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测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：
raconteur [,rækɒn'tɜː] n.健谈者，擅长讲故事的人
knack [næk] n.诀窍，巧妙手法
striker ['straɪkə] n.前锋
pinnacle['pɪnək(ə)l] n.高峰，尖端
foible ['fɒɪb(ə)l] n.弱点，癖好
disdain [dɪs'deɪn] n./v.蔑视
World Footballer of the Year世界足球先生
阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。
In 1988 Arsene Wenger, then manager of Monaco, was tracking a young Liberian footballer who played in Cameroon. Each week the Frenchman received intriguing reports about George Weah. Finally Wenger sent a colleague to watch him, who phoned back after: “The bad news is, Weah broke an arm. The good news: he played anyway.”
Wenger liked it. Weah flew to Monaco, signed a contract, then sat back looking miserable: he still didn’t have a cent, he complained. Wenger pulled 500 French francs (then about £50) from his wallet and handed them to the player. A funny raconteur in private, Wenger likes to joke about Weah’s “signing bonus”. Weah, now a politician in Liberia, recently recalled what Wenger told him then: “If you work hard, you will be the best player in Europe.”
“Yeah, right,” he thought. But Wenger was right. In 1995 Weah was voted World Footballer of the Year. He gave the trophy to his mentor.
The story captures much of what made Wenger a great manager: his global eye, his sense for quality, and his knack for getting it cheap. Yet greatness has deserted him. His Arsenal have won no trophies since 2005, lost two star players to richer clubs last month, and on Sunday lost 8-2 to Manchester United. Most Arsenal fans appear tired of Wenger. His decline is a warning to brilliant pioneers in all fields.
When Wenger came to Arsenal from Japanese football in 1996, he brought knowledge that nobody else in insular British football had. Few British managers then even bothered going to world cups, but Wenger was monitoring talent everywhere. While working in Japan, he had contrived to be a regular spectator in Milan, where he befriended a shy young AC Milan reserve named Patrick Vieira – to become Arsenal’s legendary captain. Wenger told Thierry Henry, then a young winger on Juventus’ bench, that he was in fact a striker. “Coach, I don’t score goals,” protested Henry. He became the highest scorer in Arsenal’s history. Wenger discovered the unknown teenagers Nicolas Anelka and Cesc Fabregas. He showed British clubs the benefits of international scouting.
He was a pioneer in nutrition, too. He put Arsenal’s players on a very Japanese diet of fish and boiled vegetables. “We want our Mars bars!” they would chant on the team bus. And the economics graduate introduced statistics into English football. He would track numbers such as how many seconds each player kept the ball. Gilberto Silva was sold after his times inched up. Wenger aspired to a whirlwind passing game: football’s eternal ideal, occasionally achieved by his Arsenal teams, notably the “Invincibles” who won the league unbeaten in 2004.
Wenger was a pioneer but not a revolutionary. For instance, he kept Arsenal’s traditionally English rugged defence intact for years. “I brought my changes in slowly,” he recalled. His best quality, he once said, was listening to more experienced people.
His pinnacle should have been winning the Champions League. He almost did: Arsenal were leading Barcelona 1-0 in the final in 2006 when Henry went through alone on the goalkeeper. But the keeper saved, and Barcelona won. A year later, Wenger was sitting in Athens watching Milan beat Liverpool to win the trophy. As so often during games, he looked angry, as if he had to contain himself to stay seated. Afterwards, as the Milanese collected their medals, he began thumping his hands together. “You see,” he said, “you only need an ordinary team to win the Champions League.” A keen mathematician, he knew that success in any knockout competition is a random walk. He never got lucky.
Eventually he suffered the usual fate of brilliant pioneers: others copied him. Rival clubs replicated his international scouting, diets and statistics. Some also outspent him. In football, the team with the highest wages generally wins. Arsenal’s salary bill is now fifth highest in England. Unlike most managers, Wenger only spends money he has. He discovered the teenaged Cristiano Ronaldo before Manchester United did, but United trumped him with a higher transfer fee. Arsenal spend so cautiously that they regularly turn a profit on transfers.
Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland A’s baseball team and a pioneer in his sport, says: “When I think of Wenger, I think of Warren Buffett. Wenger runs his football club like he is going to own the club for 100 years.” Wenger masterminded Arsenal’s move to a much larger stadium, the Emirates. Never previously a giant club, Arsenal now rank fifth in global football for revenues. In the short term, though, debt service on the stadium has curtailed their spending.
Worse, Wenger has another fault common to brilliant pioneers: he has become too much like himself. He no longer seems to hear intelligent criticism. He appears to be indulging his personal foibles: a disdain for physical power, a blind spot for goalkeepers, a delight in buying bargains even when he has money, and the quest for perfect passing rather than goals. So dominant has he become at Arsenal that nobody seems able to correct him. “We are not a democracy,” the club’s chief executive Ivan Gazidis has admitted.
This may be Wenger’s last season in London. Few elite players want to play for Arsenal any more. He may never win another trophy, but he changed English football, and both his rise and his fall carries lessons for brilliant pioneers everywhere.
请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：
1.Billy Beane, a baseball team manager, says: “When I think of Wenger, I think of Warren Buffett."
What are the similarities of these two men?
A. They both focus on long-term investment, seeking solid management.
B. Their philosophy is often adored by others, but not without being questioned.
C. They both have global sight, and the knack for getting high quality assets cheaply.
D. All above is correct.
答案 (1)
A. His club sells star players to richer clubs.
B. He was the first to build a global scouting network.
C. He introduced player nutrition controls into British football.
D. He uses statistics in his coaching.
答案 (2)
3.What can we learn from the following sentence? ‘A keen mathematician, he knew that success in any knockout competition is a random walk.’
A. Wenger believes that purchasing expensive star players is a good idea to challenge cups.
B. Wenger believes that managing wisely is as worthless as budgeting heavily.
C. Wenger believes that knock out competition counts a lot on luck.
D. Wenger believes that he can figure out his odds of winning the cup.
答案 (3)
A. His rival clubs replicated his international scouting, diets and statistics.
B. His rival clubs outspent him.
C. He appears to be indulging his personal foibles.
D. All of above is correct.
答案 (4)
(1) 答案：D. All above is correct.解释：长期持有经营稳健的公司，以视野的开阔寻找“价值洼地”，这些都是“价值投资”派的理念。Billy Beane显然认为温格也在应用价值投资的理念来经营俱乐部。
(2) 答案：A. His club sells star players to richer clubs.解释：BCD三项，都是使得温格成为“开拓者”的行为，这些都可以在第四段中找到。至于A项出售球星则不在其列。
(3) 答案：C.Wenger believes that knock out competition counts a lot on luck.解释：这句话是说，温格认为，花大钱买球星，不一定能让球队在争冠中更有竞争力，因为在淘汰赛中运气成分非常重要，他认为小本经营、精打细算的球队同样可以成功。
(4) 答案：D.All of above is correct.解释：ABC三项都是正确的。温格的球队已经好几年没有收获任何一项冠军了。看起来，之前使他成功的做法不再能帮他继续成功了。