Embracing failure is a cliche of the business world. But as Matthew Syed
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Success brings its own rewards, but the world comes down hard on those who are deemed failures. The desire to avoid such opprobrium prompts people to cover up mistakes, argues Mr. Syed. Police fail to drop cases against people accused of committing a crime, even after clear evidence emerges of their innocence. Politicians plough on with policies even when it is obvious they are not working. All are psychological strategies to avoid admitting fault.
Fear of failure can have devastating consequences, as Mr. Syed shows in a story about United Airlines. In 1978, as a plane approached its destination, the pilot worried that the landing gear had not come down. Desperate, he tried to establish what was wrong, becoming blinded to the planed dwindling fuel reserves. Eventually the tank was empty, and the plane crashed. The worry of making a mistake — subjecting the passengers to a bumpy landing 一 blinded him to bigger problems.
The story is a metaphor. Investors hold on to losing stocks longer than they should. Unable to face the shame of a bad return, they end up with a much bigger loss. Fred Goodwin of RBS, a bank, fretted about the color of the carpets at head office while his firm collapsed under the weight of the financial crisis. The medical profession is especially intolerant of mishaps, says Mr. Syed. This means that mistakes are not scrutinized and people do not learn from them. Small wonder that blunders are pervasive. According to one study of acute care in hospitals, one in 10 patients “is killed or injured as a consequence of medical error or institutional shortcomings”.
What to do? One solution is making it easy for people to own up or speak up, as the airline industry has learned to do better than any other. Mr. Syed"s more novel suggestion, though, is the rigorous testing of business strategies. This forces people to make improvements. The gold standard is the “randomized control trial”（RCT)，in which a treatment group is compared with a control group. Capital One, a credit-card company, has used RCTs obsessively 一 over the fonts it uses, for example, and the scripts at its call- centers —to assess which initiatives fail and which do not. James Dyson, a technology entrepreneur, and Google are other cheerleaders for this hyperrational school of management.
This approach may also hold benefits for governments. David Halpem is the boss of the British government’s Behavioral Insights Team (BIT)，known as the “nudge unit，” which uses RCTs to improve policy.
Identifying points of failure and making small changes，he argues，reaps disproportionate gains. By including a message on a car-tax form appealing to people’s sense of humanity, the BIT sharply boosted organ donations.
Much still needs to be done. Between 2010 and 2012 the BIT saved the British government only ￡300 million ($457 million), a negligible proportion of GDP. Few businesses incorporate RCTs as extensively as Capital One. Much more could be done. Hospitals could subject doctors to RCTs, identify the mistake-prone and then help them. Civil servants could randomly test the economic impact of policies, such as changes to income tax, before rolling them out. It sounds extreme, but confronting failure rationally would bring huge rewards.
單選題第1題What does the word “stigmatizing” underlined in Paragraph 1 mean?
A.Smearing.
B.Shocking.
C.Shaking.
D.Scaring.
參考答案：A
答案解析：語義題。本題中stigmatizing意為“將某事或某物視為可恥的”，A與其語義最接近，故為正確答案。
單選題第2題“Police” and “politicians” are mentioned in Paragraph 2 to show that_____ .
A.people try to find fault with others
B.people have a strong desire for success
C.people make efforts to conceal mistakes
D.people take actions to show their innocence
參考答案：C
答案解析：推斷題。第2段用警察和政客舉例后，指出他們這些舉動都是為了避免承認錯誤而采取的心理對策。故選C (人們努力隱瞞錯誤)。
單選題第3題In Mr. Syed"s story, the plane crashed because_____ .
A.the pilot failed to see the landing gear
B.it flew on without enough fuel
C.the landing gear was blocked
D.a bump caused failure in landing
參考答案：B
答案解析：細節(jié)題。第3段第4句指出最終油箱空了，機毀人亡。故飛行墜毀的原因應為B(燃料不夠的情況下繼續(xù)飛行)。留意干擾選項，C起落架被卡和D顛簸著陸，均不是飛機墜毀的直接原因。
單選題第4題We can infer from Paragraph 4 that _____.
A.businessmen are concerned about financial problems
B.investors are brave enough to endure bigger loss
C.patients are subject to institutional mistakes
D.doctors are careful about their profession
參考答案：C
答案解析：推斷題。第4段最后一句，根據(jù)一項針對醫(yī)院急癥護理的研宄，每十位患者中就有一位“由于醫(yī)療事故或制度缺陷身亡或受傷”。故選C。干擾項D是對第4句“醫(yī)療行業(yè)對于小錯誤尤其難以容忍”的過度解讀。
單選題第5題Paragraph 4 wants to tell us that_____ .
A.attitude determines everything
B.failure is the mother of success
C.detail determines success or failure
D.face outweighs anything else
參考答案：A
答案解析：推斷題。第4段薩伊德舉了三個例子都在暗示“態(tài)度決定了結(jié)果”，如投資者怕丟面子不及時拋售虧損股票，銀行家因注重細節(jié)而忽略大局，醫(yī)生因怕失誤反而造成更多事故。故選A。
單選題第6題What does the word “novel” underlined in Paragraph 5 mean?
A.Reliable.
B.Strange.
C.Random.
D.Original.
參考答案：B
答案解析：語義題。novel在文中作形容詞表示“新奇的，新穎的”，故選B。
單選題第7題What can we infer about RCT from the passage?
A.It has been utilized in various fields.
B.It is randomly selected by entrepreneurs.
C.It should be controlled in implementation.
D.It will be tested with advanced technology.
參考答案：A
答案解析：推斷題。第5段最后一句提到，除了“第一資本”(信用卡公司)使用RCT之夕卜，詹姆斯戴森(技術(shù)企業(yè)家)和谷歌(搜索引擎公司)也都推崇這種超理性管理學派。由此可以判定RCT被運用于不同領(lǐng)域，故選A。
單選題第8題What does the phrase “disproportionate gains” underlined in Paragraph 7 mean?
A.Some rewards seem to be negligible.
B.Small actions will bring big returns.
C.Small changes can lead to failure.
D.Some initiatives can be boosted.
參考答案：B
答案解析：語義題。第7段第2句用具體案例(通過在汽車稅單上加印激發(fā)人性的信息，英國政府的“行為研宄小組”極大促進了器官捐贈)，證明這種不成比例的收益是指“付出極小收獲極大”，故選B (小小的行動將帶來巨大的回報)。注意D (有些剛發(fā)起的行動得到推進)易誤選，這只是例證巨大回報的具體表征。
單選題第9題What can we learn from the last paragraph?
A.Civil servants can face failure with the help of BIT.
B.RCT has been widely applied in business.
C.BIT needs to be improved for its small returns.
D.Doctors can benefit from the use of RCTs.
參考答案：D
答案解析：推斷題。最后一段第5句提到醫(yī)院可以讓醫(yī)生接受“隨機對照試驗”，識別容易出錯的地方，然后幫助他們改進。故選D (醫(yī)生可以通過使用RCT獲益)。A選項中幫助公務(wù)員理性面對失敗的是RCT，而非BIT。B、C選項在文內(nèi)均無直接依據(jù)，故排除。
單選題第10題The purpose of the passage is to_____ .
A.analyze the reasons for fear of failure
B.exemplify the drawbacks of fear of failure
C.encourage people to learn from failure
D.discuss the pervasiveness of making mistakes
參考答案：C
答案解析：主旨題。梳理全文可知，作者從人們對錯誤的態(tài)度入手，從反面例證了害怕承認錯誤和恐懼失敗可能造成的后果，提出應該審視錯誤、吸取教訓，最后拋出解決方案，并用RCT的案例證明人們可以認識失敗，改進方法，進而獲得回報。由此可以判斷作者的意圖是要鼓勵人們從失敗中吸取教訓，這樣才可事半功倍，故選C。選項A、B和D都只是文章中涉及的部分內(nèi)容，不是主旨。故排除。
涉及考點
2020翻譯二級筆譯綜合能力考試大綱
二、閱讀理解
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