No one likes to make mistakes. But a new study says organizations learn more from their failures than from their successes, and keep that knowledge longer.
One of the researchers was Vinit Desai, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Denver Business School. He worked with Peter Madsen from the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University in Utah.
They did not find much long-term "organizational learning" from success. It is possible, they say. But Professor Desai says they found that knowledge gained from failure lasts for years. He says organizations should treat failures as a learning opportunity and not try to ignore them.
The study looked at companies and organizations that launch satellites--and other space vehicles. Professor Desai compared two shuttle flights.
In two thousand two, a piece of insulating(隔热的) material broke off during launch and damaged a rocket on the Atlantis. Still, the flight was considered a success.
Then, in early two thousand three, a piece of insulation struck the Columbia during launch. This time, the shuttle broke apart on re-entry and the seven crew members died. NASA officials suspended all flights and an investigation led to suggested changes.
Professor Desai says the search for solutions after a failure can make leaders more open-minded. He points to airlines as an example of an industry that has learned from failures in the past.
He advises organizations to look for useful information in small failures and failures they avoided. He also urges leaders to encourage the open sharing of information. The study appeared in the Academy of Management Journal.
The mistakes we learn from do not have to be our own. We recently asked people on our Facebook page to tell us a time they had done something really silly.
Fabricio Cmino wrote: Not long ago I wanted to watch TV, but it wouldn't turn on, so I did everything I could to start it. Thirty minutes later my mum showed up and, passing by, said to me "Did you try plugging it'? I’m just dusting, Mum!”So she wouldn't notice how dumb I am sometimes!
Bruno Kanieski da Silva told about a time he looked everywhere for his key. It was in his pocket. He wrote: I always promise I will never do it again, but after-a few weeks,where is my wallet? For sure it will be in a very logical place.
1.What we get from failure differs from that from success in that_______.
A. what we learn from failure is more powerful
B. what we learn from success does no good to us
C. the knowledge gained from failure is important for a company
D. the knowledge gained from failure lasts longer
2.From the passage, we can infer that________.
A. The insulating material problem in 2002 didn't arouse enough attention
B. There were no astronauts on Columbia
C. In spite of the problem, Atlantis was considered a success
D. Columbia exploded during its launch time
3.The writer gives the last two paragraphs to show that________.
A. many people make mistakes in the world
B. mistakes were a very embarrassing thing when found by others
C. we can also draw a lesson from others' mistakes
D. making mistakes was a necessity
4.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A. Only organizations can learn from mistakes
B. We can also learn from failures that have been avoided.
C. Lessons from the shuttle flights are more important.
D. Leaders often lack an open mind and seldom share information.
Children have their own rules in playing games. They seldom need a referee (裁判) and rarely take trouble to keep scores. They don’t care much about who wins or loses, and it doesn’t seem to worry them if the game is not finished. Yet, they like games that depend a lot on luck, so that their personal abilities cannot be directly compared. They also enjoy games that move in stages, in which each stage, the choosing of leaders, the picking-up of sides, or the determining of which side shall start, is almost a game in itself.
Grown-ups can hardly find children’s game exciting, and they often feel puzzled at why their kids play such simple game again and again. However, it is found that a child plays games for very important reasons. He can be a good player without having to think whether he is a popular person, and he can find himself being a useful partner to someone of whom he is ordinary afraid. He becomes a leader when it comes to his turn. He can be confident, too, in particular games, that it is his place to give orders, to pretend to be dead, to throw a ball actually at someone, or to kiss someone he has caught.
It appears to us that when children play a game they imagine a situation under their control. Everyone knows the rules, and more importantly, everyone plays according to the rules. Those rules may be childish, but they make sure that every child has a chance to win.
1.What is true about children when they play games?
A. They can stop playing any time they like.
B. They can test their personal abilities.
C. They want to pick a better team.
D. They don’t need rules.
2.To become a leader in a game, the child has to _________.
A. be a useful partner
B. wait for his turn
C. be confident in himself
D. be popular among his playmates
3.Why does a child like playing games?
A. Because he can be someone other than himself.
B. Because he can become popular among friends.
C. Because he finds he is always lucky in games.
D. Because he likes the place where he plays a game.
4.Which is the best title for this passage?
A. Rules in Children’s Games
B. Advantages of Playing Games for Children
C. Reasons for Children’s Games
D. How to Be a Popular Game Player
请从下列人物中选择你最喜欢的一位，用英语写一篇100词左右的短文。要求根据所给信息作适当发挥，且需包括以下三部分内容：
1．对该人物的简单介绍；
2．喜欢该人物的理由；
3．从该人物身上得到的启示。
Thomas Edison | Helen Keller | William Shakespeare |
inventor; creative; diligent; full of wisdom | ordinary but great woman; disabled; optimistic; eager to learn | writer; talented; imaginative; man of all ages |
“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine perspiration.” | “…if I had the power of sight for three days.” | “Life is a stage…” |
假如英语课上老师要求同学们交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的一篇作文。文中共有10处语言错误， 要求你在错误的地方增加、删除或修改某个单词。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），在其下面写上该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写上修改后的词。
注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2．只允许修改10处，多者（从11处起）不记分。
例如：It was very nice to get invitation to spend ∧ weekend with you．Luckily
I was completely free then, so I’ll to say “yes”．I’ll arrive in Bristol at am around 8 pm in Friday evening． on |
Dear Ms White,
Now I have been back in China for near a month. I am always remembering the days when we spent together in Australia. I would like to thank you for your kind and hospitality during my stay here. I hope you and your family will come to China to travel when you have time. China is an amazed place, it has a long history and rich culture. And there are many place of interest. You are sure to have wonderful time here.
In addition, our group photos had been sent to you by emails. You can download it from the Web.
I’m looking forward to your reply!
Best wishes!
Yours,
Wang Ping
下面文章中有5处（需要添加小标题。请从以下选项（A、B、C、D、E和F）中选出符合各段意思的小标题，并在答题纸上将该选项标号涂黑。选项中有一项是多余选项。
A.Learn to Evaluate Data Correctly
B.Learn to Speak Clearly and Persuasively
C.Learn to Make Decisions Quickly and Properly
D.Learn to Relax Timely
E.Learn to Use Internet Efficiently
F.Learn to Express Yourself Effectively
Top tips on How to Succeed in Life
What does it take to succeed in life? Author Dustin M. Wax has compiled a list of the top five skills you need for a successful life.
1.___________
Good writing skills are essential for today’s competitive job market. But writing well isn’t just a case of producing grammatically correct sentences---- it involves an ability to organize your thoughts, as well as being able to target your ideas to an audience in the most effective way possible.
2._____________
With so much information out there, you need to be able to sort the potentially valuable data from the trivial, to analyze its relevance and meaning, and to relate it back to other information.
3.______________
Analyzing information is all very well, but at some stage you also need to make a decision. Over-analyzing can lead to hesitation, so you need to learn how to respond quickly and effectively, and to know what to do based on the information available.
4. _______________
You don’t have to know everything, but you should be able to find out what you need to know quickly and painlessly. This means learning how to use the internet effectively, how to read productively, and how to draw on your network of contacts efficiently.
5._________________
Being able to switch off is extremely hard for some people, but you need to find time for exercise or ways of relieving stress and tension, or the pressure could end up literally killing you!
I am beginning to wonder whether my grandmother isn’t right when she complains, as she frequently does, that children nowadays aren’t as well-behaved as they used to be. Whenever she gets the opportunity, she recounts in detail how she used to be told to respect the elders and betters. She was taught to speak only when she was spoken to, and when she went out on her own, she was reminded to say 'please' and 'thank you'. Children in her day, she continues, were expected to be seen and not heard, but these days you are lucky if you ever hear parents telling their children to mind their p’s and q’s.
If you give her the chance, she then takes out of her drawer the old photograph album which she keeps there, and which she never tires of displaying. Of course when you look at pictures of her parents, you feel sure that, with a father as stern-looking as that, you too would have been "seen and not heard". He had a lot of neatly cut hair, long side-whiskers and a big moustache. In the photographs, he is always clutching (抓住) his coat with one hand, while in the other he holds a thin walking stick. Beside him sits his wife, with their children around her: Granny and her elder brothers. It always occurs to me that perhaps those long, stiff, black clothes were so clumsy to a little girl, that she hadn’t enough breath left to be talkative, let alone mischievous (淘气的). It must have been a dull and lonely life too, for she stayed mainly at home during her childhood, while her brothers were sent away to school from an early age. Despite their long black shorts and their serious expressions in the photographs, I always suspect that their lives were considerably more enjoyable than hers. One can imagine them telling each other to shut up or mind their own business, as soon as their parents were out of sight.
Going to see Granny on Sundays used to be a terrible experience. We would always be warned in advance to be on our best behavior, since my mother made a great effort to show how well brought up we were, in spite of our old, comfortable clothes, our incomprehensible (to Granny) slang, and our noisy games in the garden. We had to change into what Granny described as our "Sundays best" for lunch, when we would sit uncomfortably, kicking each other under the table. We were continually being ordered to sit up straight, to take our elbows off the table, to wait till everybody had been served, not to wolf down our food, nor to talk with our mouths full. At length we would be told to ask to be excused from the table and ordered to find quiet occupations for the rest of the day. We were always very bad-tempered by the evening, and would complain angrily all the way home.
Yet though we hated the Sunday visit, we never questioned the rules of good manners themselves. I remember being greatly shocked as a child to hear one of my friends telling her father to shut up. I knew I could never have spoken like that to my father and it would never have occurred to me to do so.
However, my childhood was much freer than Granny’s. I went to school with my brother and I played football with him and his friends. We all spoke a common language, and we got up to the same mischief. I would have died if I had had to stay indoors, wear a tight dress, and sew.
But I do sometimes look wistfully (惆怅地) at an old sampler which hangs in the hall, which was embroidered (刺绣) by an even more distant relative—my great-great-aunt, of whom, regrettably, no photograph remains. It was done as an example of her progress in learning. The alphabet is carefully sewn in large colored childish letters from A to Z, and below it a small verse reads:
Mary Saunders is my name,
And with my needle I worked the same,
That by it you may plainly see
What care my parents have for me.
It must have taken that little five-year-old months and months of laborious sewing, but, in a circle in a bottom corner of the sampler, there is a line: "Be Ever Happy".
1.The writer’s grandmother will complain that ______.
A. children used to be mischievous
B. children behave worse than they did in the past
C. children are often reminded of what to do
D. children are very badly behaved
2.Visiting Granny on Sundays was a terrible experience because ______.
A. the writer was not so well raised as she was required to pretend
B. Granny continually warned the writer to be on her best behavior
C. Granny was always describing the writer’s "Sunday best"
D. the writer was always blamed for not behaving well
3.From Paragraph 4, we can infer that the writer ______.
A. seldom spoke to her father in the way her friend did
B. was never questioned about the rules of good manners
C. never doubted the value of the strict rules at that time
D. was worried that her friend’s father would be shocked
4.The writer looked wistfully at the sampler, because______.
A. it was embroidered by a relative.
B. she wished she could sew herself.
C. it called to mind the values of good old days.
D. she had no photographs of Mary Saunders.
5.By sewing "Be Ever Happy" in the sampler, Mary Saunders ______.
A. suggested she was unhappy then
B. indicated happiness was hard to gain
C. expected we would find happiness in sewing
D. hoped happiness would be everlasting
