49. Which of the following statements about Humphrey is true?

A. He is now still an IBM employer.

B. He has worked for IBM for 37 years.

C. India honors him highly.

D. The US pays much attention to his quality advice.

48. What country has more highest-rating companies in the world than any other country has?

A. India. (来源：英语麦当劳)　　　　　　 B. The US.　　　　　　 C. Brazil. 　　　　　　 D. Germany.

47. Which of the following is the main idea of this passage?

A. Rest is another kind of work.　 　　　　　　　　　 B. How to form the habit of sleeping.

C. Sufficient rest leads to success.　　　　　　　　　　 D. Why people need to rest.

C

If U.S. 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 U.S. 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 methods rejected by American software specialists. For example, for decades, quality specialists, W. Edwards Deming and J. M. Juran had urged U.S. software companies to change their attitudes to quality. But their quality call mainly fell on deaf ears in the U.S -- 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 U.S. 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(evaluating)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 U.S. lead in software will not be eaten up by its quality problems.

46. We can know from this passage that _____.

A. dogs and cats are smarter than we human beings

B. rest can make us work more efficiently

C. it’s not proper to sleep in the daytime for people.

D. rest is more important than work for people

45. The underlined word “skimped” in the last paragraph most probably means _____.

A. not supplied with enough of what is needed

B. strengthened in spite of the conditions

C. recharged during the time of working　　　　　　 D. invested without any of the cost

44. Which of the following is the best rest according to this passage?

A. Going to the movies and clubs.　 　　 B. Drinking or having a smoke with friends.

C. Sleeping at home. 　　　　　　　　　　　　 D. Playing cards with family members.

43. Which of the following proverbs is in keeping with the father's teachings?

A. Faith will move mountains.　　　 B. A great talker is a great liar.

C. Love me, love my dog.　　　 　　D. Do well and have well.

B

When I say “work is rest”, some people will say I’m crazy. But that’s the way it is—we need to rest. Without rest, we will die. At a minimum, we won’t have the energy to work.

Nobody forces us to be so stupid about this. We just don’t know how to rest properly. We rest in ways that are not restful(宁静的), even stressful. Some of our ways of rest interfere(妨碍)with our working energy. Instead of sleep, we go to the movies and clubs, drink or have a smoke with friends. This is because we misunderstand the meaning of “rest.”

We should remember that rest means not working, both physically and mentally. Only then is it real rest. When tired, rest. It’s simple. Actually, dogs and cats are smarter about this than people. People are stupid enough to rest in ways that destroy their capacity(能力)to work.

Rest and work always go together. There must be a balance: work during the day and rest at night. When the sun comes up, one has plenty of strength to work well and enjoy it. In other words, rest is a kind of investment, so that one has the strength and energy to continue working. So we need rest to work, recognizing that we can’t have one without the other. Rest is what recharges our batteries. We need enough time to charge up adequately to the tasks we undertake. Thus, we need to rest correctly; otherwise, illness will occur and also can affect the efficiency of our work.

Rest can’t be skimped. Without enough rest, good work is impossible. This is why we say that rest is another kind of work.

42. The father screams in order to ________.

A. beat his son in the contest　　　 　 B. lay the basis for his teachings

C. show his son his superior skill　　 　 D. apply his theory to practice

41. The boy is surprised because ________.

A. he falls over his own feet　　　　 　 B. his father can yell as loud as he does

C. he hears his screams repeated　　 　 D. someone calls him a coward