Attention to detail is something everyone can and should especially in a tight job market.Bob Crossley, a human-resources expert notices this in the job applications that comes across his desk every day.“It’s amazing how many candidates eliminate themselves.”he says.
“Rgumes(简历)arrive with stains.Some candidates don’t bother to spell the company’s name correctly.Once I see a mistake, I eliminate the candidate,”Crossley concludes, “ If they cannot take care of these details, why should we trust them with a job?”
Can we pay too much attention to details?Absolutely.Perfecotionists struggle over little things at the cost of something larger they work toward.“To keep from losing the forest for the trees,”says Charles Garfiellt, associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco,“we must constantly ask ourselves how the detail we’re working on fit into the larger picture, If they don’t, we should drop them and move to something else.”
Garfield compares this process to his work as a computer scientist at NASA.“The Apollo II moon launch was slightly off-course 90 percent of the time,”says Garfield.“But a successful landing was still likely because we the exact coordinates of our goal.This allowed us to make adjustments as necessary.”Knowing where we want to go helps us judge the importance of every task we undertake.
Too often we believe what accounts for others’success is some special secret or a lucky break(机遇).But rarely is success so mysterious.Again and again, we see that by doing little things within our grasp well, large rewards follow.
(1)
According to the passage, some job applicants were rejected ________.
[ ]
A.
because of their carelessness as shown in their failure to present a clean copy of a rsume
B.
because of their inadequate education as shown in their poor spelling in writing a resume
C.
because they failed to give a detailed description of their backgound in their applications
D.
because they eliminated their names from the applicationslist themselves
(2)
The word“perfectionists”(Line 1, para.3)refers to those who ________.
[ ]
A.
demand others to get everything absolutely right
B.
know how to adjust their goals according to the circumstances
C.
pay too much attention to details only to lose their major objectives
D.
are capable of achieving perfect results in whatever they do
(3)
Which of the following is the author’s advice to the reader?
[ ]
A.
Although too much attention to details rnay be costly, they should not be overlmked.
B.
Don’t forget details when drawing pictures.
C.
Be aware of the importance of a task before undertaking it.
D.
Careless applicants are not to be trusted.
(4)
The example of the Apollo II moon launch is given to illustrate that ________.
[ ]
A.
minor mistakes can be ignored in achieving major objectives
B.
failure is the mother of success
C.
adjustmens are the key to the success completion of any work
D.
keeping one’s goal in mind helps in deciding which details can be overlooked
Suppose we built a robot(机器人)to explore the planet Mars.We provide the robot with seeing detectors(探测器)to keep it away from danger.It is powered entirely by the sun.Should we program the robot to be equally active at all times?No.The robot would be using up energy at a time when it was not receiving any.So we would probably program it to stop its activity at night and to wake up at dawn the next morning.
According to the evolutionary(进化的)theory of sleep, evolution equipped us with a regular pattern of sleeping and waking for the same reason.The theory does not deny(否认)that sleep provides some important restorative functions(恢复功能).It merely says that evolution has programmed us to perform those functions at a time when activity would be inefficient and possibly dangerous.However, sleep protects us only from the sort of trouble we might walk into; it does not protect us from trouble that comes looking for us.So we sleep well when we are in a familiar, safe place, but we sleep lightly, if at all, when we fear that bears will nose into the tent.
The evolutionary theory explains the differences in sleep among creatures.Why do eats, for instance, sleep so much, while horses sleep so little?Surely cats do not need five times as much repair and restoration as horses do.But cats can afford to have long periods of inactivity because they spend little time eating and are unlikely to be attacked while they sleep.Horses must spend almost all their waking hours eating, because what they eat is very low in energy value.Moreover, they cannot afford to sleep too long or too deeply, because their survival(生存)depends on their ability to run away from attackers.
(1)
The author uses the example of the robot in space exploration to tell us ________.
[ ]
A.
the differences between robots and men
B.
the reason why men need to sleep
C.
about the need for robots to save power
D.
about the danger of men working at night
(2)
Evolution has programmed man to sleep at night chiefly to help him ________.
[ ]
A.
keep up a regular pattern of life
B.
prevent trouble that comes looking for him
C.
avoid danger and inefficient labour
D.
restore his bodily functions
(3)
According to the author, we cannot sleep well when we ________.
[ ]
A.
are worrying about our safety
B.
are overworked
C.
are in a tent
D.
are away from home
(4)
Cats sleep much more than horses do partly because cats ________.
[ ]
A.
need more time for restoration
B.
are unlikely to be attackers
C.
axe more active than homes when they are awake
D.
spend less time eating to get enough energy
(5)
Which of the following is the main idea of the passage?
[ ]
A.
Evolution has equipped all creatures with a regular pattern of sleeping and waking.
B.
The study of sleep is an important part of the evolutionary theory.
C.
Sleeping patterns must be taken into consideration in the designing of robots.
D.
The sleeping pattern of a living creature is determined by the food it eats.
阅读理解:
Our boat floated on, between walls of forest too thick to allow us a view of the land we were passing through, though we knew from the map that our river must from time to time be passing through chains of hills which crossed the jungle plains.Nowhere did we find a place where we could have landed:where the jungle did not actually spread right down into the river, banks of soft mud prevented us going ashore.In any case, what would we have sailed by landing?The country was full of snakes and other dangerous creatures, and the jungle was so thick that one would be able to advance only slowly, cutting one’s way with knives the whole way.So we stayed in the boat, hoping we reached the sea, a friendly fisherman would pick us up and take us to civilization.
We lived on fish, caught with home-made net of string(we had no hooks), and fruits and nuts we could pick up out of the water.As we had no fire, we had to eat everything, including the fish, raw I had never tasted raw fish before, and I must say I did not much enjoy the experience; perhaps sea fish which do not live in the mud are less tasteless.After eating my raw fish, I lay back and dreamed of such things as fried chicken and rice, and ice-cream.In the never-ending damp heat of the jungle, ice-cream was a particularly frequent dream.
As for water, there was a choice:we could drink the muddy river water, or die of thirst.We drank the water.Men who had just escaped what had appeared to be certain death lose all worries about such small things as diseases caused by dirty water.In fact, none of us suffered from any illness as a result.
One day we passed another village, but fortunately nobody saw us.We did not wish to risk being taken prisoners a second time:we might not be so lucky to escape in a stolen boat again.
(1)
What they could see in the boat was only ________.
[ ]
A.
high wall
B.
villagers from time to time
C.
vast land
D.
heavy woods
(2)
They couldn’t land because ________.
[ ]
A.
the mud on the shore was too soft
B.
the forest was too thick to let them go through
C.
they could not find the mark on the map
D.
they could not find anyone to lead them out of the forest
(3)
The passage infers that the forest was ________.
[ ]
A.
rich of fruits and animals to be served as food
B.
not very thick as they could advance slowly by cutting the branches
C.
full of various dangerous beings
D.
full of ancient trees
(4)
The most proper title for this passage might be ________.