Picture a typical MBA lecture theatre twenty years ago. In it the majority of students will have conformed to the standard model of the time: male, middle class and Western. Walk into a class today, however, and you'll get a completely different impression. For a start, you will now see plenty more women – the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, for example, boasts that 40% of its new enrolment is female. You will also see a wide range of ethnic groups and nationals of practically every country.

It might be tempting, therefore, to think that the old barriers have been broken down and equal opportunity achieved. But, increasingly, this apparent diversity is becoming a mask for a new type of conformity. Behind the differences in sex, skin tones and mother tongues, there are common attitudes, expectations and ambitions which risk creating a set of clones among the business leaders of the future.

Diversity, it seems, has not helped to address fundamental weaknesses in business leadership. So what can be done to create more effective managers of the commercial world? According to Valerie Gauthier, associate dean at HEC Paris, the key lies in the process by which MBA programmes recruit their students. At the moment candidates are selected on a fairly narrow set of criteria such as prior academic and career performance, and analytical and problem solving abilities. This is then coupled to a school's picture of what a diverse class should look like, with the result that passport, ethnic origin and sex can all become influencing factors. But schools rarely dig down to find out what really makes an applicant succeed, to create a class which also contains diversity of attitude and approach – arguably the only diversity that, in a business context, really matters.

Professor Gauthier believes schools should not just be selecting candidates from traditional sectors such as banking, consultancy and industry. They should also be seeking individuals who have backgrounds in areas such as political science, the creative arts, history or philosophy, which will allow them to put business decisions into a wider context.

Indeed, there does seem to be a demand for the more rounded leaders such diversity might create. A study by Mannaz, a leadership development company, suggests that, while the bully-boy chief executive of old may not have been eradicated completely, there is a definite shift in emphasis towards less tough styles of management – at least in America and Europe. Perhaps most significant, according to Mannaz, is the increasing interest large companies have in more collaborative management models, such as those prevalent in Scandinavia, which seek to integrate the hard and soft aspects of leadership and encourage delegated responsibility and accountability.

1.What characterises the business school student population of today?

A Greater diversity.

B Intellectual maturity.     

C Exceptional diligence.

D Higher ambition.

解析：选A。A. Greater diversity. 解析：第一段是对57题题干的综合阐述，在第三行开头的关键词“ today” 之后，我们看到“more women”“a wide range of ethnic groups”等字样，即可确定本题的答案是A. 此外，在第二段，我们同样可以发现，第二段的第二行“this apparent diversity”就直接将选项A点出来了。

2.What is the author's concern about current business school education?

A It will arouse students' unrealistic expectations.

B It will produce business leaders of a uniform style.

C It focuses on theory rather than on practical skills.

D It stresses competition rather than cooperation.

解析：选B。B. It will produce business leaders of a uniform style. 解析：在第二段的最后两行，我们看到“which risk creating a set of clones …”，选项B中“uniform style”就是原文中“clone”的同义替换，正确答案就是B。

3.What aspect of diversity does Valerie Gauthier think is most important?

A Age and educational background.     

B Social and professional experience.     

C Attitude and approach to business.

D Ethnic origin and gender.

解析：选C。C. Attitude and approach to business。 解析：这道题的题干中有人名，还有最高级“most”，定位起来就非常容易了。在第三段的最后两行，我们可以很容易地找到答案“also contains diversity of attitude and approach…”，所以我们的正确选项是C。

4.What applicants does the author think MBA programmes should consider recruiting?

A Applicants with prior experience in business companies.

B Applicants with sound knowledge in math and statistics.

C Applicants from outside the traditional sectors.

D Applicants from less developed regions and areas.

解析：选C。C. Applicants from outside the traditional sectors. 解析：这道题的题干中，根据关键词MBA我们定位到第三段的中间部分，但是根据前面59题的做题过程，我们大致了解到，第三段并没有讲跟recruit(招聘)相关的内容，于是我们看到第四段，第四段的第一行“selecting candidates”以及第二行“seeking individuals”都是题干中“recruiting”的同义替换，于是我们确定答案就在第四段，通过对第四段的阅读，我们可以很容易的得出正确的选项就是C。

5.What does Mannaz say about the current management style?

A It is eradicating the tough aspects of management.

B It encourages male and female executives to work side by side.

C It adopts the bully-boy chief executive model.

D It is shifting towards more collaborative models.

解析：选D。D. It is shifting towards more collaborative models. 解析：大写字母开头的人名很自然地成为了关键词之一，根据Mannaz我们来到了最后一段的第五行，原文中“the increasing interest … more collaborative models”，即直接将答案指向了D选项。