Directions: Please read the following passage within the limited time, and then do the exercise.

Length of Text: 545 words     Time Allowed: 5.5 minutes  

5. A Woman Who Knows Best

   
    
  ¹ Andrea Jung, the chairman and CEO of Avon, is sitting in her office on the 27th floor of Avon's New York headquarters considering an obvious question: What does it mean to be the first woman to lead the beauty products company in its 115-year history? 

 
  ² "I guess it helps," she says wryly. "You know, you go home and you try on a new mascara, and I guess a male CEO can't do that." She's joking, of course, but there's some truth to what she says.

 
  ³ Glamorous, poised and always impeccably dressed, Jung knows what women want and how to sell it to them. That's what has made her one of the most successful CEOs---male or female---in recent years.

 
  ⁴ And that's what placed her at number four in the ranking of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business, an annual survey by "Fortune". The top on the list is Carly Fiorina, chairman and CEO of Hewlett-Pachard Company, a US computer hardware company.

 
  ⁵ The oldest child of Chinese immigrants, Jung grew up speaking both English and Mandarin Chinese. She received a BA in English literature from Princeton University in 1979. 

 ⁶ After graduation, Jung joined the management trainee program at Bloomingdale's (a world-renowned department store). She later joined I. Magnin (the premiere retail house in the US), in San Francisco, becoming senior vice president and general merchandise manager. 

  ⁷ In 1993 Jung became a consultant for Avon, famous for selling beauty products door to door through sales representatives known as "Avon Ladies".When Jung, now 43, took over Avon in November 1999, the company was in deep trouble. During the greatest economic boom in history, its stock was crumbling. 

  ⁸ As fewer women wanted to go out onto the streets selling Avon products, its sales decreased. But Jung surprised a lot of people. Over the past 20 months she has overhauled nearly everything about the way Avon does business: How it advertises, manufactures, packages, and even how it sells its products. 

  ⁹ Most surprisingly, she has done it not by abandoning the seemingly outdated Avon Lady, but by reviving her. Under Jung, more Avon Ladies are signing up than ever before. 

  ¹⁰ Since Jung joined Avon, sales have risen by 30 per cent, profits by 40 per cent and the stock price has dramatically improved. And now, Avon is the second largest firm in the US headed by a woman, after Hewlett-Packard. 

  ¹¹ "She is really shining," says Jack Welch, who until his retirement last month sat with Jung on GE's (General Electric) board. "I think you've got a CEO that is just blossoming on the job."

  ¹² And Jung doesn't shrink from the idea that she's a role model, even though it's put her private life sharply in the public light. 

  ¹³ Ten years ago, she wouldn't have brought her daughter in to work. If she had a pediatrician's appointment, she would say she had an outside meeting. 

  ¹⁴ Today, she wants to set a different example so her daughter, now 11, regularly visits the Avon offices and, for an occasional treat, Avon's Fifth Avenue spa. 

  ¹⁵ But just being home can still be a challenge to her. Jung, who traveled to 20 countries last year and has plenty of long work days in New York, admits to occasional doubts and guilt. 

Comprehension Exercise

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