The iPod revolutionized the way we consume music. The iPhone made us crazy for apps. And now the iPad is getting ready to rock our love lives-or at least help improve our search for someone to communicate with. In late May, Skout.com will become the first dating site to launch an iPad application. The free app will be similar to the version that’s already available to phone users:members can enter search criteria, such as age range, gender and physical preferences, and a HotMap will show in real time the locations of active Skout users who fit those criteria. The idea is to help members meet up and see if magic happens. The cool thing about the iPad adaptation, says CEO Christian Wiklund, is that its screen is large enough to let the user view the map while simultaneously chatting and searching through another member’s photos.
David Evans, editor of onlinedatingpost.com, says we can expect to see more innovative technology in a few months after companies get acquainted with the capabilities of the iPad. “What I’m looking for are dating sites that are optimized for the iPad, with features native to the sleek computing device like touch screen motions such as pinch, twist, zoom and shake,”he says. “It’s the iPad that’s going to enable developers to create entirely new ways to browse, discover and connect with singles.”
Steve Odom, CEO and founder of dating site Gelato, which launched last year and includes a live feed of members’social-media profiles, is redesigning his entire website based on the iPad’s appearance. Profile pictures play a key role in online dating, Odom says, and the iPad gives sites an opportunity to play up the presentation of their clientele. “It’s big, it’s beautiful, and it’s perfect for dating sites,”says Odom, who plans to unveil the redesign in June.
Evans predicts that online dating sites will begin to display their content like a magazine, letting users flip through pages of profiles and enlarge photos while simultaneously texting with one or more others. He says there’s also been talk of adding a facial-coding and eye-tracking function that would use a webcam on the iPad to refine suggested matches based on a member’s responses to certain profiles. If you grimace, the profile will fade away; if you smile or if your pupils dilate, similar profiles will be suggested. In other words, some day there could be an iPad app for love at first sight.
31. We learn from Paragraph 1 that the iPad is unique in_________.
[A] its efficiency in searching for ideal friends or lovers
[B] its ability to show all users on a dating website
[C] its large screen better realizing functions of dating webs
[D] its ability to change our attitude towards our love lives
32. David Evans thinks in Paragraph 2 that__________.
[A] the iPad will become a convenient tool for people to surf the web
[B] dating site developers will create more ways for people to make friends
[C] the iPad will be developed according to the needs of dating websites
[D] developer will add more new features to the iPad
33. The clients of the dating site Gelato can_________.
[A] make their profile pictures look more beautiful
[B] access to other clients’profiles freely
[C] get more opportunities to find ideal friends
[D] skim through profile pictures of higher quality
34. The facial-coding and eye-tracking function_________.
[A] can be used to browse profile pictures more quickly
[B] is used to record members’facial expressions
[C] enables the users to get accurate matches more easily
[D] supports checking profile pictures and texting simultaneously
35. Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
[A] Online Dating Changes People’s Lives
[B] Online Dating Enters iPad Age
[C] How to Find the Best Match Online
[D] How to Choose People to Date with the iPad
Text 4
This year’s Sumantra Ghoshal Conference, held at London Business School, debated whether strategy research has become irrelevant to the practice of management. The late Mr Ghoshal published a paper in 2005 scolding business schools for pouring “bad theory”on their students. That same year Warren Bennis and James O’Toole, both at the University of Southern California, published an article in the Harvard Business criticising MBA programmes for paying too much attention to “scientific”research and not enough to what current and future managers actually needed. Business schools, they argued, would be better off acting more like their professional counterparts, such as medical or law schools, nurturing skilled practitioners as well as frequent publishers.
However, business school professors have a tendency not to change. Since universities take journal rankings into account when awarding tenure, academics are rewarded more when they publish in research journals. (Popular media rankings of MBA programmers, although not The Economist’s, also take research output into account.)
In 2008 the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) took up the debate, publishing a report on making business research more useful. It suggested that tenure committees become more flexible. A scholar dedicated to popularising management ideas, for example, should be evaluated on book sales and attention from the news media, not on articles in research journals. This would allow faculty to reach out to wider audiences, rather than be, as Messrs Bennis and O’Toole put it, “damned as popularisers”.
But that might also risk granting tenure on the basis of trendy but ultimately unhelpful ideas. In any case, some argue that the relevance of business research is understated. Jan Williams, vice chair of AACSB, argue that doing research allows faculty members to stay at the forefront of their subject, and that in turn improves their teaching. “We can’t teach students outdated material,”he says.
What is more, a paper in Academy of Management Learning & Education suggests that faulty member’s research productivity and their students’earnings after graduation may be positively linked. Certainly, the best known schools often have strong research reputations to match their recognition in the wider world. So, should a student worry about a faculty’s research ability when applying to a school? If business schools with better researchers produce better-paid graduates, then perhaps they should. But only up to a point: what MBA students most need is skillful teaching and help in developing their critical thinking skills first; access to frontier research comes afterwards. As Messrs Bennis and O’Toole put it: “Business professors too often forget that executive decision-makers are not fact-collectors;they are fact users and integrators.”
36. According to the first paragraph, Bennis and O’Toole complained about________.
[A] papers published by business schools
[B] poor management in business schools
[C] the practice of putting too much efforts into research
[D] the problem of MBA programmes misleading students
37. The ranking of MBA programmes is mentioned in brackets in order to__________.
[A] show the popularity of programmes in business schools
[B] provide a supporting argument for the importance of research output
[C] explain why universities expect journal papers from professors
[D] show another way for professors to get the permanent teaching position
38. AACSB suggested that_______.
[A] professors should not attach importance to scientific research
[B] a more reasonable evaluating system be established to judge professors
[C] scholars should get a large audience if they want to be successful
[D] a flexible way be created to put scientific research into practice
39. It can be inferred from the passage that_______.
[A] the top schools in media rankings guarantee graduates high salary
[B] doing research may help students to be better paid after graduation
[C] professors ought to be evaluated mainly on their popularity
[D] Jan Williams still approve of the importance of doing research
40. According to the author, after entering a business school a student should first__________.
[A] develop practical skills in managing and thinking
[B] make contributions to the reputation of his school
[C] find a professor who is popular in his research field
[D] help teachers with their scientific research