阅读理解

　　From bankers to factory staff, employees in the West face a cold prospect of losing their jobs as a global recession(衰退)starts to bite．For colleagues in the East, the pain is more likely to come through a pay cut．

　　Human resource experts say cultural differences explain why Asian companies try harder to preserve jobs in difficult times, which will prevent unemployment and may help Asian economies survive at a time of slowing exports．The East Asian attitude may also make it easier for companies to recover quickly from the economic downturn since they will not need to rehire or train new staff, but build up a more loyal and devoted group．

　　“In the Confucian mindset(儒家思想), the right thing to do is to share the burden, which is the sense of collective responsibility．While in the West, it's more about individual survival,” said Michael Benoliel, associate professor of organizational behavior at Singapore Management University(SMU)．

　　In contrast, local Western companies from General Motors to Goldman Sachs plan to lay off workers by the thousands, but at the Asian units of Western multinationals or western units of Asian groups, job cuts will probably be less severe．

　　Japan's jobless rate was 4 percent in September, up from 3.8 percent in January, while Hong Kong's was flat at 3.4 percent．But US unemployment is expected to have jumped to 6.3 percent last month from below 5 percent in January．

　　Experts say that while there are noticeable differences in labor practices in East and West, the gap will narrow as more firms become more multinational and competition forces firms to adopt the best practices of rivals(对手)from abroad．

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

阅读理解

　　A lot of management training is held each year for Circle K Corporation, a national chain of convenience stores．Among the topics we address in our course is the retention(保护力)of quality employees-a real challenge to managers when you consider the pay scale in the service industry．During these discussions, I ask the participants,“What has caused you to stay long enough to become a manager?”Some time back a new manager took the question and slowly, with her voice almost breaking, said,“It was a ＄19 baseball glove．”

　　Cynthia told the group that she originally took a Circle K clerk job as an interim(临时的)position while she looked for something better．On her second or third day behind the counter, she received a phone call from her nine-year-old son, Jessie．He needed a baseball glove for Little League．She explained that as a single mother, money was very tight, and her first check would have to go for paying bills．Perhaps she could buy his baseball glove with her second or third check．When Cynthia arrived for work the next morning, Patricia, the store manager, asked her to come to the small room in the back of the store that served as an office．Cynthia wondered if she had done something wrong or left some part of her job incomplete from the day before．She was concerned and confused．

　　Patricia handed her a box．“I overheard you talking to your son yesterday,”she said,“and I know that it is hard to explain things to kids．This is a baseball glove for Jessie because he may not understand how important he is, even though you have to pay bills before you can buy gloves．You know we can’t pay good people like you as much as we would like to; but we do care, and I want you to know you are important to us．”

　　The thoughtfulness, empathy and love of this convenience store manager demonstrates vividly that people remember more how much an employer cares than how much the employer pays．An important lesson for the price of a Little League baseball glove．

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)