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The pages of the Harvard Business Review are not usually populated by novelists. But Joseph Finder is just such a rarity. Recently, the HBR posted a fictitious case study by Mr. Finder on its website. Readers will now have a chance to comment; the most interesting contributions, as well as the remarks of several corporate grandees, will appear alongside the story in the printed version of the magazine in October. In the case study, Mr. Finder describes a dilemma facing Cheryl Tobin, the newly installed chief executive of a big aerospace firm. She starts to suspect that her colleagues have engaged in massive corruption to win contracts. Ms. Tobin is also a central character in Mr. Finder’s new book, Power Play, which was released earlier this week. In the novel, her main concern is not corruption but an executive retreat on a remote island that goes horribly wrong. A graduate of both Yale and Harvard, Mr. Finder took up novel-writing after flirting with a career at the CIA and taking a stab at journalism. He had written a non-fiction book about links between American businesses and the Soviet Union but had been unable to use some of the most fascinating material he had picked up, since his sources wanted it to remain off the record. So Mr. Finder wove those titbits into a political thriller instead. After three more novels on political themes, he decided to set his next book in the world of business. There are many novels set in offices and boardrooms. The appeal of Mr. Finder’s lies not in the majesty of the prose—they are airport novels, not Pulitzer candidates—but in the plausibility of their plots and the accuracy of their depiction of corporate life. "I’ve not seen anything that couldn’t happen," says Skip Brandon, co-founder of Smith Brandon International, a corporate-intelligence company. "The business community is pretty interesting, with all sorts of characters which he brings to life with a level of realism people can relate to," says Bill Teuber, of EMC, a data-storage company. Business journalism may provide plenty of facts and figures, Mr. Finder argues, but it seldom gives readers much of a feel for corporate life. Fiction, in his view, can provide a more accurate picture than anything found in newspapers or management literature. At any rate, Mr. Finder is convinced that corporate insiders talk more candidly to him than they do to reporters. He has found big companies remarkably willing to provide background material. For his book, Paranoia, he talked with high-ups at Apple, Cisco and Hewlett-Packard—a computer-maker whose subsequent involvement in a real-life case of corporate espionage may not have come as a surprise to Mr. Finder’s readers. For Killer Instinct, the company NEC helped him to understand what it was like to be an American working for a big Japanese electronics firm.

Which of the following statements is true()

A.Novels provide a better insight into business than journalism.
B.Journalists can obtain more corporate information than novelist.
C.Mr. Finder’s readers are familiar with business scandals in big companies.
D.Mr. Finder’s novels are popular among big corporations.

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A.University of Wollongong The University of Wollongong signalled a new mood in higher education when it was established in 1951: flexible, highly-motivated and responsive to students’ needs. Today, its energetic, entrepreneurial style is increasingly popular. The University of Wollongong breaks With tradition, valuing practical and applied skills in the context of a strong theoretical and ethical base; a strategy employers appreciate. The figures speak for themselves. University of Wollongong graduates enter the workforce in the highest starting-salary bracket according to the Graduate Careers Council of Australia. The University of Wollongong was the first to have compulsory student-evaluation of teaching; the first to insist that new staff undertake teaching-skills courses; the first to make Information Technology skills compulsory for students; and among the first with flexible double-degree programs. Students are encouraged to map career-paths from enrolment day. The University of Wollongong has strong industry links, and its world-class research program attracted $6 million in Australian Research Council grants last year. For example, the Institute for Telecommunications Research is a key centre for international firms seeking a foothold in the Asia-Pacific region.
B.The University of Adelaide Established in 1874, the University of Adelaide has a strong research focus. On almost any index chosen, Adelaide is ranked in the top group of Australian universities for research output, teaching and curriculum design, staff-student ratios and positive graduate outcomes. It also ranks very well among other universities in the Asia-Pacific region. Adelaide’s strengths lie in the biological and agricultural sciences, engineering (including information technology and telecommunications), medicine, dentistry, the physical science, environmental science and management, and the social sciences (especially Asian studies, international economics and human geography). The University has produced graduates who are leaders in the professions, government and industry in Australia and around the world. These include Lord Florey, who received the Nobel Prize for his discovery of penicillin, and Dr. Andrew Thomas, Australia’s first astronaut. Adelaide has extensive and growing international linkages in Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific, involving student and staff exchange, research, teaching and consultancy. Links with international governments, research organizations and industry are also expanding rapidly, as a consequence of the University’s capabilities and expertise on a world scale .
C.Murdoch University Murdoch University offers a university education of the highest quality and has been rewarded by a ranking as the best teaching campus of all Australia’s public universities in an independent national survey of university graduates. The University has won two awards in the Prime Minister’s 1998 Australian Awards for University on teaching (one for the best humanities teacher, one specially-created award for services to students and the community). The University has also won a top, five-star rating for graduate satisfaction from the 1999 Good University Guide for the fourth consecutive year. This is a reputation of continuing excellence sustained over a number of years. It is a reputation established by some of the best-qualified academic staff in Australia; an international reputation for a caring and friendly environment; the high quality of the research undertaken and the University’s flexible, academic structure that allows students to design the degree they need for their future. Murdoch prides itself on being a community-oriented university and as one of Australia’s best teaching universities. It is highly regarded for its flexibility, with the choice of double-majors such as commerce and multi-media available to give students a head-start in their career.
D.Monash University Studying at Monash University opens the door to new worlds. A strong international focus, constant innovation and engagement with the broader community highlight the University’s pioneering approach to scholarship. With the opening of its first off-shore campus in, Malaysia in 1998, Monash has taken a significant step towards becoming a truly global university. Over the next few years, as plans proceed for other off-shore campuses, Monash students will have an increasing choice about where they obtain their Monash degree. With a well-founded reputation for excellence in teaching, research and scholarship, Monash is being increasingly recognized, too, for its innovative approach to flexible learning. The university offers high-quality education and a vibrant, inclusive learning environment to more than 42,000 students across seven campuses. Its strengths include cooperative research projects with the private sector, links with professional bodies in presenting practical study components, rich performing arts programs and distance education courses which afford learning opportunities to an enormous range of people. Above all, Monash seeks to deliver a total education experience that equips its students for the future, providing not just academic qualifications, but instilling in them an awareness of their potential to contribute to society.