2. 外语
  3. •Read the article below about suggestions for effective meetings and the following questions. •For each question (13-18), mark o

•Read the article below about suggestions for effective meetings and the following questions. •For each question (13-18), mark o

admin2014-03-03  120
问题 •Read the article below about suggestions for effective meetings and the following questions.
•For each question (13-18), mark one letter (A, B, C or D) on your Answer Sheet, for the answer you choose.
                                  Suggestions for Effective Meetings
       Meetings are windows on the soul of business: they reveal the quality of its management. Well-organized, well-conducted meetings bespeak an effective organization. Meetings afflicted with sloppy planning, flimsy agendas, and fuzzy expectations indicate a not-so-effective one. Here are some tips for tightening and energizing your meetings:
      Prepare smartly. At Intel Corporation, those who call a meeting must first assess whether the meeting is necessary. They’ll e-mail ideas to a few people for comments and suggestions, draft an agenda, and then distribute it to a wider audience for revisions. The result is a one-pager containing the meeting’s purpose and goals, subtopics with time frames for each, a list of attendees, and what each one should bring to the table. It’s distributed in advance to attendees and to the appropriate business-unit chief, who might later check it for quality.
      Stand up and create. You don’t always have to meet in an airless conference room. Senior executives at Ritz-Carlton in Atlanta gather each morning in the hallway outside the president’s office for a ten minute "quality talk." Managers at Cabletron Systems have mastered the art of the stand-up meeting. No seats, just solutions. The food teams at Whole Goods Market stores meet weekly to forecast the financials, but when they’re behind schedule, they might meet in the frozen-food aisle. Get creative; shake things up. Consider hosting your next brainstorming session outdoors.
      Make rules. Create roles and policies to stimulate discussion and keep it on track. A facilitator equipped with a watch or egg timer leads the discussion. A scribe takes notes on a dry-erase board. Intel also has a gatekeeper who makes sure everyone has a chance to speak. Of course, employees need to feel they can speak honestly without retribution. Springfield Manufacturing Corp has a no-griping policy to ensure that comments are positive and objective. At Foldraft Co. , managers dressed as referees call timeout when speakers at all-company meetings stray from the topic at hand.
      Follow up. At the close of Intel’s meetings, attendees are encouraged to mentally answer questions posted on conference room walls. Why was I here? What was my role? Was I well prepared? What was resolved? The process helps people clarify their thoughts so they can contribute to the meeting-minutes document, which is posted on internal Web pages within 24 hours. This one-page summary lists key issues, decisions made, action items, expected results, firm deadlines, and the next meeting date. All these are for tracking purposes.
      According to the surveys by the Wharton Center for Applied Research, managers report that only 56% of their meetings are productive, and that 25% would have been more effective as conference calls, memos, e-mails, or voicemails. Conclusion: the cost of misguided meetings is high. When meetings aren’t paying off, explore your options and make substitutions. Kris Burton of Total Restoration switched to a combination of broadcast voicemail and follow-up memos when the cost-to-payoff ration for weekly meetings shot up. He explains. "The system is easier and much less costly."  
The writer says meetings don’t always have to be held in an airless conference room
选项 A、because there is not enough fresh air in conference rooms.
B、because quality talk can be better carried out outside conference rooms.
C、because meetings can sometimes be more efficient when not held in conference rooms.
D、because people sometimes need a change.
答案C
解析
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