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In 1985 when a Japan Air Lines (JAL) jet crashed, its president, Yasumoto Takagi, called each victim’s family to apologize, and then promptly resigned. And in 1987, when a subsidiary of Toshiba sold sensitive military technology to the former Soviet Union, the chairman of Toshiba gave up his post.

These executive actions, which Toshiba calls “the highest form of apology,” may seem bizarre to US managers. No one at Boeing resigned after the JAL crash, which may have been caused by a faulty Boeing repair.

The difference between the two business cultures centers around different definitions of delegation. While US executives give both responsibility and authority to their employees, Japanese executives delegate only authority—the responsibility is still theirs. Although the subsidiary that sold the sensitive technology to the Soviets had its own management, the Toshiba top executives said they “must take personal responsibility for not creating an atmosphere throughout the Toshiba group that would make such activity unthinkable, even in an independently run subsidiary.”

Such acceptance of community responsibility is not unique to businesses in Japan. School principals in Japan have resigned when their students committed major crimes after school hours. Even if they do not quit, Japanese executives will often accept primary responsibility in other ways, such as taking the first pay cut when a company gets into financial trouble. Such personal sacrifices, even if they are largely symbolic, help to create the sense of community and employee loyalty that is crucial to the Japanese way of doing business.

Harvard Business School professor George Lodge calls the ritual acceptance of blame “almost a feudal (封建的) way of purging (清除) the community of dishonor,” and to some in the United States, such resignations look cowardly. However, in an era in which both business and governmental leaders seem particularly good at evading responsibility, many US managers would probably welcome an infusion (灌输) of the Japanese sense of responsibility, If, for instance, US automobile company executives offered to reduce their own salaries before they asked their workers to take pay cuts, negotiations would probably take on a very different character.

31. Why did the chairman of Toshiba resign his position in 1987?

A. In Japan, the leakage of a state secret to Russians is a grave crime.

B. He had been under attack for shifting responsibility to his subordinates.

C. In Japan, the chief executive of a corporation is held responsible for the mistake made by its subsidiaries.

D. He had been accused of being cowardly towards crises that were taking place in his corporation.

32. According to the passage if you want to be a good manager in Japan, you have to ________.

A. apologize promptly for your subordinates' mistakes

B. be skillful in accepting blames from customers

C. make symbolic sacrifices whenever necessary

D. create a strong sense of company loyalty

33. What’s Professor George Lodge’s attitude towards the resignations of Japanese corporate leaders?

A. sympatheticB. biased C. critical D. approving.

34. Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A. Boeing had nothing to do with the JAL air crash in 1985.

B. American executives consider authority and responsibility inseparable.

C. School principals bear legal responsibility for students' crimes.

D. Persuading employees to take pay cuts doesn’t help solve corporate crises.

35. The passage is mainly about ______________.

A. resignation as an effective way of dealing with business crises

B. the importance of delegating responsibility to employees

C. ways of evading responsibility in times of crises

D. the difference between two business cultures

31.【答案】C

【解析】这是一道细节题。根据题干关键词“the postwar American housing style”定位到文章第二段尾句“…thatrestraint, in combination with the postwar confidence…, made small, efficient housing positively stylish”，本句话中的谓语动词 made，表示前因后果的逻辑，即“节制”与“自信”带来了“战后住房风格”的“盛行”，反过来也可以理解为“战后美国的住房风格”反映了美国人的“节制”与“自信”，所以 C 项正确。

A 选项的干扰源自文章首段，但是 prosperity 和 growth 是人们对二战后这个时间段的映像，与美国的战后住宅风格并无关系，因此 A 项不对;B 选项的干扰源自第二段尾句“made small, efficient housing positively stylish”，这两个词是说明美国二战后的住房风格，并非是美国人的情况，因此不对;D 项文中并未提及，属于无中生有。

32.【答案】D

【解析】这是一道推理判断题。根据题干信息“Bauhaus”定位到文章第三段，对四个选项分别进行判断。段落第二句“The phrase…”中定语从句 who 的内容告诉读者 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe 只是与 Bauhaus 有交往，而非是创建者，因此 A 选项不对;本句还提到与 Bauhaus 相关的人是在二战前移民到美国的，并未提及它的设计理念受到二战的影响，故可排除 B;在这个句子中 who 引导的定语从句部分，只提到了“其他与 Bauhaus 建筑学派有关的人”，但并不等于“大多数美国建筑师都曾和它有联系”，属于过度推理，故 C 选项不正确。D 选项可以在第三段最后一句话“These designers came to exert enormous influence on the course of American architecture”找到对应信息，此句话中的“these designers”承接上文指代 Mies 和与 Bauhaus 有关的建筑师，由此推出 Bauhaus 对美国建筑有很大影响，故 D项正确。

33.【答案】C

【解析】这是一道细节题。根据题干关键词“Mies held”和“elegance of architectural design”定位到原文第四段第二句“Elegance, he believed, did not derive from abundance”，答案 C 选项是对这句话的同义改写，was not reliant on = didnot derive from，abundant decoration = abundance，故答案选 C。

根据第四段尾句“…the spaces he designed were small and efficient, rather than big and often empty”可知，A、B、D选项均与此句信息相反，故不正确。

34.【答案】D

【解析】这是一道判断题。题干关键信息“the apartments Mies built on Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive”指向文章第五段首句“The apartments…Mies…were smaller…than those in their older neighbour”。逐一把四个选项与原文信息对比，发现 C 项(比周围建筑宽敞)明显与文章内容相反，可排除;通过第五段第二句“But they were popular because of …”可以判断出 A 项(忽略细节和比例)可以排除，因为原文说的是这些房子很受欢迎是因为它们有“高雅的建筑细节和比例”;B 项属于偷换概念，原文说当时很受欢迎的东西是“the architectural equivalent of the abstract art”，而非 B项所说的材料，故不正确;D 项是对原文内容“the elegance of the buildings’ details and proportions, the architecturalequivalent of the abstract art so popular at the time”的总结归纳，Mies 所建的房子具有的是当时备受欢迎的抽象艺术的某些特点，故 D 项正确。

35.【答案】B

【解析】这是一道判断题。根据题干关键词“the design of the‘Case Study Houses’”定位到尾段。再将文中所提到的细节与四个选项进行比对，发现文章第二句 “Aesthetic effect came from the landscape, new materials andforthright detailing.” 提到“样板房”的美学效果都是源自于自然景色、新型材料和明快的细节。由此可知，B 项正确。

C 项与文章意思相反，细节并未被牺牲，而是美学效果要考虑的因素之一，D 项偷换了原文“new material”的概念，新型材料不一定就是环保材料。尾段第三句中提到“Ralph Rapson may have mispredicted just how the mechanicalrevolution would impact everyday life”，mispredict 一词说明他是对未来的预测，表明机械革命的影响是在未来出现的，在当时并没有，就更不用说机械装置的广泛应用了，故 A 项不正确。