考研英語閱讀理解練習試題

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2017考研英語閱讀理解練習試題

　　下面是CN人才網小編為大家整理的閱讀理解試題，歡迎大家前來查看。

2017考研英語閱讀理解練習試題

　　In 2007 a French foodcompany wanted to buy a family-owned firm in India. The patriarch was 72, andthe French firm wanted to send someone of similar experience to talk to him. Butbecause of its youthful corporate culture—most people are pushed out of the door in their mid-40s—it had no one to send. In the end, through Experconnect, anemployment agency in Paris which places retired people, it found a 58-year-oldformer head of a European consumer-goods firm, and sent him out to Mumbai.

　　France has a poorrecord when it comes to keeping older people in the workforce. The retirementage is 60, not 65 as in most developed countries. In 2005 only 37.8% of peopleaged between 55 and 64 had jobs, versus 56.8% in Britain and 44.9% in Germany.The main reason is that in the 1980s, when there was high unemployment, thegovernment promoted early retirement. That entrenched the idea that olderworkers were less productive, says Caroline Young, Experconnect’s founder.

　　Now companies areworried about losing their most skilled workers, especially as the baby-boomgeneration nears retirement. Areva, a nuclear-power group, recently launched ascheme to address the needs of older employees, and plans to use about 100retired people a year through Experconnect. Because nuclear power was unpopularfor decades, Areva stopped training engineers, so that much of its expertiselies with its oldest staff. Now it is taking much more interest in them. “We have to bring about a revolution in opinion,” says Jean Cassingena, its human-resources strategist.

　　Unlike otherrecruitment agencies, Experconnect keeps its workers on its own books, so theycan carry on drawing their pensions. They tend to work part-time on one-offprojects. Engineers and people with high levels of technical skill are most indemand in France, says Ms. Young, as younger people increasingly choose to gointo fields such as marketing. Thales, a defence and aerospace firm, is using aformer radar expert, for instance, and Louis Berger France, an engineeringfirm, often uses retired engineers to manage big infrastructure projects.

　　Softer industries alsomake use of Experconnect. Danone, a food firm, hires people for one-offmanagement roles. “Older peoplehave seen it all and they are level-headed,” says Thomas Kunz, its head of beverages. The beauty industry isshort of toxicologists to determine whether new lotions are safe, and one firmhas just taken on a 75-year-old. Two famous French luxury-goods companies planto use retired workers in their handbag divisions. One wants to safeguard itsknowledge of fine leathers and sewing; the other wants to apply expertise fromthe aerospace industry to make new kinds of materials for handbags.

　　Despite an impressivehandful of high-profile clients, Experconnect has found it difficult toconvince French companies that older workers can be valuable. It has 2 700retired people on its books, and has so far placed just 50 of them on “missions”. Oldprejudices, as they say, die hard.

　　1. According to the first paragraph， we can know that ______.

　　[A] the India firm was founded 72 years ago

　　[B] most French workers retire in their mid-forties

　　[C] the French firm finally found someone suitable to talk to thepatriarch

　　[D] no French workers wanted to go to India

　　2. “the governmentpromoted early retirement” is cited inParagraph 2 as an example to

　　______.

　　[A] show why older workers were less productive

　　[B] illustrate the poor condition of keeping old people in the workforcein France

　　[C] compare the condition of old people between France and otherdeveloped countries

　　[D] assess the policy of France government at that time

　　3. What’s the meaning of the last sentenceof the passage?