文化背景對商業運作的影響

　　Culture is one of the most challenging elements of the international marketplace. 『This system of learned behavior patterns characteristic of the members of a given society is constantly shaped by a set of dynamic variables: language, religion, values and attitudes, manners and customs, aesthetics, technology, education, and social institutions.』① To cope with this system, an international manager needs both factual and interpretive knowledge of culture. To some extent, the factual knowledge can be learned; its interpretation comes only through experience.

　　The most complicated problems in dealing with the cultural environment stem from the fact that one cannot learn culture—one has to live it. Two schools of thought exist in the business world on how to deal with cultural diversity. One is that business is business the world around, following the model of Pepsi and McDonald’s. In some cases, globalization is a fact of life; however, cultural differences are still far from converging.

　　The other school proposes that companies must tailor business approaches to individual cultures. Setting up policies and procedures in each country has been compared to an organ transplant; the critical question centers around acceptance or rejection. The major challenge to the international manager is to make sure that rejection is not a result of cultural myopia or even blindness.

　　Fortune examined the international performance of a dozen large companies that earn 20 percent or more of their revenue overseas. The internationally successful companies all share an important quality: patience. They have not rushed into situations but rather built their operations carefully by following the most basic business principles. These principles are to know your adversary, know your audience, and know your customer.

　　1. According to the passage, which of the following is true?

　　A. All international managers can learn culture.

　　B. Business diversity is not necessary.

　　C. Views differ on how to treat culture in business world.

　　D. Most people do not know foreign culture well.

　　2. According to the author, the model of Pepsi .

　　A. is in line with the theories of the school advocating the business is business the world around

　　B. is different from the model of McDonald’s

　　C. shows the reverse of globalization

　　D. has converged cultural differences

　　3. The two schools of thought .

　　A. both propose that companies should tailor business approaches to individual cultures

　　B. both advocate that different policies be set up in different countries C. admit the existence of cultural diversity in business world

　　D. Both A and B

　　4. This article is supposed to be most useful for those .

　　A. who are interested in researching the topic of cultural diversity

　　B. who have connections to more than one type of culture

　　C. who want to travel abroad

　　D. who want to run business on International Scale

　　5. According to Fortune, successful international companies .

　　A. earn 20 percent or more of their revenue overseas

　　B. all have the quality of patience

　　C. will follow the overseas local cultures

　　D. adopt the policy of internationalization

　　Vocabulary

　　1. dynamic adj. 動態的 2. variable n. 變量

　　aesthetics n. 美學 　4. factual adj. 事實的

　　5. interpretative adj. 解釋的 6. converge v. 聚合

　　7. transplant v. 移植 　8. myopia n. 近視 9. adversary n. 對手

　　長難句解析

　　①【解析】此句雖然很長，但考生只要認清它的主干，就很容易了解本句的意思。這個句子為一個簡單句，主語為：“this system”，謂語為“is shaped”。

　　【譯文】特定社會成員特點構成的行為方式體系不斷地被一系列動態變量所左右：如語言、信仰、價值與態度、禮儀與風俗、審美、技術、教育及社會體制。

　　答案與詳解

　　【短文大意】本文主要講述文化背景對商業運作的影響，文中列舉了商界中存在的對于文化多樣性的兩種觀點。

　　C推斷題。意為“對在商業中怎樣對待文化有著不同意見”。 文化在商業中是一個很具挑戰性的因素。不同的國家與地區可能會有不同的文化體系。在商業中，應該怎樣對待不同的文化，商業界存在著不同的看法。

　　2. A細節題。意為“……與同意世界商業一體化的派別的主張是一致的”。 Pepsi采納的是國際化的商業風格，這與那些主張國際化的派別的意見是相一致的。

　　3. C推斷題。意為“承認商業世界中文化的多元性”。兩個派別都承認商業世界中文化的多元性。他們的不同在于，應該對待不同的文化，應該搞國際化還是對不同的文化采取不同的策略。

　　4. D主旨題。由文中的例子可以知道，作者主要關心的并不是研究多種文化形態，而是文化背景對商業運作的影響。所以D是正確答案。

　　5. B細節題。意為“都具有耐心這一素質”。并非所有成功的國際公司的海外收入都占總收入的20%或以上。它們也不一定全都接納海外的當地文化，或是采納國際化策略。

　　編輯推薦：

　　2013 年6月大學英語四級(CET-4)高頻詞匯匯總

　　2013年大學英語四級考試寫作輔導大全