While success is surely sweeter than failure, it seems failure is a far better teacher, and organizations that fail miserably often flourish (繁荣) more in the long run, according to a new study by Vinit Desai, assistant professor of management at the University of Colorado Denver Business School. Researchers have found that people missing their goals perform much better in the long run. That is because they gain more knowledge from their failures than their successes and the lessons are more likely to stay longer in their minds.
“We found that the knowledge gained from success was often fleeting while knowledge from failure stuck around for years,” said professor Desai, who led the study. “But companies often ignore failure. Managers may fire people or turn over the whole workforce while they should treat the failure as a learning opportunity.”
Prof Desai compared the flights of the space shuttle Atlantis and the Challenger. During the Atlantis flight last year, a piece of insulation (绝缘体) broke off and damaged the left solid rocket booster (助推火箭) but didn’t influence the program. There was little investigation. The Challenger was launched next and another piece of insulation broke off. This time the shuttle and its seven–person crew were destroyed. The disaster led to a major investigation resulting in 29 changes to prevent future disasters.
The difference in response in the two cases came down to this: Atlantis was considered a success and the Challenger a failure.
“Despite crowded skies, airlines are extremely reliable,” he said. “The number of failures is extremely small. And past researches have shown that older airlines, those with more experience in failure, have a lower number of accidents.”
Prof Desai doesn’t recommend finding out failure in order to learn. Instead, he advises organizations to analyze small failures to collect useful information rather than wait for major failures.
1.Why did experts pay little attention to the problem of Atlantis?
A. Because it worked perfectly.
B. Because the right booster was still OK.
C. Because nothing serious happened then.
D. Because fewer people died in the flight.
2.Fewer accidents happen to older airlines in that ________.
A. their planes couldn’t fly high in the sky
B. they gained much from experience in failure
C. their planes were often checked by the experts
D. they were unpopular among passengers
3.The passage is written mainly to ________.
A. show failure is a better teacher than success
B. explain why Challenger failed
C. introduce something about Prof Desai
D. tell managers how to achieve success
My old digital camera broke down, so I wanted to buy a new one．Being the cautious type, I fancied a reliable brand．So I went on the Net, spent 15 minutes reading product reviews on good websites, wrote down the names of three top recommendations and headed for my nearest big friendly camera store．There in the cupboard was one of the cameras on my list．And it was on special offer．Oh joy．I pointed at it and asked an assistant, "Can I have one of those? " He looked perturbed（ 不安）．"Do you want to try it first? "he said．It didn' t quite sound like a question．"Do I need to?" I replied, "There's nothing wrong with it．" This made him look a bit offended and I started to feel bad．"No, no．But you should try it," he said encouragingly, "Compare it with the others．
I looked across at the others: shelves of similar cameras placed along the wall, offering a wide range of slightly different prices and discounts, with each company selling a range of models based around the same basic box. With so many models to choose from, it seemed that I would have to spend hours weighing X against Y, always trying to take Z and possibly H into account at the same time. But when I had finished, I would still have only the same two certainties that I had entered the store with: first, soon after I carried my new camera out of the shop, it would be worth half what I paid for it; and second, my wonderful camera would very quickly be replaced by a new model．
But something in the human soul whispers that you can beat these traps by making the right choice, the clever choice, the wise choice．In the end, I agreed to try the model I had chosen．The assistant seemed a sincere man．So I let him take out my chosen camera from the cupboard, show how it took excellent pictures of my fellow shoppers．．．and when he started to introduce the special features, I interrupted to ask whether I needed to buy a carry-case and a memory card as well．Why do we think that new options still offer us anything new? Perhaps it is because they offer an opportunity to avoid facing the fact that our real choices in this culture are far more limited than we would like to imagine．
1.The shop assistant insisted that the writer should ____．
A．trust him and stop asking questions
B．try the camera to see if there was anything wrong with it
C．get more information about different companies.
D. compare the camera he had chosen with the others
2.What does the writer mean by "it would be worth half what I paid for it"（ Paragraph 2）?
A．He should get a 50% discount．
B．The price of the camera would soon fall．
C. The quality of the camera was not good.
D．The price of the camera was unreasonably high．
3.The writer decided to try the model he had chosen because he ____．
A．knew very little about it
B．wanted to make sure the one he chose would be the best
C．didn' t trust the shop assistant
D．had a special interest in taking pictures of his fellow shoppers
4.It can be inferred from the passage that in the writer's opinion, __．
A．we waste too much money on cameras
B．cameras have become an important part of our daily life
C．we don' t actually need so many choices when buying a product
D．famous companies care more about profit than quality
About six years ago I was eating lunch in a restaurant in New York City when a woman and a young boy sat down at the next table. I couldn’t help overhearing parts of their conversation. At one point the woman asked, “So, how have you been?” And the boy --- who could not have been more than seven or eight years old ---replied, “Frankly, I’ve been feeling a little depressed lately.”
This incident stuck in my mind because it confirmed my growing belief that children are changing. As far as I can remember, my friends and I didn’t find out we were “depressed” until we were in high school.
The evidence of a change in children has increased steadily in recent years. Children don’t seem childlike anymore. Children speak more like adults, dress more like adults and behave more like adults than they used to. Whether this is good or bad is difficult to say, but it is certainly different. Children as they once were on longer exists. Why?
Human development is based not only on innate biological states, but also on patterns of access to social knowledge. Movement from one social route to another usually involves learning the secrets of the new status. Children have always been taught adult secrets, but slowly and in stages: traditionally, we tell sixth graders things we keep hidden from fifth graders.
In the last 30 years, however, a secret-revelation machine has been installed in 98 percent of American homes. It is called television. Television passes information indiscriminately to all viewers alike, be they children or adults. Unable to resist the temptation, many children turn their attention from printed texts to the less challenging, more vivid moving pictures.
Communication through print, as a matter of fact, allows for a great deal of control over the social information to which children have access. Reading and writing involve a complex code of symbols that must be memorized and practiced. Children must read simple books before they can read complex materials.
1.According to the author, feeling depressed is ________.
A. a sure sign of a psychological problem in children’s mental development
B. something rarely expected in children’s mental development
C. an inevitable thing in children’s mental development
D. something usually experienced in children’s mental development
2.What does the underlined word innate in Paragraph 4 mean ?
A. something a person is born with
B. something a person is tired of
C. something a person is expected of
D. something a person is dreaming of
3.What of the following statement is NOT true according to the last paragraph?
A. Communication through print helps children develop their reading skills.
B. Communication through print helps children access more social information.
C. Communication through print helps children command a complex code of symbols.
D. Communication through print helps children read different materials at random.
4.What is the attitude of the author about today’s children?
A. He feels shocked by their premature behavior.
B. He thinks it is a phenomenon unworthy of note.
C. He considers it a positive social development.
D. He seems to be concerned about the tendency.
Travis laughed as he tore at the wrapping paper on his birthday present. He was so __ ! Finally, he would have the coolest pair of name-brand basketball shoes.
All the guys on his team were wearing the name-brand shoes of a popular basketball _ , Chuck Hart. _ Hart was criticized for his poor sportsmanship and infamous _ he was a great player. In fact, Travis wasn’t thinking about Hart’s behavior; he had only expected to see Hart’s _ _ on the side of the box. He realized that something was _ as he tore away the last piece of paper. Not Hart’s. The new shoes were the name-brand of another player, Robert Ryann, who was _ for his amazing work in the community.
Travis’s hands _; his heart stopped. It wasn’t that the Ryann shoes weren’t nice, but what would his friends think?
They were the wrong shoes and Travis would be _ by the other players. When he looked up into his dad’s eyes, however, Travis knew he _ tell him. “Thanks, Dad. I was really hoping for shoes,” Travis said as he pulled the shoes out of the box.
Next morning his dad drove him to school. When they _ in front of his destination, Travis slowly opened the car door. Just then, his dad stopped him.
“Hey, Travis, wait a minute…” his dad said _ “Travis, I know those aren’t the shoes you had hoped for, but I saw the names of the two guys and made a(n) _. The guy whose name is on those shoes,” he said, pointing down at Travis’s feet, “is someone I _. Do you know how often Ryann has found himself in _ ? ”
“ No,” Travis said.
“ Never. He’s never talked back to his coach or started a fight, and he’s a team player. You could have acted like a(n) _ when you didn’t get the shoes you wanted, Travis, _ you were polite and made the best of it. You have honor, like the guy whose name is on these shoes. I’ m hoping that someday, your _ _ will be on the coolest pair of shoes I’ll ever see.”
When Travis looked down at his feet, he saw the shoes _ _ . His dad had used his mind and heart to give the son a thoughtful _.
1.A. surprised B. ashamed C. excited D. worried
2.A. team B. player C. coach D. game
3.A. Unless B. If C. Because D. Although
4.A. skill B. performance C. behavior D. action
5.A. name B. photo C. sign D. model
6.A. strange B. wrong C. true D. funny
7.A. known B. encouraged C. adopted D. influenced
8.A. fell B. froze C. shook D. folded
9.A. questioned B. noticed C. teased D. attacked
10.A. mustn’t B. needn’t C. wouldn’t D. couldn’t
11.A. pulled up B. put up C. took up D. turned up
12.A. peacefully B. hesitantly C. delightedly D. naturally
13.A. choice B. effort C. comment D. mistake
14.A. believe B. miss C. admire D. remember
15.A. danger B. anger C. sorrow D. trouble
16.A. teammate B. adult C. kid D. student
17.A. so B. and C. but D. or
18.A. honor B. courage C. name D. belief
19.A. clearly B. carefully C. patiently D. differently
20.A. gift B. smile C. wish D. lesson
—I hear Jane has gone to the Holy Island for her holiday.
—Oh, how nice! Do you know when she ?
A. was leaving B. had left
C. has left D. left
How can you expect him to make any improvement ________you never give him an opportunity to have a try?
A. unless B. when C. until D. while
