题目内容
Kodak’s decision to file for bankruptcy (破产) protection is a sad, though not unexpected, turning point for a leading American corporation that pioneered consumer photography and dominated the film market for decades, but ultimately failed to adapt to the digital revolution.
Although many attribute Kodak’s downfall to “complacency (自满) ,” that explanation doesn’t acknowledge the lengths to which the company went to reinvent itself. Decades ago, Kodak predicted that digital photography would overtake film (胶片) — and in fact, Kodak invented the first digital camera in 1975 — but in a fateful decision, the company chose to shelf its new discovery to focus on its traditional film business.
“It wasn’t that Kodak was blind to the future”, said Rebecca Henderson, a professor at Harvard Business School, but rather that it failed to execute on a strategy to confront it. By the time the company realized its mistake, it was too late.
Kodak is an example of a firm that was very much aware that they had to adapt, and spent a lot of money trying to do so, but ultimately failed. Large companies have a difficult time switching into new markets because there is a temptation to put existing assets (资产) into the new businesses.
Although Kodak predicted the unavoidable rise of digital photography, its corporate (企业的) culture was too rooted in the successes of the past for it to make the clean break necessary to fully embrace the future. They were a company stuck in time. Their history was so important to them. Now their history has become a liability.
Kodak’s downfall over the last several decades was dramatic. In 1976, the company commanded 90% of the market for photographic film and 85% of the market for cameras. But the 1980s brought new competition from Japanese film company Fuji Photo, which undermined Kodak by offering lower prices for film and photo supplies. Kodak’s decision not to pursue the role of official film for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics was a major miscalculation. The bid went instead to Fuji, which exploited its sponsorship to win a permanent foothold in the marketplace.
1.What do we learn about Kodak?
A. It went bankrupt all of a sudden.
B. It is approaching its downfall.
C. It initiated the digital revolution in the film industry.
D. It is playing a dominant role in the film market.
2.Why does the author mention Kodak’s invention of the first digital camera?
A. To show its early attempt to reinvent itself.
B. To show its effort to overcome complacency.
C. To show its quick adaptation to the digital revolution.
D. To show its will to compete with Japan’s Fuji photo.
3.Why do large companies have difficulty switching to new markets?
A. They find it costly to give up their existing assets.
B. They tend to be slow in confronting new challenges.
C. They are unwilling to invest in new technology.
D. They are deeply stuck in their glorious past.
4.What does the author say Kodak’s history has become?
A. A burden. B. A mirror. C. A joke. D. A challenge.
1.B
2.A
3.D
4.A
【解析】
试题分析:柯达公司要破产了?曾经生产过第一个数码相机的柯达公司为什么辉煌不再了呢?究其原因还是太保守了。谁不与时俱进,就会被历史前进的脚步无情的淘汰。
1.细节理解题。全文的第一句话:柯达公司申请破产保护的决定是令人伤心的。和B选项的它正在接近破产。意思一致。所以选B。
2.细节理解题。文章的Although many attribute Kodak’s downfall to “complacency(自满),” that explanation doesn’t acknowledge the lengths to which the company went to reinvent itself.尽管很多人把柯达的破产归咎于自满,但这种解释并没有看到其实这家公司也试图在改造自己。 和A选项:为了说明它早期改造自己的尝试。意思一致。所以选A。
3.细节理解题。文章第四段 because there is a temptation to put existing assets into the new businesses. 因为有一个想要把现存的资产(也就是现有的商业运作成果)运用在新商业领域中的企图。和D选项:它们都深深的过往的辉煌所束缚一致。第五段第一句中也提到:它的公司文化太过植根于过往的成功。也同样可以提示答案选D。
4.细节理解题。第五段的最后一句话意思是:现在它们的历史已经成为了障碍。根据上下文推断得出太执着与以往的辉煌会导致变革的减慢甚至失败,判断选A ,burden是负担。
考点:新闻类阅读。
“My work is done.” Those words were some of the last penned by George Eastman. He included them in his suicide note. They mark an ignoble end to a noble life, the leave taking of a truly great man. The same words could now be said for the company he left behind. Actually, the Eastman Kodak Company is through. It has been mismanaged financially, technologically and competitively. For 20 years, its leaders have foolishly spent down the patrimony of a century’s prosperity. One of America’s bedrock brands is about to disappear, the Kodak moment has passed.
But George Eastman is not how he died, and the Eastman Kodak Company is not how it is being killed. Though the ends be needless and premature, they must not be allowed to overshadow the greatness that came before. Few companies have done so much good for so many people, or defined and lifted so profoundly the spirit of a nation and perhaps the world. It is impossible to understand the 20th Century without recognizing the role of the Eastman Kodak Company.
Kodak served mankind through entertainment, science, national defense and the stockpiling of family memories. Kodak took us to the top of Mount Suribachi and to the Sea of Tranquility. It introduced us to the merry old Land of Oz and to stars from Charlie Chaplin to John Wayne, and Elizabeth Taylor to Tom Hanks. It showed us the shot that killed President Kennedy, and his brother bleeding out on a kitchen floor, and a fallen Martin Luther King Jr. on the hard balcony of a Memphis motel. When that sailor kissed the nurse, and when the spy planes saw missiles in Cuba, Kodak was the eyes of a nation. From the deck of the Missouri to the grandeur of Monument Valley, Kodak took us there. Virtually every significant image of the 20th Century is a gift to posterity from the Eastman Kodak Company.
In an era of easy digital photography, when we can take a picture of anything at any time, we cannot imagine what life was like before George Eastman brought photography to people. Yes, there were photographers, and for relatively large sums of money they would take stilted pictures in studios and formal settings. But most people couldn’t afford photographs, and so all they had to remember distant loved ones, or earlier times of their lives, was memory. Children could not know what their parents had looked like as young people, grandparents far away might never learn what their grandchildren looked like. Eastman Kodak allowed memory to move from the uncertainty of recollection, to the permanence of a photograph. But it wasn’t just people whose features were savable; it was events, the sacred and precious times that families cherish. The Kodak moment, was humanity’s moment.
And it wasn’t just people whose features were savable; it was events, the precious times that familes cherish. Kodak let the fleeting moments of birthdays and weddings, picnics and parties, be preserved and saved. It allowed for the creation of the most egalitarian art form. Lovers could take one another’s pictures, children were photographed walking out the door on the first day of school, the person releasing the shutter decided what was worth recording, and hundreds of millions of such decisions were made. And for centuries to come, those long dead will smile and dance and communicate to their unborn progeny. Family history will be not only names on paper, but smiles on faces.
The cash flow not just provided thousands of people with job, but also allowed the company’s founder to engage in some of the most generous philanthropy in America’s history. Not just in Kodak’s home city of Rochester, New York, but in Tuskegee and London, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He bankrolled two historically black colleges, fixed the teeth of Europe’s poor, and quietly did good wherever he could. While doing good, Kodak did very well. Over all the years, all the Kodakers over all the years are essential parts of that monumental legacy. They prospered a great company, but they – with that company – blessed the world.
That is what we should remember about the Eastman Kodak Company.
Like its founder, we should remember how it lived, not how it died.
History will forget the small men who have scuttled this company.
But history will never forget Kodak.
【小题1】According to the passage, which of the following is to blame for the fall of Kodak?
A.The invention of easy digital photography |
B.The poor management of the company |
C.The early death of George Eastman |
D.The quick rise of its business competitors |
A.died a natural death of old age. |
B.happened to be on the spot when President Kennedy was shot dead. |
C.set up his company in the capital of the US before setting up its branches all over the world. |
D.was not only interested in commercial profits, but also in the improvement of other people’s lives. |
A.no photos has ever been taken of people or events |
B.photos were very expensive and mostly taken indoors |
C.painting was the only way for people to keep a record of their ancestors. |
D.grandparents never knew what their grandchildren looked like. |
A.who took the photograph |
B.who wanted to have a photo taken |
C.whose decisions shaped the Eastman Kodak Company |
D.whose smiles could long be seen by their children |
A.Disapproving | B.Respectful | C.Regretful | D.Critical |
A.Great Contributions of Kodak | B.Unforgettable moments of Kodak |
C.Kodak Is Dead | D.History of Eastman Kodak Company |
“My work is done.” Those words were some of the last penned by George Eastman. He included them in his suicide note. They mark an ignoble end to a noble life, the leave taking of a truly great man. The same words could now be said for the company he left behind. Actually, the Eastman Kodak Company is through. It has been mismanaged financially, technologically and competitively. For 20 years, its leaders have foolishly spent down the patrimony of a century’s prosperity. One of America’s bedrock brands is about to disappear, the Kodak moment has passed.
But George Eastman is not how he died, and the Eastman Kodak Company is not how it is being killed. Though the ends be needless and premature, they must not be allowed to overshadow the greatness that came before. Few companies have done so much good for so many people, or defined and lifted so profoundly the spirit of a nation and perhaps the world. It is impossible to understand the 20th Century without recognizing the role of the Eastman Kodak Company.
Kodak served mankind through entertainment, science, national defense and the stockpiling of family memories. Kodak took us to the top of Mount Suribachi and to the Sea of Tranquility. It introduced us to the merry old Land of Oz and to stars from Charlie Chaplin to John Wayne, and Elizabeth Taylor to Tom Hanks. It showed us the shot that killed President Kennedy, and his brother bleeding out on a kitchen floor, and a fallen Martin Luther King Jr. on the hard balcony of a Memphis motel. When that sailor kissed the nurse, and when the spy planes saw missiles in Cuba, Kodak was the eyes of a nation. From the deck of the Missouri to the grandeur of Monument Valley, Kodak took us there. Virtually every significant image of the 20th Century is a gift to posterity from the Eastman Kodak Company.
In an era of easy digital photography, when we can take a picture of anything at any time, we cannot imagine what life was like before George Eastman brought photography to people. Yes, there were photographers, and for relatively large sums of money they would take stilted pictures in studios and formal settings. But most people couldn’t afford photographs, and so all they had to remember distant loved ones, or earlier times of their lives, was memory. Children could not know what their parents had looked like as young people, grandparents far away might never learn what their grandchildren looked like. Eastman Kodak allowed memory to move from the uncertainty of recollection, to the permanence of a photograph. But it wasn’t just people whose features were savable; it was events, the sacred and precious times that families cherish. The Kodak moment, was humanity’s moment.
And it wasn’t just people whose features were savable; it was events, the precious times that familes cherish. Kodak let the fleeting moments of birthdays and weddings, picnics and parties, be preserved and saved. It allowed for the creation of the most egalitarian art form. Lovers could take one another’s pictures, children were photographed walking out the door on the first day of school, the person releasing the shutter decided what was worth recording, and hundreds of millions of such decisions were made. And for centuries to come, those long dead will smile and dance and communicate to their unborn progeny. Family history will be not only names on paper, but smiles on faces.
The cash flow not just provided thousands of people with job, but also allowed the company’s founder to engage in some of the most generous philanthropy in America’s history. Not just in Kodak’s home city of Rochester, New York, but in Tuskegee and London, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He bankrolled two historically black colleges, fixed the teeth of Europe’s poor, and quietly did good wherever he could. While doing good, Kodak did very well. Over all the years, all the Kodakers over all the years are essential parts of that monumental legacy. They prospered a great company, but they – with that company – blessed the world.
That is what we should remember about the Eastman Kodak Company.
Like its founder, we should remember how it lived, not how it died.
History will forget the small men who have scuttled this company.
But history will never forget Kodak.
1.According to the passage, which of the following is to blame for the fall of Kodak?
A.The invention of easy digital photography |
B.The poor management of the company |
C.The early death of George Eastman |
D.The quick rise of its business competitors |
2.It can be learnt from the passage that George Eastman .
A.died a natural death of old age. |
B.happened to be on the spot when President Kennedy was shot dead. |
C.set up his company in the capital of the US before setting up its branches all over the world. |
D.was not only interested in commercial profits, but also in the improvement of other people’s lives. |
3.Before George Eastman brought photography to people, .
A.no photos has ever been taken of people or events |
B.photos were very expensive and mostly taken indoors |
C.painting was the only way for people to keep a record of their ancestors. |
D.grandparents never knew what their grandchildren looked like. |
4.The person releasing the shutter (Paragraph 5) was the one .
A.who took the photograph |
B.who wanted to have a photo taken |
C.whose decisions shaped the Eastman Kodak Company |
D.whose smiles could long be seen by their children |
5.What is the writer’s attitude towards the Eastman Kodak Company?
A.Disapproving |
B.Respectful |
C.Regretful |
D.Critical |
6.Which do you think is the best title for the passage?
A.Great Contributions of Kodak |
B.Unforgettable moments of Kodak |
C.Kodak Is Dead |
D.History of Eastman Kodak Company |