So there are four of them in this car heading north from Coleman in the heart of Texas to the town of Abilene (阿比林), some 53 miles away. It is a hot day, and the drive is dusty and boring. Someone has had the bright idea to interrupt a nice family game of dominoes (多米诺) to go on a four-hour round-trip to eat at a really not very good restaurant.
When they are back home again, one family member admits that she hasn’t enjoyed herself all that much. One by one they all confess that they would rather have stayed at home. “I only went along with it because I thought the rest of you wanted to go,” says everyone. No one wanted to go to Abilene. It had just happened.
This story was first told by Professor Jerry Harvey in an article published in 1974 called The Abilene Paradox (悖论) and other meditations on management. It offers a wonderful insight into the way that decisions can sometimes just emerge, without ever being consciously “made”.
Whether they mean to or not, groups exert a pressure to conform (顺从). A senior management team can find itself a long way down the track to a bad decision without realizing that the idea has very little support around the table.
Close-knit (组织严密的) teams are easily influenced by the pull of groupthink. The late Professor Janis suggested several ways in which teams can avoid it. Two key steps are to invite experts from outside into meetings, and to appoint at least one person to the role of “devil’s advocate” — a role that should be played by different people in different meetings.
【小题1】The four family members have decided to go on a four-hour round-trip to the town of Abilene because _______.

St James’s Palace has announced that while Miss Middleton will wear a wedding ring．Prince William has chosen not to．
Rings are typically exchanged by couples during their wedding to represent commitment （承诺）to each other．Does it matter if husbands don’t wear a wedding ring?
Prince William’s father wears one, his grandfather doesn’t and their decisions weren’t seen as strange．But reactions to Prince William’s decision show that wedding rings for husbands are now the norm．One young man, who spoke to the BBC, thinks William is setting a bad example, saying: "I think it’s disgraceful （不光彩的）．It’s a tradition．You have to wear a ring really．And for someone of the royal family to do that, it’s not right．"
Broadly speaking, modem husbands tend to wear their wedding rings as a symbol of loyalty and faithfulness．So not wearing one can seem unusual or even dishonest to some, although men haven’t always worn them．
The wearing of wedding rings has been the done thing for centuries among wives but only became common practice among husbands during World War II．Men fighting overseas usually wore them as a reminder of wives and families back home．
Wearing rings is a safety issue（问题） for men in certain manual jobs．But how does William explain his decision? A royal officer has said he "isn’t one for jewelry"．
【小题1】According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?

I was sleeping for over a week after a traffic accident. The only sounds that could be heard were coming from the machines that were  36   me alive.
All my family members were   37   ways to wake me up from my silence.
Greg, my brother – in – law,  38   to take some of my songs I had recently recorded to a local radio station,   39   he explained about my illness. He told them he was  40 I could hear what was going on around me and that he knew having my own songs   41   on the radio had been a huge dream of mine. This would definitely  42   me and do more than any medicine or machine could.
The radio station agreed to help and gave him a specific date and time   43  he could have a radio “  44  ” at my hospital bed. Greg’s decision had filled everyone with 45   and now the moment arrived. Nervous from expectation, all my family members  46   hands and watched over me hoping for a   47  .
The DJ made a pre – song announcement about my   48   to the general audience, and then spoke directly to me.
“Shelly, this is for you. I want you to really listen now. This is not just   49   song we’re playing, but your family’s song of hope. All of us at KKDJ wish you a speedy   50  .”

I have a friend named Monty Roberts. He has let me use his horse ranch(养马场)to put on events to raise money for youth at risk programs.
Last time I was there he introduced me by saying, “I want to tell you why I let you use my house. It all goes back to a story about a young man who was the son of an itinerant(流动的)horse trainer. When he was a senior, he was asked to write a paper about what he wanted to be when he grew up.”
“That night he wrote a seven-page paper describing his goal of owning a horse ranch someday. He put all his heart into the project and wrote about his dream in great detail. He even drew a diagram of a 200-acre ranch, showing the location of the buildings, stables and the track, and even a detailed floor plan for a 4000-square-foot house on it.”
“The next day he handed it in to his teacher. Two days later ,he received a large red “F” on his paper with a note, ‘See me after class.’ The boy went to see the teacher and asked why. The teacher told him there was no way for a young boy like him to do that because owning a horse ranch required much money and resources, and then added ‘If you’ll rewrite his paper with a more realistic goal, I will reconsider your grade.’”
“The boy went home and thought about it long and hard. He asked his father what to do. His father said, ‘Look, son, you have to make up your own mind on this. However, I think it’s a very important decision for you.’”
“Finally, a week later, the boy turned in the same paper without any change and stated, ‘You can keep the F and I’ll keep my dream.’”
“I tell you this story because you are sitting in my 4000-square-foot house in the middle of my 200-acre horse ranch. I still have that school paper framed over the fireplace.”
Don’t let anyone steal your dreams. Follow your heart, no matter what.
【小题1】 The teacher gave him an “F” for his written paper because the
teacher thought 　　    .

The Making of a Surgeon
How does a doctor recognize the point in time when he is finally a “surgeon”? As my year as chief resident （进修医生） drew to a close, I asked myself this question  36  more than one occasion．
The answer, I concluded, was  37 ．When you can say to yourself, “There is no surgical patient I cannot treat competently, treat just  38  or better than any other surgeon”-- then, and not until then, you are  39  a surgeon．I was  40  that point．
41  , for example, the emergency situations that we met almost every night．The first few months of the year I had  42  the ringing of the telephone．I knew it meant another critical decision to be  43 ．Often, after I had told Walt or Larry what to do in a particular   44  , I'd have trouble getting back to sleep．I'd  45  all the facts of the case and, often, wonder  46  I had made a poor decision．More than once at two or three in the  47  , after lying awake for an hour, I’d get out of   48  , dress and drive to the hospital to see the patient myself．It was the only  49  I could find the   50  of mind I needed to relax．
Now, in the last month of my residency,  51  was no longer a problem．Sometimes I still couldn’t be sure of my decision, but I had learned to  52  this as a constant problem for a surgeon．I knew that with my knowledge and experience, any decision I'd made was bound to be a  53  one．It was a nice feeling．
This all sounds conceited （自负的） and I guess it is --  54  a surgeon needs conceit．He needs it to encourage him in trying moments when he's bothered by the  55  and uncertainties that are part of the practice of medicine．He has to feel that he's as good as and probably better than any other surgeon in the world．Call it conceit -- call it self-confidence; whatever it was, I had it．