首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
It has been a wretched few weeks for America’s celebrity bosses. AIG’s Maurice Greenberg has been dramatically ousted from the
It has been a wretched few weeks for America’s celebrity bosses. AIG’s Maurice Greenberg has been dramatically ousted from the
admin
2011-03-22
59
问题
It has been a wretched few weeks for America’s celebrity bosses. AIG’s Maurice Greenberg has been dramatically ousted from the firm through which he dominated global insurance for decades. At Morgan Stanley a mutiny is forcing Philip Purcell, a boss used to getting his own way, into an increasingly desperate campaign to save his skin. At Boeing, Harry Stonecipher was called out of retirement to lead the scandal-hit firm and raise ethical standards, only to commit a lapse of his own, being sacked for sending e-mails to a lover who was also an employee. Carly Fiorina was the most powerful woman in corporate America until a few weeks ago, when Hewlett-Packard (HP) sacked her for poor performance. The fate of Bernie Ebbers is much grimmer. The once high-profile boss of World-Corn could well spend the rest of his life behind bars following his conviction last month on fraud charges.
In different ways, each of these examples appears to point to the same, welcome conclusion: that the imbalance in corporate power of the late 1990s, when many bosses were allowed to behave like absolute monarchs, has been corrected. Alas, appearances can be deceptive. While each of these recent tales of chief-executive woe is a sign of progress, none provides much evidence that the crisis in American corporate governance is yet over. In fact, each of these cases is an example of failed, not successful, governance.
At the very least, the boards of both Morgan Stanley and HP were far too slow to address their bosses’ inadequacies. The record of the Boeing board in picking chiefs prone to ethical lapses is too long to be dismissed as mere bad luck. The fall of Messrs Greenberg and Ebbers, meanwhile, highlights the growing role of government—and, in particular, of criminal prosecutors—in holding bosses to account, a development that is, at best, a mixed blessing. The Sarbanes-Oxley act, passed in haste following the Enron and World-Com scandals, is imposing heavy costs on American companies; whether these are exceeded by any benefits is the subject of fierce debate and may not be known for years.
Eliot Spitzer, New York’s attorney-general, is the leading advocate and practitioner of an energetic "law enforcement" approach. He may be right that the recent burst of punitive actions has been good for the economy, even if some of his own decisions have been open to question. Where he is undoubtedly right is in arguing that corporate America has done a lamentable job of governing itself. As he says in an article in the Wall Street Journal this week: "The honour code among CEOs didn’t work. Board oversight didn’t work. Self-regulation was a complete failure. " AIG’s board, for example, did nothing about Mr Greenberg’s use of murky accounting, or the conflicts posed by his use of offshore vehicles, or his constant bullying of his critics—let alone the firm’s alleged participation in bid-rigging—until Mr Spitzer threatened a criminal prosecution that might have destroyed the firm.
What does the author mean by "a mixed blessing" (Line 5, Para. 3)?
选项
A、All kinds of good things
B、Something mixed with confusion
C、Something both good and bad
D、Something mixed with optimistic and pessimistic results
答案
C
解析
本题为语义题,mixed adj. 混合的,混杂的;如:mixed economy兼私有与国有经济的混合经济;blessing幸福,可喜的事情;此处的"a mixed blessing"也即是“好坏参半之事”。
转载请注明原文地址:https://www.kaotiyun.com/show/sQxd777K
本试题收录于:
公共英语四级笔试题库公共英语(PETS)分类
0
公共英语四级笔试
公共英语(PETS)
相关试题推荐
ManyAmericansfindsilenceuncomfortableduringabuffetoraformaldinner.【C1】______intheStatesthereisthe【C2】______
Inthemarket-orientedeconomicsystem,______.
CottonwasnotexportedtoEuropeuntiltheeighthcenturyA.D..ItwasbroughttoSpainthenbytheMoorsofNorthAfrica.The
______makeitpossibleforastronautstoreachthemoon.
______governmentssignedtheProgramofActionofICDC.
Everyplaceisdifferent.Thatis【21】______makesgeographysointeresting.It【22】______ustonewplace,todifferentwaysof
Everyplaceisdifferent.Thatis【21】______makesgeographysointeresting.It【22】______ustonewplace,todifferentwaysof
Everyplaceisdifferent.Thatis【21】______makesgeographysointeresting.It【22】______ustonewplace,todifferentwaysof
Althoughtherehadbeenvarioussmallcamerasdeveloped,itwasnotuntilGeorgeEastmanintroducedtheKodakin1888thatt
随机试题
论述艺术意象的主要特征。
尸检时,能明确死者生前有过敏反应的形态学依据是
根据《药品经营质量管理规范实施细则》,关于药品经营企业人员要求的说法,正确的是()。
数据库中能保证不产生死锁的方法为()。
未经总监理工程师签字,()。
金融机构之间融通资金以解决临时资金不足的市场是()。
幼儿园儿童做加减法时会用数手指的方式帮助自己,这种思维类型是()。
根据以下资料,回答106-110题。如果2010年下半年六大产业的总产值按照上半年电子信息产业的增速增长,那么该市2010年六大产业的总产值约为()。
(2011上集管)在系统集成项目收尾的时候,项目经理小张和他的团队完成了以下工作:工作一:系统测试。项目组准备了详尽的测试用例,会同业主共同进行系统测试,测试过程中为了节约时间,小张指派项目开发人员小李从测试用例中挑选了部分数据进行测试,保证系统
TeachingPoetryNopoemshouldeverbediscussedor"analyzed",untilithasbeenreadaloudbysomeone,teacherorstudent.
最新回复
(
0
)