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.

________

“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.

________

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.”

_________

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.

This book tells _____ life story of John Smith, who left ______ school and worked for a newspaper at the age of 16.

1. A.
   the; 不填
2. B.
   the; the
3. C.
   a; the
4. D.
   a; 不填

Beijing put 200 more buses on the city’s streets on Saturday, September 22, 2007, for the convenience(方便) of citizens who left their cars at home to support "Car Free Day". In some downtown areas of Beijing, private cars were forbidden from 7 a.m. to 7p.m. on the day.

Beijing was one of the 108 Chinese cities, which also included Shanghai, Jinan, Fuzhou, Kunming, Changsha and Taiyuan that responded positively to the "Car Free Day".

"Since the 'Car Free Day' is meant to reduce pollution and traffic jams, all drivers should support it." said Li Ming, a taxi driver in Beijing.

In Fuzhou, capital city of Fujian Province, banners printed with the slogan "Green Travel" appeared in most busy streets.

"Green travel is both the responsibility of the public and the government. As the public transport system can’t satisfy people’s needs, many people turn to private cars. The government should try to improve the public transport system so people will use private cars less." said Xu Doudou, head of the Humanity Institute of Fuzhou University.

Every September 22 is a "Car Free Day" in many countries around the world. Chengdu, capital city of southwest China's Sichuan Province, pioneered (做先锋) China's first "Car Free Day" on October 14, 2000. It resulted in a 37.5 percent drop in traffic accidents and noise reduction.

September 22, 2007 marks China’s first large-scale participation in "Car Free Day". The number of cars dropped noticeably in most of the participating cities on the day.

73. Which of the following is NOT the purpose of setting up "Car Free Day"?

A. To protect the environment.               B. To improve traffic flow.

C, To reduce noise pollution.                D. To stop car production.

74. According to Xu Doudou, to encourage people not to use private cars, we should____.

A. make fewer cars                   B. make more buses  

C. improve the public transport system       D. tell people cars do harm to the environment

75. Which city first celebrated "Car Free Day" in China?

A. Beijing.      B. Chengdu.        C. Shanghai.         D. Fuzhou.

There is an endless supply of stories about sleepwalkers (梦游者). People have been said to climb on roofs, solve mathematical problems, write music, walk through windows, and do murder in their sleep.

       In Revere, Massachusetts, a hundred policemen searched for a lost boy who left his home in his sleep and woke up five hours later on a strange sofa in a strange living room, with no idea how he had got there.

       At the University of Lowa, WWW.K**S*858$$U.COMa student was reported to have the habit of getting up in the middle of the night and walking three-quarters of a mile to the Lowa River. He would take a swim and then go back to his room to bed.

       An American expert on sleep claims (声称) that he has never seen a sleepwalker. He is said to know more about sleep than any other living man, and during the last thirty-five years he has lost a lot of sleep watching people sleep. He says, “Of course, I know that there are sleepwalkers because I have read about them in the newspapers. But none of my sleepers ever walked, and if I were to advertise for sleepwalkers for an experiment, I doubt whether I would get many takers (应征者).”

       Sleepwalking, however, is a scientific reality. It is one of those strange things that sometimes look quite fantastic (怪诞的). Doctors say that sleepwalking is much more common than is generally supposed. Many sleepwalkers do not try to find help and their sleepwalking is never recorded.

Generally speaking, sleepwalkers are people who ________.

      A. climb on roofs                                B. walk through windows

       C. do fantastic things during their sleep                      D. walk in a half-awake state

It was reported that a boy ________.

      A. was found on a strange sofa, telling how he had got there

       B. slept in his own room but woke up in a strange room

       C. lost his way five hours after he left home

       D. was searched for by policemen when he lost his way

There was a college student who got into the habit of ________.

      A. getting up in the middle of the night and walking down to the river

       B. walking three-quarters of a mile every day

       C. swimming in the Lowa River before going to bed

       D. walking about before he went to bed

Why do people think sleepwalking is nothing but a fantastic thing which doesn’t have any explanation?

      A. It is so common that it needn’t be recorded.

       B. Scientists take no interest in it.

       C. Most sleepwalkers do not seek help for their problem.

       D. No records about it have been made.

While still in its early stages, welfare reform has already been judged a great success in many states—at least in getting people off welfare．It's estimated that more than 2 million people have left the list since 1994．
In the past four years, welfare list in Athens County have been cut in half．But 70 percent of the people who left in the past two years took jobs that paid less than $ 6 an hour．The result: The Athens County poverty rate still remains at more than 30 percent —twice the national average．For advocates（代言人） for the poor, that's an indication that much more needs to be done．
"More people are getting jobs, but it's not making their lives any better," says Kathy Lairn, a policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington．A center analysis of US Census data （户口普查资料） nationwide found that between 1995 and 1996, a greater percentage of single, female-headed families were earning money on their own, but that average income for these families actually went down．
But for many, the fact that poor people are able to support themselves almost as well without government aid as they did with it is in itself a huge victory．"Welfare was a poison．It was a poisonous substance that was poisoning the family," says Robert Rector, a welfare-reform policy analyst．"The reform is changing the moral climate in low-income communities．It's beginning to rebuild the work ethic （道德观）, which is much more important．"
Mr．Rector and others argued that once "the habit of dependency is cracked," then the country can make other policy changes aimed at improving living standards．
【小题1】．From the passage, it can be seen that the author __   __．