed on to make the chips and
> software for IBM’s new line of personal computers. Though their
> products soon became industry standards, the two companies remained
> protected children of the market leader. What has happened since is a
> startling reversal of fortune? IBM is being ravaged by the worst
> crisis in the company’s 79-year history. It is undergoing its fifth
> restructuring in the past seven years as well as seemingly endless
> rounds of job cuts and firings that have eliminated 100,000 jobs since
> 1985. Last week, IBM announced to its shell-shocked investors that it lost $4.97 billion last year-the biggest loss in American corporate
> history. And just when IBM is losing ground in one market after
> another, Intel and Microsoft have emerged as the computer industry’s
> most fearsome pair of competitors. The numbers on Wall Street tell a
> stunning story. Ten years ago, the market value of the stock of Intel
> and Microsoft combined amounted to about a tenth of IBM’s. Last week,
> with IBM’s stock at an 11 year low, Microsoft’s value surpassed its
> old mentor’s for the first time even ($26.76 billion to $26.48
> billion), and Intel ($24.3 billion) is not far behind. While IBM is
> posting losses, Intel’s profits jumped 30% and Microsoft’s rose 44%.
> Both Intel, the world’s largest supplier of computer chips, and
> Microsoft, the world’s largest supplier of computer software, have
> assumed the role long played by Big Blue as the industry’s pacesetter.
> What is taking place is a generational shift unprecedented in the
> information age – one that recalls transition in the U.S. auto
> industry 70 years ago, when Alfred Sloan’s upstart General Motors
> surpassed Ford Motors as America’s No. 1 car maker. The transition
> also reflects the decline of computer manufacturers such as IBM, Wang
> and Unisys, and the rise of companies like Microsoft, Intel and AT & T
> that create the chips and software to make the computers work. Just
> like Dr. Frankenstein, IBM created these two monster competitors, says
> Richard Shaffer, publisher of the Computer Letter. Now, even IBM is in
> danger of being trampled by the creations it unleashed. Although Intel
> and Microsoft still have close relationships with Big Blue, there is
> little love lost between IBM and its potent progeny. IBM had an ugly
> falling-out with former partner Microsoft over the future of
> personal-computer software. Microsoft developed the now famous disk
> operating system for the IBM-PC called DOS–and later created the
> operating software for the next generation of IBM personal computers,
> the Personal System/2. When PS/2 and its operating system, OS/3,
> failed to catch on, a feud erupted over how the two companies would
> upgrade the system. Although they publicly patched things up, the
> partnership was tattered. IBM developed its own version of OS/3, which
> has so far failed to capture the industry’s imagination, Microsoft’s
> competing version, dubbed New Technology, or NT, will debut in a few
> moths and will incorporate Microsoft’s highly successful Windows
> program, which lets users juggle several programs at once. Windows NT
> however, will offer more new features, such as the ability to link
> many computers together in a network and to safeguard them against
> unauthorized use. IBM and Intel have also been parting company. After
> relying almost exclusively on the Santa Clara California company for
> the silicon chips that serve as computer brains, IBM has moved to
> reduce its dependence on Intel by turning to competing vendors. In
> Europe, IBM began selling a low-cost line of PCs called Ambra, which
> runs on chips made by Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices. IBM also
> demonstrated a sample PC using a chip made by another Intel enemy,
> Cyrix. And last October, IBM said it would begin selling the company’s
> own chips to outsiders, in direct competition with Intel. IBM clearly
> feels threatened. And the wounded giant still poses the biggest threat
> to any future dominance by Intel and Microsoft. Last year, it teamed
> up with both companies’ most bitter rivals–Apple Computers and
> Motorola–to develop advanced software and microprocessors for a new
> generation of desktop computers. In selecting Apple and Motorola, IBM
> bypassed its longtime partners. Just as Microsoft’s standard
> operations system runs only on computers built around Intel’s computer
> chips, Apple’s software runs only on Motorola’s chips. Although IBM
> has pledged that the new system will eventually run on a variety of
> machines, it will initially run only computer programs written for
> Apple’s Macintosh or IBM’s OS/2. Its competitive juices now flowing,
> IBM last week announced that it and Apple Computer will deliver the
> operating system in 1994–a year ahead of schedule.
The personal computer called Ambra is marketed by :
- Cyrix
- IBM
- Intel
- Microsoft
- Infosys
Solution : IBM
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Solution :
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