大学英语四级考试试卷I. Reading Comprehension (30%)Passage OneE-business requires instantaneous decision-making and KM (knowledge management) has a tremendous role to play in achieving this as well as quality feedback. Real-time business without proper knowledge and feedback information quickly turns into real-time unsupervised and valueless chaos. Lack of adequate knowledge flow and coherent real-time views of a situation inevitably lead to disastrous consequences. The infamous Barings Bank operated a real-time futures business without real-time checks and balances, and did not ensure adequate quality of knowledge flows from the trading floor to controllers and managers. It was too-much-too-fast coupled with too-little-quality-feedback and insufficient understanding. There was too little real-time knowledge at hand and it turned out a spectacular disaster.The missing link was KM. No serious e-business effort should be undertaken without considering, planning and implementing a strong KM infrastructure. Real-time knowledge must flow from those who have it to those who must be able to make the right move at the right time. And there is no time to spare. E-businesses must be equipped with interactive workflow tools and real-time business intelligence feedback in a clear and understandable format. People involved must have access to all underlying documents at all times at a snap of their fingers. Otherwise, they will guess rather than make informed decisions.Or worse, in fear of making a huge mistake, people will make no decisions at all. Take a home loan application process for example. You would most likely apply to a number of banks at the same time. They would obviously compete on pricing, but the bank that can make your credit assessment first and most effectively, process the documentation and inform you on the progress every step of the way will get your business. The rest may be stuck with less demanding, more risk-prone customers. This may affect their overall profitability, and ability to compete on price and service in the future. It could put them out of business altogether. So is there a link between e-business and KM? I surely think so.1. According to the passage, in doing E-business, you must _.A. make quick decisionsB. learn many disciplinesC. work hardD. know how to promote yourself2. As the author puts it, being short of _ will lead to failure in E-business.A. support from the governmentB. sufficient knowledge flow and accurate views of the situationC. qualified managersD. loan from the bank3. Barings Bank went bankrupt because _.A. it involved itself in the futures businessB. its manager was not an expertC. it failed to smooth the knowledge flow and the feedback processesD. of its slow decision-making process4. Some managers do not make decisions because _.A. they are not provided with sufficient informationB. they are slow in thinkingC. they are very democraticD. they have limited rights in the company5. When you apply for a home loan, you tend to choose a band which _.A. offers the lowest interestB. is located quite near to your houseC. will keep you informed of the on-goings in the processD. is big and famousPassage TwoJonathon H. Stillman, a marine biologist at Stanford University, tested the heat tolerance of four species of crabs found in the shallow waters of the Pacific Ocean.Two of the crab species were from the Oregon coast and lived in waters that range from 47 degrees to 59 degrees in temperature. The other two came from the Gulf of California in Mexico and thrived in waters of 54 degrees to 86 degrees. Live specimens of the animals were placed in aquariums (鱼缸) which were held at a constant temperature just at the upper thermal range of their natural habitat. The crabs were then outfitted with sensors that measured heartbeat.The temperatures were raised in the individual aquariums by about a fifth of a degree a minute until the animals heartbeat stopped. This established the upper thermal tolerance limit for each of the species.The Mexican crabs that lived in the hottest climate were the least able to adapt to an increase in temperatures above that which they normally encounter in their natural home. Temperatures in the habitat of one of the crabs often reaches 105.8 degrees F, but the animals died at 106.2, less than a degree above normal. One of the Oregon species was acclimated to a temperature of 65, but survived until the aquarium temperature reached 87.The crabs that came from the Oregon coast adapted best to a rise in temperature and had the greatest capacity to increase their heat tolerance.6. The crabs from the _ can survive in waters with higher temperature.A. Oregon CoastB. Atlantic OceanC. Gulf of California in MexicoD. State of California7. The researchers studied the crabs to find out _.A. their heat toleranceB. their heart beatsC. their living stylesD. th