"Lifelong learning" is a phrase beloved by business schools. But not, it seems, by their clients. According to a recent survey b

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问题     "Lifelong learning" is a phrase beloved by business schools. But not, it seems, by their clients. According to a recent survey by Mannaz, a management-development firm, the number of professionals taking part in formal corporate training drops rapidly after the age of 55. Are these wise, old heads being overlooked?
    It is tempting to conclude that older executives are falling victim to age discrimination, as firms focus resources on younger talent. But Jorgen Thorsell, Mannaz’s vice-president, attributes this to the employees themselves instead of to the organizations.
    This doesn’t mean that more seasoned executives have completely abandoned the idea of personal and career development, however. Instead, Mr. Thorsell says that this group prefers a do-it-yourself approach, conducting their own research and swapping war stories with their peers rather than take a place at business school.
    This self-taught approach carries two potential dangers. The first is that a wealth of knowledge and experience is lost from the classroom, which reduces the value of the training for everyone else. But non-participation may also be the beginning of a process of detachment from the organization, its aims and aspirations, which in time will damage both parties. Furthermore, Stephen Burnett, associate dean of a management school close to Chicago, says that as executives start to stretch their careers into their seventies, education makes even more sense for this group.
    One solution is to throw money at the problem. When senior managers are offered the chance to mix with their peers at a top business school, they seem to be quickly won over. IMD in Switzerland, for example, maintains that it does not see any drop in the number of older managers on its programs, and goes on to say that it has actually witnessed organizations investing heavily in them throughout the downturn.
    Few organizations could afford to put all of their veteran managers through the sort of prestigious programs that IMD offers. But firms do need to engage those managers below the C-suite—whom one management consultant describes as the "magnificent middle"—because these are the front-liners who make things happen within any business and who carry around in their heads the secrets of how the organization works.
    One way in which this can be done is to make training less about abstract theory and more about the actual workplace. This means steering clear of the case studies that business schools are so fond of and instead relating new ideas directly to what is happening on a day-to-day basis within the organization. To accomplish this, training should be delivered in short, sharp bursts so that executives can take a lesson, put it into practice, assess its effectiveness and then return to shape it further in light of this "trial by fire".
Firms are more likely to pay for training the "magnificent middle" because______.

选项 A、they can keep the secrets of firms better than others
B、they are more involved in the daily business than others
C、they do not cost too much in terms of training
D、they can make things happen as they want

答案B

解析 推理判断题。定位句指出,各公司和企业确实有必要让C层以下的经理们接受培训——管理顾问们把他们称为“杰出的中层”——因为在任何行业中,这些人才是促成事情发生的先锋,同时还掌握着公司的运营机密。也就是说,这一阶层会更多地参与到公司的日常运营中,因此B)为本题答案。A)“他们比其他人更能保守公司机密”是对文中他们“同时还掌握着公司的运营机密”的曲解,故排除;C)“他们在培训方面不会花费太多”,文中并未提到他们培训的花费问题,故排除;D)“他们能够让事情像他们想要的那样发生”,文中只是提到他们“是促成事情发生的先锋”,而并非能左右一切,故排除。
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