A. Importance of Learning from Failure B. Quality Shared by Most Innovators C. Edison’s Innovation D. Edison’s Comment on Failure E. Contributions Made by Innovators F. Successful Innovators |
Even Intelligent People Can Fail
_________
The unusual things about the innovators (創(chuàng)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 (錯綜復(fù)雜) 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 (點亮著的) 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 (堅忍不拔). 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.
科目:高中英語 來源:英語教研室 題型:050
1) John Henderson may be a businessman because he has just finished a “business trip”;
2) John Henderson must be very tired because the trip is “exhausting”;
3) John Henderson must be very eager to get home because he is driving “late” at night right after this exhausting trip.
Making inferences while reading will always help us achieve a better comprehension. But we should keep in mind that inferences must be made with care and supported by evidence. In order to make reasonable inferences we should.
1.read and think beyond the printed words;
2. analyze the information given in the text;
3. determine the author’s reason for his choice of words.
1. According to the author, a good reader________
A.can read between the lines
B.should have a large vocabulary
C.knows enough grammar rules
D.must have a good knowledge of the author
2. From the quoted sentence, you know John Henderson was most likely________
A.a seller
B.a man on business
C.a driver
D.a traveler
3. From the quoted sentence, you know John Henderson had a________
A.tired trip
B.bored trip
C.boring trip
4. When the author asks us to make inferences while reading, he intends to say________
A.’make guesses’
B.’have imaginations’
C.’do translations’
D.’draw conclusions’
5. The best topic of the passage is________
A.Reading Skills
B.Try to Be a Good Reader
C.Reading Is Importa?nt
D.Reading Is Thinking
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