[求助] prep2 essay15 #50

qqbeauty

Essay #15.  561        (23501-!-item-!-188;#058&00561-00)

After the Second World War, unionism in the Japanese auto industry was company-based, with separate unions in each auto company.  Most company unions played no independent role in bargaining shop-floor issues or pressing autoworkers' grievances.  In a 1981 survey, for example, fewer than 1 percent of workers said they sought union assistance for work-related problems, while 43 percent said they turned to management instead.  There was little to distinguish the two in any case: most union officers were foremen or middle-level managers, and the union's role was primarily one of passive support for company goals.  Conflict occasionally disrupted this cooperative relationship--one company union's opposition to the productivity campaigns of the early 1980s has been cited as such a case.  In 1986, however, a caucus led by the Foreman's Association forced the union's leadership out of office and returned the union's policy to one of passive cooperation.  In the United States, the potential for such company unionism grew after 1979, but it had difficulty taking hold in the auto industry, where a single union represented workers from all companies, particularly since federal law prohibited foremen from joining or leading industrial unions.

The Japanese model was often invoked as one in which authority decentralized to the shop floor empowered production workers to make key decisions.  What these claims failed to recognize was that the actual delegation of authority was to the foreman, not the workers.  The foreman exercised discretion over job assignments, training, transfers, and promotions; worker initiative was limited to suggestions that fine-tuned a management-controlled production process.  Rather than being proactive, Japanese workers were forced to be reactive, the range of their responsibilities being far wider than their span of control.  For example, the founder of one production system, Taichi Ohno, routinely gave department managers only 90 percent of the resources needed for production.  As soon as workers could meet production goals without working overtime, 10 percent of remaining resources would be removed.  Because the "OH! NO!" system continually pushed the production process to the verge of breakdown in an effort to find the minimum resource requirement, critics described it as "management by stress."

Question #50.  561-03       (23639-!-item-!-188;#058&000561-03)

The author of the passage mentions the "OH! NO!" system primarily in order to

(A) indicate a way in which the United States industry has become more like the Japanese auto industry

(B) challenge a particular misconception about worker empowerment in the Japanese auto industry

(C) illustrate the kinds of problem-solving techniques encouraged by company unions in Japan

(D) suggest an effective way of minimizing production costs in auto manufacturing

(E) provide an example of the responsibilities assumed by a foreman in the Japanese auto industry

答案是B，完全想不通呀

求各位大牛帮忙解答一下～ 

[此贴子已经被作者于2009-2-24 10:32:47编辑过]

graceguo98

Question #50.  561-03       (23639-!-item-!-188;#058&000561-03)


The author of the passage mentions the "OH! NO!" system primarily in order to
(A) indicate a way in which the United States industry has become more like the Japanese auto industry
显然错了，所涉及这个问题的那段内容根本没有提到美国工业的问题，是一个日本的工会的问题

(B) challenge a particular misconception about worker empowerment in the Japanese auto industry
(C) illustrate the kinds of problem-solving techniques encouraged by company unions in Japan （无）
(D) suggest an effective way of minimizing production costs in auto manufacturing
(E) provide an example of the responsibilities assumed by a foreman in the Japanese auto industry

请ＮＮ解释

gracezz

这题我也错了，现在明白了，
第二段第一句话：The Japanese model was often invoked as one in which authority decentralized to the shop floor empowered production workers to make key decisions. 这句话没看明白。
被分散到车间的职权给生产工人权力去作重大决定。
而下面就接着介绍一个例子证明是那个foremen在做决定，工作的角色其实是reactive,而不是proactive。答案就出来了。

agnesliu

这题我也错了

恐怕要整段结合来看才看得出来，not，but，limited to，rather than这些词表明整段是在澄清一些误解。
楼上分析的有道理

lyx6117

其实俺不明白的地方是，第一段和第二段的关系是什么？这篇文章的主旨是什么~

因为感觉第一段就是讲工会没有权利，还举了美国工会的例子？第二段有说foreman去决策，相比把权利下放给工人更有效率。那作者到底想表达啥....

liyiqin926

有点牵强

kara---

说好的gamt文章都特别严谨有条理，这篇文章有个鸡毛条理，胡言乱语