2013年职称英语考试阅读理解练习

Will Quality Eat up the US Lead in Software?

　　If US software companies don't pay more attention to quality, they could kiss their business good-bye. Both India and Brazil are developing a world-class software industry. Their weapon is quality and one of their jobs is to attract the top US quality specialists whose voices are not listened to in their country.

　　Already, of the world's 12 software houses that have earned the highest rating in the world, seven are in India. That's largely because they have used new methodologies rejected by American software specialists. For example, for decades, quality specialists, W. Edwards Deming and J. M. Juran had urged US software companies to change their attitudes to quality. But their quality call mainly fell on deaf ears in the US - but not in Japan. By the 1970s and 1980s, Japan was grabbing market share with better, cheaper products. They used Deming's and Juran's ideas to bring down the cost of good quality to as little as 5% of total production costs. In US factories, the cost of quality then was 10 times as high: 50%. In software, it still is.

　　Watts S. Humphrey spent 27 years at IBM heading up software production and then quality assurance. But his advice was seldom paid attention to. He retired from IBM in 1986. In 1987, he worked out a system for assessing and improving software quality. It has proved its value time and again. For example, in 1990 the cost of quality at Raytheon Electronics Systems was almost 60% of total software production costs. It fell to 15% in 1996 and has since further dropped to below 10%.

　　Like Deming and Juran, Humphrey seems to be winning more praises overseas than at home. The Indian government and several companies have just founded the Watts Humphrey Software Quality Institute at the Software Technology Park in Chennai, India. Let's hope that US lead in software will not be eaten up by its quality problems.
1 Which country has more highest-rating software companies in the world?

　　A Germany.

　　B The US.

　　C Brazil.

　　D India.  

　　2 Which of the following statements about Humphrey is true?

　　A He is now still an IBM employee.

　　B He has worked for IBM for 37 years.

　　C The US payed much attention to his quality advice.

　　D India honors him highly.

　　3 Why could Japan seize its large market share of software products by the 1970s and the 1980s?

　　A Because its products were cheaper and better.

　　B Because its advertising was successful.

　　C Because the US hardware industry was lagging behind.

　　D Because it hired a lot of Indian software specialists.

　　4 The founding of Watts Humphrey Software Quality Institute symbolized

　　A the Indian determination to move ahead with its software.

　　B the American ambition to take the lead in software.

　　C the Japanese efforts to solve the software quality problem.

　　D the Chinese policy on imparting software.

　　5 What is the writer worrying about?

　　A Many US software specialists are working for Japan.

　　B The software quality has become a worldwide problem.

　　C The US will no longer be the leading software player in the world.

　　D India and Japan are joining hands to compete with the US.

 

　　答案：1. D　　2. D　　3. A　　4. A　　5. C