While success is surely sweeter than failure, it seems failure is a far better teacher, and organizations that fail spectacularly often flourish 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 2002 Atlantis flight, 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.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. |
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 |
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 |
Which writing strategy is NOT used in developing the passage?
| A．Giving definitions. | B．Making comparisons. |
| C．Analyzing causes. | D．Providing different examples. |
Tales of the supernatural are common in all parts of Britain. In particular there was（and perhaps still is）a belief in fairies. Not all of these fairies are the friendly, people-loving sprites that appear in Disney films. In some folktales they are cruel and cause much human suffering. This is true in the tales about the changeling. These tell the story of a mother whose baby grows sick and pale and is changed so much that it is almost unrecognizable to the parents. It was then feared that the fairies had come and stolen the baby away and replaced the human baby with a fairy changeling. This was most likely to happen between birth and the baby’s baptism. There were many ways to prevent this from happening: hanging a knife over the baby’s head while he slept or covering him with some of his father’s clothes were just two of the recommended（推荐）methods. However, hope was not lost even if the baby had been stolen .In those cases there was often a way to get the real baby back. You could place the changeling on the fire—then it would rise up the chimney, you would hear the sound of fairies’ laughter and soon after you would find your own child safe and sound nearby. Or, if you were more cautious（谨慎）,perhaps there was a magic well in the neighbourhood where you could leave the changeling overnight, and in the morning you would return to find your own baby there without a scratch（划痕）on him.
1. Another word in the passage which is closest in meaning to the underlined word sprites is ______.
A. changeling B. baptism C. folktales D. fairies
2.The writer described ______ways to prevent babies from being stolen and ______ways to save a stolen baby.
A. Many; two B. Two; two C. Two; three D. Two; four
3.Which is not stated but can be inferred from this passage?
A. Some sick babies might have been killed with the recommended methods.
B. There are bad fairies as well as good fairies.
C. Lots of stolen babies were saved with the recommended methods.
D. Fairies would laugh if they found a changeling rise up the chimney.
Northern Europeans spend a lot of time in their cold and cloudy winters planning their summer holidays. They are proud of their healthy color when they return home after the holiday. But they also know that a certain amount of sunshine is good for their bodies and general health.
In ancient Greece people knew about the healing(治疗) powers of the sun, but this knowledge was lost. At the end of the nineteenth century a Danish doctor, Niels Finsen, began to study the effect of sunlight on certain diseases, especially diseases of the skin. He was interested not only in natural sunlight but also in artificially (人造地) produced rays. Sunlight began to play a more important part in curing sick people.
A Swiss doctor, Auguste Rollier, made full use of the sun in his hospital at Lysine. Lysine is a small village high up in the Alps. The position is important: the rays of the sun with the greatest healing power are the infra-red (红外线的) and ultra-violet (紫外线的) rays; but ultra-violet rays are too easily lost in fog and the polluted air near industrial towns. Dr. Roller found that sunlight, fresh air and good food cure a great many diseases. He was particularly successful in curing certain forms of tuberculosis with his “sun-cure”.
There were a large number of children in Dr. Roller’s hospital. He decided to start a school where sick children could be cured and at the same time continue to learn. It was not long before his school was full.
In winter, wearing only shorts, socks and boots, the children put on their skis after breakfast and left the hospital. They carried small desks and chairs as well as their school books. Their teacher led them over the snow until they reached a slope which faced the sun and was free from cold winds. There they set out their desks and chairs, and school began.
Although they wore hardly any clothes, Roller’s pupils were very seldom cold. That was because their bodies were full of energy which they got from the sun. But the doctor knew that sunshine can also be dangerous. If, for example, tuberculosis is attacking the lungs, unwise sunbathing may do great harm.
Today there is not just one school in the sun. There are several in Switzerland, and since Switzerland is not the only country which has the right conditions, there are similar schools in other places.
1. According to the passage, when did sunlight begin to play a more important part in the treatment of disease?
A. From ancient times. B. At the end of the nineteenth century.
C. Not until this century. D. Only very recently.
2. Why are a Danish doctor and a Swiss doctor mentioned in the second and third paragraphs?
A. Because they both made use of sunlight to treat illness.
B. Because they were the first people who used sunlight for treatment.
C. Because they were both famous European doctors.
D. Because they used sunlight in very different ways.
3. Dr Roller set up a “sun-cure” school probably for the reason that _______.
A. most children could stay in his hospital
B. children could study while being treated
C. the school was expected to be full of pupils
D. the school was high up in the mountains
4. What can be inferred from the last paragraph of the passage?
A. “Sun-cure” schools are becoming popular everywhere.
B. Switzerland is the only country where “sun-cure” schools are popular.
C. Proper conditions are necessary for the running of a “sun-cure” school.
D. “Sun-cure” schools are found in countries where there is a lot of sunshine.
Move Earth—it’s no science fiction
LONDON-Scientists have found an unusual way to prevent our planet from overheating: move it to a cooler spot. All you have to do is send a few comets（彗星）in the direction of Earth, and its orbit will be changed. Our world will then be sent spinning into a safer, colder part of the solar system.
This idea for improving our climate comes from a group of US National Aeronautics and Space Administration（NASA） engineers and American astronomers. They say their plan could add another six billion years to the useful lifetime of our planet—effectively doubling its working life.
The plan put forward by Dr Laughlin, and his colleagues Don Korycansky and Fred Adams
,needs carefully directing a comet or asteroid so that it passes close by our planet and sends some of its gravitational energy to Earth.
“Earth’s orbital speed would increase as a result and we would move to a higher orbit away from the Sun,”Laughlin said.
Engineers would then direct their comet so that it passed close to Jupiter or Saturn. The comet would pick up energy from one of these giant planets. Later its orbit would bring it back to Earth, and the process would be repeated.
In the short term, the plan provides an ideal way to global warming, although the team was actually concerned with a much greater danger. The sun is certain to heat up in about a billion years and so “seriously compromise” our biosphere（生物圈）—by cooking us.
That’s why the group decided to try to save Earth.
The plan has one or two worrying aspects, however. For a start, space engineers would have to be very careful about how they directed their asteroid or comet towards Earth. The smallest miscalculation（误算）in orbit could fire it straight at Earth—with deadly consequences.
There is also the question of the Moon. As the current issue of Scientific American magazine points out, if Earth was pushed out of its current position it is “most likely the Moon would be stripped away from Earth,” it states. This would greatly change our planet’s climate.
1. What makes the scientists plan to move Earth?
A. A few comets are moving to the direction of Earth.
B. Earth’s working life is coming to an end soon.
C. Earth will become too hot for mankind to keep alive.
D. The moon is moving farther and farther away from Earth.
2.If the plan is successful, Earth will have a working life of ______years.
A.12 billion B.6 billion C.18 billion D.24 billion
3.What serious problems might the plan cause according to the passage?
A. The comet might hit Earth and man might lose the moon.
B. Earth might be moved too far away and man might be frozen to death.
C. The comet might hit Jupiter or Saturn and never return to Earth.
D. Earth’s working life might be greatly shortened.
4.What does the underlined word “compromise” mean?
A. provide B. benefit C. share D. endanger
5.Which of the following best shows how the plan would work?
Death Valley is one of the most famous deserts in the United States, covering a wide area with its alkali sand. Almost 20 percent of this area is well below sea level, and Badwater, a salt water pool, is about 280 feet below sea level and the lowest point in the United States.
Long ago the Panamint Indians called this place “Tomesha”— the land of fire. Death Valley’s present name dates back to 1849, when a group of miners coming across from Nevada became lost in its unpleasantness and hugeness and their adventure turned out to be a sad story. Today Death Valley has been declared a National Monument(纪念碑) and is crossed by several well-marked roads where good services can be found easily. Luckily the change created by human settlement has hardly ruined the special beauty of this place.
Here nature created a lot of surprising, almost like the sights on the moon, ever-changing as the frequent wind moves the sand about, showing the most unusual colors. One of the most astonishing and variable parts of Death Valley is the Devil’ s Golf Course, where it seems hard for one to tell reality from terrible dreams. Sand sculptures(沙雕) stand on a frightening ground, as evening shadows move and lengthen.
1. _______ is the lowest place in the desert.
A. Tomesha B. Death Valley
C. Nevada D. Badwater
2. The name of the valley comes from _______.
A. an Indian name B. the death of the miners
C. the local people D. a National Movement
3. From the passage we can learn that _______.
A. no one had ever known the desert before the miners
B. it’s still not easy to travel across the desert
C. people can find gas-stations, cafes and hotels in the desert
D. people have changed the natural sight of the desert
4. Devil Golf Course is famous for _______.
A. the frequent wind B. the colors of the sand
C. dream-like sights D. the sand sculptures
5. From the passage we can see that the writer _______ the Death Valley.
A. appreciates B. is fearful of
C. dislikes D. is tired of
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