congressional committee funding that agency feels the same. In his famous study “Presidential 244
Power and the Modern Presidents,”Richard Neustadt explains how little power the president actually has and concludes that the only lasting
presidential power is “the power to persuade.” Take Rumseld?s attempt to transform the cold-war military into one
geared for the future. It?s innovative but deeply threatening to almost
everyone in Washington. The Defense secretary did not try to sell it
to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Congress, the budget office of the White
House. As a result, the idea is collapsing.
Second, what power you have, you must use carefully. For example, O?
Neill?s position as Treasury secretary is one with little formal
authority. Unlike Finance ministers around the world, Treasury does
not control the budget. But it has symbolic power. The secretary is
seen as the chief economic spokesman for the administration and, if
he plays it right, the chief economic adviser for the president. O? Neill has been publicly critical of the IMF?s bailout packages
for developing countries while at the same time approving such packages
for Turkey, Argentina and Brazil. As a result, he has gotten the worst of both worlds. The bailouts continue, but their effect in holstering investor confidence is limited because the markets are rattled by his skepticism.
Perhaps the government doesn?t do bailouts well. But that leads to
a third rule: you can?t just quit. Jack Welch?s famous
law for
re-engineering General Electric was to be first or second in any given product category, or else get out of that business. But if the
government isn?t doing a particular job at peak level, it doesn?t
always have the option of relieving itself of that function. The
Pentagon probably wastes a lot of money. But it can?t get out of the
national-security business.
The key to former Treasury secretary Rubin?s success may have been
that he fully understood that business and government are, in his words,
“necessarily and properly very different.”In a recent speech he explained, “Business functions around one predominate organizing
principle, profitability ... Government, on the other hand, deals with
a vast number of equally legitimate and often potentially competing 245
objectives—for example, energy production versus environmental
protection, or safety regulations versus productivity.” Rubin?s example shows that talented people can do well in government
if they are willing to treat it as its own separate, serious endeavour.
But having been bathed in a culture of adoration and flattery, it?s
difficult for a CEO to believe he needs to listen and learn,
particularly from those despised and poorly paid specimens, politicians, bureaucrats and the media. And even if he knows it
intellectually, he just can?t live with it.
27. For a CEO to be successful in government, he has to ____.
A.regard the president as the CEO
B.take absolute control of his department C.exercise more power than the congressional committee D.become acquainted with its power structure
28. In commenting on O? Neill?s record as Treasury Secretary, the
passage seems to indicate that ____.
A.O? Neill has failed to use his power well B.O? Neill policies were well received
C.O? Neill has been consistent in his policies
D.O? Neill uncertain about the package he?s approved 29. According to the passage, the differences between government and
business lie in the following areas EXCEPT ____. 246
A.nature of activity B.optin of withdrawal C.legitimacy of activity D.power distribution 30. The author seems to suggest that CEO-turned government officials ____.
A.are able to fit into their new roles
B.are unlikely to adapt to their new roles C.can respond to new situations intelligently D.may feel uncertain in their new posts SECTION B SKIMMING AND SCANNING (10 min)
In this section there are seven passages with ten multiple-choice
questions. Skim or scan them as required and then mark your answers
on COLORED ANSWER SHEET. TEXT E
First read the question.
31. The passage is mainly concerned with ____ in the U.S.A.
A.traveling B.big cities C.cybercafes D .inventions Now go through TEXT E quickly to answer question 31. 247
Planning to answer your e-mail while on holiday in New York? That
may not be easy. The Internet may have been invented in the United States,
but America is one of the least likely places where a traveller might
find an Internet cafe. “Every major city in the world
has more
cybercafes than New York,”says Joie Kelly, who runs CyberCafeGuide.com. The numbers seem to bear her out: according to various directories, London has more than 30, Paris 19, Istanbul 17,
but New York has only 8. Other U.S. cities fare just as poorly: Los
Angeles has about 11, Chicago has 4. “Here it?s quite hard work to
find a cafe. I was surprised,”says Michael Robson, a sportswriter from York, England, who was visibly relieved to be checking his e-mail at
CyberCafe near New York?s Times Square.
Why the lack of places to plug in? Americans enjoy one of the highest rates of Internet access from work and home in the world, and they?ve
never really taken to cafes. About 80 percent of CyberCafe?s clients, for instance, are tourists from overseas. Greek tycoon Stelios
HajiIoannou also thinks high prices drive away locals. Last November
he oppened a branch of his Internet-cafe chain easyEverything in Times
Square. With 800 terminals, it?s the largest Net cafe in the world.
While the typical American cafe charges $ 8 to $ 12 an hour,
easyEverything charges $ 1 to 4. Marketing manager Stephaine Engelsen
says half the cafe?s customers are locals. “We get policemen, firemen,
nurses who don?t work at desks with computers, actors between
auditions.”easyEverything is now planning to open new locations in Harlem, and possibly SoHo. Unless there?s some cultural shift afoot,
however, New York will continue to lag behind metropolises from Mexico City to Moscow.
TEXT F
First read the question. 32. In the passage below the author primarily attempts to ____.
A.criticize yogis in the West B.define what yoag is 248
C.teach yoga postures D.experiment with yoga
Now go through TEXT F quickly to answer question 32. Most of the so-called yogis in the West seem to focus on figure
correction, not true awareness. They make statements about yoga being for the body, mind and soul. But this is just semantics. Asanas
(postures), which get such huge play in the West, are the smallest
aspect of yoga. Either you practice yoga as a whole or you don?t. If
one is practicing just for health, better to take up walking. Need to
cure a disease? See a doctor. Yoga is not about fancy asanas or breath
control. Nor is it a therapy or a philosophy. Yoga is about inside
awareness. It is the process of union of the self with the whole. Yoga
is becoming the Buddha.
Yogis are experimentalists. In the West, scientists research mainly
external phenomena. Yogis focus on the inside. They know that the
external world is maya (illusionary) and everything inside is sathya
(truth). In maya everything goes, but if you know yourself nothing goes.
The West tends to practice only what we call cultural asanas that focus on the external. We don?t practice asanas just to become fit. Indian yogis have discovered 8.4 million such postures. It is essential to train our bodies to find the most comfortable pose that we can sit in
for hours. Beyond that there is no role for physical