2018雅思阅读模拟练习passage 2：Life lessons

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为尽量还原雅思阅读考试的真实考试场景，建议考生将下面的阅读题目打印后计时练习。雅思阅读速度如何提高，无他，提高做题速度一方面要有丰富的词汇量储备，一方面要有一定的考试技巧做支撑，当然，最重要的还是实践出真知，多刷题，多总结多反思。易伯华雅思君觉得雅思阅读分数并不是靠刷题刷出来的，光练不反思的效果并不好。先奉上本期雅思阅读模拟练习题：Life lessons from villains, crooks and gangsters，题目难度中等，建议阅读时间10分钟。

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–26, which are based on

Reading Passage 2 below.

Life lessons from villains, crooks and gangsters

(A) A notorious Mexican drug baron’s audacious escape from prison in July

doesn’t, at first, appear to have much to teach corporate boards. But some in

the business world suggest otherwise. Beyond the morally reprehensible side of

criminals' work, some business gurus say organised crime syndicates, computer

hackers, pirates and others operating outside the law could teach legitimate

corporations a thing or two about how to hustle and respond to rapid change.

(B) Far from encouraging illegality, these gurus argue that – in the same way

big corporations sometimes emulate start-ups – business leaders could learn from

the underworld about flexibility, innovation and the ability to pivot quickly.

“There is a nimbleness to criminal organisations that legacy corporations [with

large, complex layers of management] don’t have,” said Marc Goodman, head of the

Future Crimes Institute and global cyber-crime advisor. While traditional

businesses focus on rules they have to follow, criminals look to circumvent

them. “For criminals, the sky is the limit and that creates the opportunity to

think much, much bigger.”

(C) Joaquin Guzman, the head of the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel, for

instance, slipped out of his prison cell through a tiny hole in his shower that

led to a mile-long tunnel fitted with lights and ventilation. Making a break for

it required creative thinking, long-term planning and perseverance – essential

skills similar to those needed to achieve success in big business.

(D) While Devin Liddell, who heads brand strategy for Seattle-based design

consultancy, Teague, condemns the violence and other illegal activities he

became curious as to how criminal groups endure. Some cartels stay in business

despite multiple efforts by law enforcement on both sides of the US border and

millions of dollars from international agencies to shut them down. Liddell

genuinely believes there’s a lesson in longevity here. One strategy he

underlined was how the bad guys respond to change. In order to bypass the border

between Mexico and the US, for example, the Sinaloa cartel went to great

lengths. It built a vast underground tunnel, hired family members as border

agents and even used a catapult to circumvent a high-tech fence.

(E) By contrast, many legitimate businesses fail because they hesitate to

adapt quickly to changing market winds. One high-profile example is movie and

game rental company Blockbuster, which didn’t keep up with the market and lost

business to mail order video rentals and streaming technologies. The brand has

all but faded from view. Liddell argues the difference between the two groups is

that criminal organisations often have improvisation encoded into their daily

behaviour, while larger companies think of innovation as a set process. “This is

a leadership challenge,” said Liddell. “How well companies innovate and organise

is a reflection of leadership.”

Left-field thinking

(F) Cash-strapped start-ups also use unorthodox strategies to problem solve

and build their businesses up from scratch. This creativity and innovation is

often borne out of necessity, such as tight budgets. Both criminals and start-up

founders “question authority, act outside the system and see new and clever ways

of doing things,” said Goodman. “Either they become Elon Musk or El Chapo.” And,

some entrepreneurs aren’t even afraid to operate in legal grey areas in their

effort to disrupt the marketplace. The co-founders of music streaming service

Napster, for example, knowingly broke music copyright rules with their first

online file sharing service, but their technology paved the way for legal

innovation as regulators caught up.

(G) Goodman and others believe thinking hard about problem solving before

worrying about restrictions could prevent established companies falling victim

to rivals less constrained by tradition. In their book The Misfit Economy, Alexa

Clay and Kyra Maya Phillips examine how individuals can apply that mindset to

become more innovative and entrepreneurial within corporate structures. They

studied not just violent criminals like Somali pirates, but others who break the

rules in order to find creative solutions to their business problems, such as

people living in the slums of Mumbai or computer hackers. They picked out five

common traits among this group: the ability to hustle, pivot, provoke, hack and

copycat.

(H) Clay gives a Saudi entrepreneur named Walid Abdul-Wahab as a prime

example. Abdul-Wahab worked with Amish farmers to bring camel milk to American

consumers even before US regulators approved it. Through perseverance, he

eventually found a network of Amish camel milk farmers and started selling the

product via social media. Now his company, Desert Farms, sells to giant

mainstream retailers like Whole Foods Market. Those on the fringe don’t always

have the option of traditional, corporate jobs and that forces them to think

more creatively about how to make a living, Clay said. They must develop grit

and resilience in order to last outside the cushy confines of cubicle life. “In

many cases scarcity is the mother of invention,” Clay said.

Questions 14-21

Reading Passage 2 has eight paragraphs A-H. Match the headings below with the

paragraphs. Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 14-21 on your answer

sheet.

14. Jailbreak with creative thinking

15. Five common traits among rule-breakers

16. Comparison between criminals and traditional businessmen

17. Can drug baron's espace teach legitimate corporations?

18. Great entrepreneur

19. How criminal groups deceive the law

20. The difference between legal and illegal organisations

21. Similarity between criminals and start-up founders

Questions 22–25

Complete the sentences below.

Write ONLY ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 22–25 on your answer sheet.

22. To escape from a prison, Joaquin Guzman had to use such traits as

creative thinking, long-term planning and _______.

23. The Sinaloa cartel built a grand underground tunnel and even used a

_______ to avoid the fence.

24. The main difference between two groups is that criminals, unlike large

corporations, often have _______ encoded into their daily life.

25. Due to being persuasive, Walid Abdul-Wahab found a _______ of Amish camel

milk farmers.

Question 26

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

26. The main goal of this article is to:

A Show different ways of illegal activity

B Give an overview of various criminals and their gangs

C Draw a comparison between legal and illegal business, providing

examples

D Justify criminals with creative thinking

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