The author raises the question “what about pain without gain?” because ________.[A] he questions the truth of “no gain without pain”[B] he does not think the productivity revolution works[C] he wonders if the official statistics are misleading[D] he has c

A、Parthian shot

B、rayal need

C、black sheep

D、rough diamond

The author' s attitude towards pain is ______.

A) pessimistic

B) optimistic

C) radical

D) practical

Text 2

Well, no gain without pain, they say. But what about pain without gain? Everywhere you go in America, you hear tales of corporate revival. What is harder to establish is whether the productivity revolution that businessmen assume they are presiding over is for real.

The official statistics are mildly discouraging. They show that, if you lump manufacturing and services together, productivity has grown on average by 1.2% since 1987. That is somewhat faster than the average during the previous decade. And since 1991, productivity has increased by about 2% a year, which is more than twice the 1978-1987 average. The trouble is that part of the recent acceleration is due to the usual rebound that occurs at this point in a business cycle, and so is not conclusiv

e evidence of a revival in the underlying trend. There is, as Robert Rubin, the treasury secretary, says, a “disjunction” between the mass of business anecdote that points to a leap in productivity and the picture reflected by the statistics.

Some of this can be easily explained. New ways of organizing the workplace—all that re-engineering and downsizing—are only one contribution to the overall productivity of an economy, which is driven by many other factors such as joint investment in equipment and machinery, new technology, and investment in education and training. Moreover, most of the changes that companies make are intended to keep them profitable, and this need not always mean increasing productivity: switching to new markets or improving quality can matter just as much.

Two other explanations are more speculative. First, some of the business restructuring of recent years may have been ineptly done. Second, even if it was well done, it may have spread much less widely than people suppose.

Leonard Schlesinger, a Harvard academic and former chief executive of Au Bong Pain, a rapidly growing chain of bakery cafes, says that much “re-engineering” has been crude. In many cases, he believes, the loss of revenue has been greater than the reductions in cost. His colleague, Michael Beer, says that far too many companies have applied re-engineering in a mechanistic fashion, chopping out costs without giving sufficient thought to long term profitability. BBDO’s Al Rosenshine is blunter. He dismisses a lot of the work of re-engineering consultants as mere rubbish—“the worst sort of ambulance cashing.”

46. According to the author, the American economic situation is ________.

[A] not as good as it seems

[B] at its turning point

[C] much better than it seems

[D] near to complete recovery

A moment's drilling by the dentist may make us nervous and upset. Many of us cannot stand pain.

To avoid the pain of a drilling that may last perhaps a minute or two, we demand the "needle"— a shot of novocaine (奴佛卡因) -that deadens the nerves around the tooth.

Now it' s true that the human body has developed its millions of nerves to be highly aware of what goes on both inside and outside of it. This helps us adjust to the world. Without our nerves—and our brain, which is a bundle of nerves— we wouldn't know what's happening. But we pay for our sensitivity. We can feel pain when the slightest thing is wrong with any part of our body. The history of torture is based on the human body being open to pain.

But there is a way to handle pain. Look at the Indian fakir(行僧) who sits on a bed of nails. Fakirs can put a needle right through an arm, and feel no pain; This ability that some humans have developed to handle pain should give us ideas about how the mind can deal with pain.

The big thing in withstanding pain is our attitude toward it. If the dentist says, "This will hurt a little, it helps us to accept the pain. By staying relaxed,' and by treating the pain as an interesting sensation, we' can handle the pain without falling apart. After all; although pain is an unpleasant sensation, it is still a sensation, and sensations are the stuff of life.

26. The passage is mainly about______.

A) how to stiffer pain

B) how to avoid pain

C) how to handle pain

D) how to stop pain

What is the passage mainly about?

A． The universal value of the world heritage in Liverpool

B． The exciting experience of the author in Liverpool

C． The special cultural atmosphere of Liverpool

D． The beautiful historic sites of Liverpool