Question

In business, there’s a speed difference: It’s the difference between how important a firm’s leaders say speed is to their competitive(竞争的) strategy(策略) and how fast the company actually moves.The difference is important regardless of industry and company size. Companies fearful of losing their competitive advantage spend much time and money looking for ways to pick up the speed.
In our study of 343 businesses, the companies that chose to go, go, go to try to gain an edge ended up with lower sales and operating incomes than those that paused at key moments to make sure they were on the right track.What's more, the firms that “slowed down to speed up” improved their top and bottom lines, averaging 40% higher sales and 52% higher operating incomes over a three-year period.
How did they disobey the laws of business physics, taking more time than competitors yet performing better? They thought differently about what “slower” and “faster” mean.Firms sometimes fail to understand the difference between operational speed (moving quickly) and strategic speed (reducing the time it takes to deliver value)．Simply increasing the speed of production, for example, may be one way to try to reduce the speed difference.But that often leads to reduced value over time, in the form of lower-quality products and services.
In our study, higher-performing companies with strategic speed always made changes when necessary. They became more open to ideas and discussion.They encouraged new ways of thinking.And they allowed time to look back and learn.By contrast (相比而言), performance suffered at firms that moved fast all the time, paid too much attention to improving efficiency, stuck to tested methods, didn't develop team spirit among their employees, and had little time thinking
about changes.
Strategic speed serves as a kind of leadership.Teams that regularly take time to get things right, rather than plough ahead full bore, are more successful in meeting their business goals.That kind of strategy must come from the top

1. 1.
   What does the underlined part “gain an edge” in Paragraph 2 mean?
   1. A.
      Increase the speed. 　　　
   2. B.
      Reach the limit
   3. C.
      Get an advantage
   4. D.
      Set a goal
2. 2.
   The underlined part “the laws of business physics” in Paragraph 3 means ________
   1. A.
      spending more time and performing worse
   2. B.
      spending more time and performing better
   3. C.
      spending less time and performing worse
   4. D.
      spending less time and performing better
3. 3.
   What can we learn from the text?
   1. A.
      How fast a firm moves depends on how big it is
   2. B.
      How competitive a firm is depends on what it produces
   3. C.
      Firms guided by strategic speed take time to make necessary changes
   4. D.
      Firms guided by operational speed take time to develop necessary team spirit
4. 4.
   Which could be the best title for the text?
   1. A.
      Improve quality? Serve better
   2. B.
      Deliver value? Plough ahead
   3. C.
      Reduce time? Move faster
   4. D.
      Need speed? Slow down

Answer 1

CDCD
试题分析：这是一篇议论文，主要讲述在商场上的竞争策略；有些公司减缓速度以更好地发展，花费的时间多却获得更好收效。
1.词义理解题。原句是go to try to gain an edge ended up with lower sales and operating incomes，所以gain an edge的意思是与收入降低相反，即获得优势。所以选C
2.推断题。根据第三段开头的 disobey the laws of business physics，可以推断出laws of business physics强调快速高成果，与那些以慢速获胜的公司不同，在短时间内做得更好，所以选D
3.主旨大意题。文章主要议论了策略性减速的优点，而且根据最后一段Teams that regularly take time to get things right可以看出公司改变需要时间，所以选C
4.标题选择题。根据文章的大意可以确认标题应当与slow和speed有关，所以D是更恰当的标题。
考点：考查社会现象类短文