“I find myself glancing at my watch to see how long I’ve been standing in line,” she said. “Everywhere I go, I notice if the dumpster(垃圾罐)gates are open or if there’s trash in the parking lot.” Ms. Clark is a “mystery shopper”, one of thousands of contract workers that companies hire to pretend as regular customers in order to judge customer service, cleanliness and whether a store is selling a product that meets company specifications (规格).

Mystery shoppers can be found or, rather, not found, everywhere from restaurants and automotive shops to convenience stores and department stores. They play a constant cat-and-mouse game with store and restaurant employees and managers. However it’s not all fun and games. Once in the field, a mystery shopper will typically visit several stores or restaurants per hour, taking mental notes while inside, then jotting down physical notes after they leave.

It’s important for mystery shoppers to be as exact as possible, because the client companies are looking for data they can use to improve their service. The questionnaire won’t say, “Does the trash can need to be emptied?” What an educated shopper will say is, “The trash can to the left of the front door was overflowing with 10 pieces of trash on the ground.” Companies don’t need opinion but facts.

Nowadays mystery shoppers are armed with a number of high-tech devices, such as a digital scale and a digital thermometer, as well as a handheld PC for recording the entire experience. It’s a challenging job but a rewarding one. Mystery shoppers can be full time or part time, but the full-time workers tend to stick to standard mystery shopping while part-timers often choose the less complex reward-based programs. In those , the shoppers stay disguised(装扮的) only until the “shop” is finished, and then reveal (透漏) themselves to the store management and award prizes to employees who provided excellent service.

To be a mystery shopper, it’s important to be a good observer, but sometimes it’s important to have the right profile(外表), too. Companies often hire shoppers from particular backgrounds to better blend in with clients’ regular customers. If a secret shopper will be sent in, for example, to do a high-end automotive shop, the candidate must have a particular profile that meets a high-end, luxury car-type buyer profile. “It’s a challenge to perform your shop without being discovered,” Ms. Clark said, “because most of the people that we work for are very aware of the mystery shopping program.”

67. According to the text a “mystery shopper” would not have to        .

A. sign a contract with the employer     B. travel a lot around the city

C. provide exact facts to the company D. fill in questionnaires  

68. We learn from the text that Ms. Clark        .

A. visits some shops regularly and sometimes does something special

B. pretends to be a shopper and evaluates the services

C. is a government official looking into the services

D. is a manager of a company offering good services

69. People are willing to become a mystery shopper mainly because they can        .

A. get the best service and get paid at the same time

B. play a cat-and-mouse game with shop employees and managers

C. do the job either full time or part time and get paid well

D. observe clearly what happens in the shops

70. What does the underlined word “those” in the 4th paragraph refer to?

A. The shops where the mystery shoppers go.      

B. The less complex reward-based programs.

C. Part-time jobs.             

D. Excellent services.

Women are on their way to holding more than half of all American jobs. The latest government report shows that their share of nonfarm jobs nearly reached fifty percent in September.
Not only have more and more women entered the labor market over the years, but the depression has been harder on men. In October the unemployment rate for men was almost eleven percent compared to eight percent for women.
Industries that traditionally use lots of men have suffered deep cuts. For example, manufacturing and building lost more jobs last month. But health care and temporary employment services have had job growth. Both of those industries employ high percentages of women.
Thirty years ago, women earned sixty-two cents for every dollar that men earned. Now, for those who usually work full time, women earn about eighty percent of what men earn. And women hold fifty-one percent of good-paying management and professional jobs.
Yet a study released Thursday said men still hold about nine out of every ten top positions at the four hundred large companies in California. The results have remained largely unchanged in live years of studies from the University of California, Davis.
Also, a new research paper in the journal Sex Roles looks at the experiences of women who are the main earners in their family. Rebecca Meisenbach at the University of Missouri in Columbia interviewed fifteen women. She found they all valued their independence and many enjoyed having the power of control, though not all wanted it.
But they also felt pressure, worry and guilt. Partly that was because of cultural expectations that working women will still take care of the children. Also, men who are not the main earners may feel threatened.
The job market continues to suffer the effects of last year’s financial crash. Now, a judgment has been reached in the first case involving charges of criminal wrongdoing on Wall Street.
Last week, the government lost its case against two managers at Bear Stearns, the first investment bank to fail last year. A jury found Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin not guilty of lying to investors.
The hedge funds they supervised lost their value in two thousand seven. But jurors said there was no clear evidence that they meant to mislead investors.
The Justice Department continues to investigate other companies.
【小题1】Why is the unemployment rate for men higher.

Women are on their way to holding more than half of all American jobs. The latest government report shows that their share of nonfarm jobs nearly reached fifty percent in September.
Not only have more and more women entered the labor market over the years, but the depression has been harder on men. In October the unemployment rate for men was almost eleven percent compared to eight percent for women.
Industries that traditionally use lots of men have suffered deep cuts. For example, manufacturing and building lost more jobs last month. But health care and temporary employment services have had job growth. Both of those industries employ high percentages of women.
Thirty years ago, women earned sixty-two cents for every dollar that men earned. Now, for those who usually work full time, women earn about eighty percent of what men earn. And women hold fifty-one percent of good-paying management and professional jobs.
Yet a study released Thursday said men still hold about nine out of every ten top positions at the four hundred large companies in California. The results have remained largely unchanged in live years of studies from the University of California, Davis.
Also, a new research paper in the journal Sex Roles looks at the experiences of women who are the main earners in their family. Rebecca Meisenbach at the University of Missouri in Columbia interviewed fifteen women. She found they all valued their independence and many enjoyed having the power of control, though not all wanted it.
But they also felt pressure, worry and guilt. Partly that was because of cultural expectations that working women will still take care of the children. Also, men who are not the main earners may feel threatened.
The job market continues to suffer the effects of last year’s financial crash. Now, a judgment has been reached in the first case involving charges of criminal wrongdoing on Wall Street.
Last week, the government lost its case against two managers at Bear Stearns, the first investment bank to fail last year. A jury found Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin not guilty of lying to investors.
The hedge funds they supervised lost their value in two thousand seven. But jurors said there was no clear evidence that they meant to mislead investors.
The Justice Department continues to investigate other companies.
【小题1】Why is the unemployment rate for men higher.

“I find myself glancing at my watch to see how long I’ve been standing in line,” she said. “Everywhere I go, I notice if the dumpster(垃圾罐)gates are open or if there’s trash in the parking lot.” Ms. Clark is a “mystery shopper”, one of thousands of contract workers that companies hire to pretend as regular customers in order to judge customer service, cleanliness and whether a store is selling a product that meets company specifications (规格).
Mystery shoppers can be found or, rather, not found, everywhere from restaurants and automotive shops to convenience stores and department stores. They play a constant cat-and-mouse game with store and restaurant employees and managers. However it’s not all fun and games. Once in the field, a mystery shopper will typically visit several stores or restaurants per hour, taking mental notes while inside, then jotting down physical notes after they leave.
It’s important for mystery shoppers to be as exact as possible, because the client companies are looking for data they can use to improve their service. The questionnaire won’t say, “Does the trash can need to be emptied?” What an educated shopper will say is, “The trash can to the left of the front door was overflowing with 10 pieces of trash on the ground.” Companies don’t need opinion but facts.
Nowadays mystery shoppers are armed with a number of high-tech devices, such as a digital scale and a digital thermometer, as well as a handheld PC for recording the entire experience. It’s a challenging job but a rewarding one. Mystery shoppers can be full time or part time, but the full-time workers tend to stick to standard mystery shopping while part-timers often choose the less complex reward-based programs. In those , the shoppers stay disguised(装扮的) only until the “shop” is finished, and then reveal (透漏) themselves to the store management and award prizes to employees who provided excellent service.
To be a mystery shopper, it’s important to be a good observer, but sometimes it’s important to have the right profile(外表), too. Companies often hire shoppers from particular backgrounds to better blend in with clients’ regular customers. If a secret shopper will be sent in, for example, to do a high-end automotive shop, the candidate must have a particular profile that meets a high-end, luxury car-type buyer profile. “It’s a challenge to perform your shop without being discovered,” Ms. Clark said, “because most of the people that we work for are very aware of the mystery shopping program.”
67. According to the text a “mystery shopper” would not have to        .
A. sign a contract with the employer     B. travel a lot around the city
C. provide exact facts to the company D. fill in questionnaires  
68. We learn from the text that Ms. Clark        .
A. visits some shops regularly and sometimes does something special
B. pretends to be a shopper and evaluates the services
C. is a government official looking into the services
D. is a manager of a company offering good services
69. People are willing to become a mystery shopper mainly because they can        .
A. get the best service and get paid at the same time
B. play a cat-and-mouse game with shop employees and managers
C. do the job either full time or part time and get paid well
D. observe clearly what happens in the shops
70. What does the underlined word “those” in the 4th paragraph refer to?
A. The shops where the mystery shoppers go.      
B. The less complex reward-based programs.
C. Part-time jobs.             
D. Excellent services.

If you know exactly what you want, the best way to get a job is to get specialized training. A recent survey shows that companies like graduates in such fields as business and health care who can go to work immediately with very little on-the-job training. 
That’s especially true of booming fields that are challenging for workers. At Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration, for example, bachelor’s degree graduates get an average of four or five job offers with salaries ranging from the high teens to the low 20s and plenty of chances for rapid advancement. Large companies, especially, like a background of formal education coupled with work experience. But in the long run, too much specialization doesn’t pay off. Business, which has been flooded with MBAs, no longer considers the degree an automatic stamp of approval. The MBA may open doors and command a higher salary initially, but the effect of a degree washes out after five years.
As further evidence of companies gradually losing faith in specialized degrees, Michigan State’s Scheetz mentions a pattern in hiring practices. Although companies tend to take on specialists as new hires, they often seek out generalists for middle and upper-level management.  “They want someone who isn’t constrained（限制）by details to look at the big picture,” says  Scheetz. This sounds like a formal statement that you approve of the liberal-arts （文科）graduates. Time and again labor-market analysts mention a need for talents that liberal-arts majors are assumed to have: writing and communication skills, organizational skills, open-mindedness and adaptability, and the ability to analyze and solve problems. David Birch, manager of the Boston Red Sox, claims he does not hire anybody with an MBA or an engineering degree, “I hire only liberal-arts people because they have a less-than-canned way of doing things,” says Birch.
For a liberal-arts degree, students focus on some basic courses that include literature, history, mathematics, economics, science, human behavior—plus a computer course or two. With these useful and important courses, you can feel free to specialize, “A liberal-arts degree coupled with an MBA or some other technical training is a very good combination in the marketplace,” says Scheetz. 

1. 1.

   What kinds of people are in high demand on the job market?

   1. A.
      Students with a bachelor’s degree in humanities.
   2. B.
      People with an MBA degree from top universities.
   3. C.
      People with formal schooling plus work experience.
   4. D.
      People with special training in engineering
2. 2.

   By saying “…but the effect of a degree washes out after five years”(Para 2), the author means     . 

   1. A.
      most MBA programs fail to provide students with a solid foundation
   2. B.
      an MBA degree does not help in the future promotion
   3. C.
      MBA programs will not be as popular in five years’ time as they are now
   4. D.
      people will not forget about the degree the MBA graduates have got
3. 3.

   According to Scheetz’s statement ( Para. 3), companies prefer people who     . 

   1. A.
      have a strategic mind
   2. B.
      are talented in fine arts
   3. C.
      are ambitious and aggressive
   4. D.
      have received training in mechanics
4. 4.

   David Birch claims that he only hires liberal-arts people because they     . 

   1. A.
      are more capable of handling changing situations
   2. B.
      can stick to established ways of solving problems
   3. C.
      are thoroughly trained in a variety of specialized fields
   4. D.
      have attended special programs in management
5. 5.

   Which of the following statements does the author support?

   1. A.
      Specialists are more expensive to hire than generalists.
   2. B.
      Formal schooling is less important than job training.
   3. C.
      On-the-job training is, in the long run, less costly.
   4. D.
      Generalists will do better than specialists in management.