Even Intelligent People Can Fail

_________

The unusual things about the innovators (创新者) who succeeded in making our modern world is how often they failed. Turn on a light, take a photograph, watch TV, search the web, jet across the Pacific Ocean, talk on a cell-phone. The innovators who left us these things had to find the way to success through a maze (错综复杂) of wrong turns.

_________

We have just celebrated the 125th anniversary of American innovator Thomas Edison’s success in heating a thin line to white, hot heat for 14 hours in his lab in New Jersey, US. He did that on October 22, 1879, and followed up a month later by keeping a thread of common cardboard alight (点亮着的) in an airless space for 45 hours. Three years later he went on to light up half a square mile of downtown Manhattan, even though only one of the six power plants in his design worked when he turned it on, on September 4, 1882.

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“Many of life’s failures,” Edison said, “are because that people did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” Before that magical moment in October 1879, Edison had worked out no fewer than 3,000 theories about electric light. But in only two cases did his experiments work.

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No one likes failure, but the smart innovators learn from it. Mark Gumz, the head of a camera maker, attributes some of the company’s successes in technology to understanding failure. His popular phrase is：“You only fail when you quit.”

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Over two centuries, the most common quality of the innovators has been persistence (坚忍不拔). That is another way of saying they had the emotional ability to keep on with what they were doing. Walt Disney, the founder of Disneyland, was so penniless after a series of financial failures that he was left shoeless in his office because he could not afford the $1.50 to get his shoes from the repair shop. Pioneering car maker Henry Ford failed with one company and was forced out of another before he developed the Model T Car.

A husband-and-wife team from California reached the Pacific Ocean after a 4,900- mile-cross
-country walk, becoming the first to backpack the American Discovery Trail in one continuous
walk. 
Marcia and Ken powers, of Pleasanton, started the travel across 13 states, through 14 national parks and 16 national forests on Feb. 27 from Cape Henlopen in Delaware. Nearly eight months later, the excited couple walked through water into the Pacific Ocean at Point Reyes, a day ahead of time. 
“We are a little sad that a great adventure is over. It was a fantastic adventure. And now we go home and just do housework. It's really sad.” Marcia, who said she's in her 50s, and her 60-year-old husband traversed cities, desert, mountains and farmland before reaching the Pacifics alone with arms around each other' s backpacks.
They overcame deep snow in the East, a quicksand in Utah, close lightning strikes in the Mid- west and strong desert sandstorms in the West while averaging 22 miles a day and taking only four days off. But they enjoyed the French history of St. Louis' the beauty of the Colorado Rockies and the kindness of strangers they met along the way. They particularly remember two brothers ---- a
doctor and dentist-------who put them up in their homes, after terrible days, and a motorcyclist who gave them water after they failed to find any on Utah's lonely Wah Wah Desert.
“Americans are truly warm-hearted and wonderful people.” Marcia Powers said. “We got to meet people that we would never meet in our daily living at home. We got to touch it with our feet and hands and smell all its scents and hear its wildlife. It' s an amazing country,” she added.
【小题1】Which of the following about couple's walk is TRUE?

B
Compassion (同情) is a desire within us to help others. With effort, we can translate compassion into actions. An experience last weekend showed me this is true. I work part—time in a supermarket across from a building for the elderly. These old people are our main customers，and it’s easy to lose patience over their slowness. But last Sunday，one aged gentleman appeared to teach me a valuable lesson. This untidy marl walked up to my register with a box of biscuits. He said he was out of cash，had just moved into his room，and had nothing in his cupboards. He asked if we could let him have the food on trust. He promised to repay me the next day.
I couldn’t help staring at him. I wondered what kind of person he had been ten or twenty years before，and what he would be like if luck had gone his way. I had a hurt in my heart for this kind of human soul，all alone in the world. I told him that I was sorry，and the store rules didn’t allow me to do so. I felt stupid and unkind saying this，but I valued my job.
Just then，another man，standing behind the first，spoke up. if anything，he looked more pitiable, “Charge it to me,” was all he said.
What I had been feeling was pity. Pity is soft，safe and easy. Compassion，on the other hand，is caring in action. I thanked the second man but told him that was not allowed，either. Then I reached into my pocket and paid for the biscuits myself I reached into my pocket because these two men had reached into my heart and taught me compassion.
59．The aged gentleman who wanted to buy the biscuits            .
A．promised to obey the store rules          
B．forgot to take any money with him
C．hoped to have the food first and pay later
D．could not afford anything more expensive
60．Which of the following best describes the old gentleman?
A．kind and lucky        B．poor and lonely
C．friendly and helpful D．hum and disappointed
61．The writer followed the store rules because        .
A．he wanted to keep his present job
B．he felt no pity for the old gentleman
C．he considered the old gentleman dishonest
D．he expected someone else to pay for the old gentleman
62．What does the writer 1earn from his experience?
A．Wealth is most important than anything else.
B．Helping others is easier said than done.
C．Experience is better gained through practice.
D．Obeying the rules means more than compassion.

C
I'm really nervous opening Chatroulette （a website）．I don't know if I'm more scared of the possibility of coming face-to-face with a naked （裸体的） guy doing improper things, or the possibility of having to speak to someone normal．But it's that uncertainty that's caused the "game" to explode into an Internet phenomenon．
So, I hesitantly click "play"．My face appears in a small box to the left of the screen．I'm a 22-year-old guy, wearing jeans and a T-shirt, and sitting in my warmly lit bedroom —not too threatening, I think．Believing I look welcoming and friendly, I open all features: visual, audio and text．The user can disable these at any time if they feel uncomfortable．
Quickly I find myself face-to-face with my first "partner"．A guy with glasses is staring back at me．He looks like he spends too much time in front of the computer．"Hey", I say, "how are you going?" "Good," says the guy．Sensing that he was not going to be very talkative, I hit the "next" button．
Just like that, I'm thrown across the world into someone else's bedroom．This time it looks like a middle-aged woman．I must have hit gold because 85 percent of Chatroulette users are male, according to the Wall Street Journal．She's wearing sunglasses and smiles back．Before I can even say a word, she "nexts" me．"WHAT?!"
Then, I fly through the Internet and arrive at my next partner．My nightmare, a man is sitting in his computer chair half-naked taking off his pants．Argghh! "Next, next, next!" For the next 30 minutes I keep my cursor （光标） over the "next" button．My experiences continue to be short, shocking, and largely uninteresting．I discouragingly hit "next" after seeing another naked man, and decide to end my session and close the window．This wasn't "the new social media experience" I was hoping for．Maybe it was just a little bit too random （随机的）．
64．It is the author's __________ that leads him into Chatroulette．
A．curiosity          B．unwillingness    C．enthusiasm          D．ignorance
65．The underlined word "disable" in Paragraph 2 means __________．
A．store                  B．close                C．misuse                D．copy
66．Among all the partners, __________ seemed to be the least interested in talking with the author.
A．the guy with glasses                      B．the middle-aged woman
C．the man in his computer chair            D．the last man mentioned
67．What is the author's attitude toward Charoulette?
A．Positive．           B．Supportive．       C．Objective．         D．Negative．

A newly-wed couple on a four-month honeymoon were hit by six natural disasters, including the Australian floods, Christchurch earthquake and Japanese tsunami.
Stefan and Erika Svanstrom left Stockholm, Sweden, on December 6 and were immediately stranded in Munich, Germany, due to one of Europe's worst snowstorms. Travelling with their baby daughter, they flew on to Cairns in Australia which was then struck by one of the most tremendous tonadoes in the nation's history. From there, the couple, in their 20s, were forced to shelter for 24 hours on the cement floor of a shopping centre with 2,500 others. "Trees were being knocked over and big branches were scattered across the streets," Mr Svanstrom told Sweden's Express newspaper. "We escaped by the skin of our teeth," said Svanstrom.
They then headed south to Brisbane but the city was experiencing massive flooding, so they crossed the country to Perth where they narrowly escaped raging bush fires. The couple then flew to Christchurch, New Zealand, arriving just after a massive magnitude 6.3 earthquake destroyed the city on February 22. Mrs. Svanstrom said, "When we got there the whole town was a war zone." "We could not visit the city since it was completely blocked off, so instead we travelled around before going to Japan." But days after the Svanstroms arrived, Tokyo was rocked by Japan's largest earthquake since records began. "The trembling was horrible and we saw roof tiles fly off the buildings," Mr. Svantrom said. "It was like the buildings were swaying back and forth."
The family returned to Stockholm on March 29,2011 after a much calmer visit to their last destination China. But Mr. Svanstrom, who also survived the destructive Boxing Day tsunami that hit southeast Asia in 2004, said the marriage was still going strong. He added, "I know marriages have to endure some trials, but I think we have been through most of them." "We've certainly experienced more than our fair share of catastrophes, but the most important thing is that we're together and happy." Mrs. Svantrom added: “ To say we were unlucky with the weather doesn’t really cover it! It’s so absurd that now we can only laugh.”
【小题1】How many countries did the couple visit during their honeymoon?