2019北京卷
Much of the work in today’s world is accomplished(完成) in teams. Most people believe the best way to build a great team is to gather a group of the most talented individuals. _____46_____Companies spend millions hiring top business people. Is their money well spent?
___47___They focused on football, basketball and baseball. The results are mixed. For football and basketball, adding talented players to a team proves a good method, but only up to the point where 70% of the players are top talent; above that level, the team’s performance begins to decline. Interestingly, this trend isn’t evident in baseball, where additional individual talent keeps improving the team’s performance.
To explain this phenomenon, the researchers explored the degree to which a good performance by a team requires its members to coordinate(协调) their actions. ______48______In baseball, the performance of individual players is less dependent on teammates. They conclude that when task interdependence is high, team performance will suffer when there is too much talent, while individual talent will have positive effects on team performance when task interdependence is lower. If a basketball star is, for example, trying to gain a high personal point total, he may take a shot himself when it would be better to pass the ball to a teammate, affecting the team’s performance. Young children learning to play team sports are often told, “There is no I in TEAM.” ___49___
Another possibility is that when there is a lot of talent on a team, some players may make less effort. Just as in a game of tug-of-war(拔河比赛), whenever a person is added, everyone else pulls the rope with less force.
___50___ An A-team may require a balance——not just A players， but a few generous B players as well.
A. It’s not a simple matter to determine the nature of talent.
B. Sports team owners spend millions of dollars attracting top talent.
C. The group interaction and its effect drew the researchers’ attention.
D. Stars apparently do not follow this basic principle of sportsmanship.
E. Several recent studies examined the role of talent in the sports world.
F. Building up a dream team is more complex than simply hiring the best talent.
G. This task interdependence distinguishes baseball from football and basketball.
答案解析：
46.根据前文“Most people believe the best way to build a great team is to gather a group of the most talented individuals.”以及后文“Companies spend millions hiring top business people.”可知，这里在围绕有才能的人展开，且与体育领域吸引人才相关，B选项“体育球队老板花费数百万美元吸引顶尖人才”符合语境，所以选B。
47.根据后文“They focused on football, basketball and baseball. The results are mixed.”可知，研究聚焦于一些体育项目且结果多样，说明是进行了相关研究，E选项“最近的几项研究考察了体育界中天赋的作用”能引出下文，所以选E。
48.根据前文“To explain this phenomenon, the researchers explored the degree to which a good performance by a team requires its members to coordinate(协调) their actions.”以及后文“In baseball, the performance of individual players is less dependent on teammates.”可知，这里在对比不同体育项目中团队成员行动协调程度以及个人表现与队友的依赖关系，G选项“这种任务相互依赖性使棒球区别于足球和篮球”承上启下，所以选G。
49.根据前文“Young children learning to play team sports are often told, ‘There is no I in TEAM.’”可知，小孩子学团队运动常被告知团队中没有“我”，强调团队精神，而D选项“明星显然不遵循这种体育精神的基本原则”形成对比，所以选D。
50.根据后文“An A - team may require a balance——not just A players， but a few generous B players as well.”可知，组建一个优秀团队需要平衡，不只是有顶尖球员，F选项“组建一个梦之队比简单地雇佣最优秀的人才要复杂得多”符合文意，所以选F。
