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课时作业(二十九) UNIT 3 ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
一、阅读理解
(2022·浙江宁波镇海中学5月模拟)One of the major producers of athletic footwear, with 2002 sales of over $10 billion, is a company called Nike, with corporate headquarters (总部) in Beaverton, Oregon. Forbes magazine identified Nike's president, Philip Knight, as the 53rdrichest man in the world in 2004. But Nike has not always been a large multimilliondollar organization. In fact, Knight started the company by selling shoes from the back of his car at track meets.
In the late 1950s Philip Knight was a middle distance runner on the University of Oregon track team, coached by Bill Bowerman. One of the top track coaches in the U.S., Bowerman was also known for experimenting with the design of running shoes in an attempt to make them lighter and more shockabsorbent. After attending Oregon, Knight moved on to do graduate work at Stanford University; his MBA thesis was on marketing athletic shoes. Once he received his degree, Knight traveled to Japan to contact the Onitsuka Tiger Company, a manufacturer of athletic shoes. Knight convinced the company's officials of the potential for its product in the U. S. In 1963 he received his first shipment of Tiger shoes, 200 pairs in total.
In 1964, Knight and Bowerman contributed $500 each to form Blue Ribbon Sports, the predecessor of Nike. The first employees hired by Knight were former college athletes. The company did not have the money to hire “experts”, those knowledgeable in the field. In its early years the organization operated in an unconventional manner that characterized its creative approach to the industry. Communication was informal; people discussed ideas and issues in the hallways, on a run, or over a beer. There was little task differentiation. There were no job descriptions, rigid reporting systems, or detailed rules. The team spirit and shared values of the athletes on Bowerman's teams carried over and provided the basis for the style of management that characterized the