It’s good to make mistakes, and here is why.

First of all, mistakes are a clear sign that you are trying new things. It’s always good to try new things because when you are trying new things you are growing. If you never try anything new, how can you improve? How can you expand? The simple answer is “You can’t”. Look around you. With very few exceptions (例外), either everything you see in your physical world or every single detail of every single thing is the result of someone trying something new.

Another good thing about mistakes is this: When you are making mistakes, you are learning. Consider this: Edison failed 10,000 times before he perfected the light bulb. When asked how it felt to fail that many times, he said that he hadn’t failed 10,000 times, but rather had learned 10,000 things that didn’t work.

Finally, when you make a mistake you are much closer to success. Why?

Because when all is said and done, you will have tried some number of things before you succeeded. Every time you make a mistake you eliminate one of those things and are one step closer.

But this all doesn’t mean that you should go ahead without considering the consequences of a mistake. Quite the contrary, when you try something new you have to be willing to set some reasonable limits so that in the event that it doesn’t work out the way you want it to, you will be in a position to try again.

We all have limited resources in the form of time and money so don’t blow them all on one approach to a problem. Realize that it probably won’t be perfect the first time and allocate (分配) these resources appropriately so you can learn, make corrections, and try it again. Only by accepting and using your mistakes in this way can you make significant advances in your business and your career.

There is an old saying that goes, “If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not trying hard enough.”

So go forth and make mistakes. And learn. And grow. And prosper(成功).

1.From the second paragraph, we can conclude that _______.

A．mistakes are unnecessary for development

B．we are afraid of trying new things

C．it’s common for people to make mistakes

D．mistakes are better than not trying

2.The underlined word “eliminate” means _______.

A．avoid

B．dismiss

C．accept

D．solve

3.According to the article, one thing you should pay attention to about making mistakes is _______.

A．avoiding making the same mistakes	B．accepting the punishment willingly
C．taking consequences into account	D．trying things out one by one

4.The article is mainly about _______.

A．how to deal with mistakes	B．what benefits mistakes bring
C．how to achieve success	D．how to make use of your mistakes

5.What would the writer probably suggest we say to ourselves when we make a mistake?

A．Never mind, I can always try again.	B．I’d better stay out of trouble.
C．Great! Now I can learn something.	D．Look at this mess. Anyone would be upset.

 

I hear many parents complain that their teenage children are rebelling (叛逆). I wish it were so. At your age you ought to be growing away from your parents. You should be learning to stand on your own feet. But take a good look at the present rebellion. It seems that teenagers are all taking the same way of showing that they disagree with their parents. Instead of starting acting independently, most of them are holding one another's hands for reassurance (放心).

They claim they want to dress as they please. But they all wear the same clothes. They set off in new directions in music. But they all end up listening to the same record. Their reason for thinking or acting in such a way is that the crowd is doing it. They have come out of their cocoon (茧) into a larger cocoon.

It has become harder and harder for a teenager to stand up against the popularity wave and to go his or her own way. Industry has firmly developed a market for teenagers. These days every teenager can learn from the advertisements what a teenager should have and be. This is a great roadblock for the teenager who wants to find his or her own path.

But the roadblock is worth climbing over. The path is worth following. You may want to listen to classical music instead of going to a party. You may want to collect rocks when everyone else is collecting records. You may have some thoughts that you don't care to share at once with your classmates. Well, go to it. Find yourself. Be yourself. Popularity will come—with the people who respect you for who you are. That's the only kind of popularity that is really important.

63. The author's purpose in writing this passage is to tell______.

   A. readers how to be popular with people around

   B. teenagers how to learn to make a decision for themselves

C. parents how to control and guide their children

D. people how to understand and respect each other

64. According to the author, many teenagers think they are brave enough to act on their own, but in fact most of them______.

   A. have much difficulty understanding each other

   B. lack confidence

   C. dare not deal with any problems alone

D. are very much afraid of getting lost

65. The author thinks of advertisements as ______to teenagers.

   A. instructive      B. attractive    C. beneficial       D. influential 

66. The main idea of the last paragraph is that a teenager should______.

   A. differ from others in as many ways as possible

   B. become popular with others

   C. find his real self

D. rebel against his parents and the popularity wave         

I hear many parents complain that their teenage children are rebelling (叛逆). I wish it were so. At your age you ought to be growing away from your parents. You should be learning to stand on your own feet. But take a good look at the present rebellion. It seems that teenagers are all taking the same way of showing that they disagree with their parents. Instead of starting acting independently, most of them are holding one another's hands for reassurance (放心).

They claim they want to dress as they please. But they all wear the same clothes. They set off in new directions in music. But they all end up listening to the same record. Their reason for thinking or acting in such a way is that the crowd is doing it. They have come out of their cocoon (茧) into a larger cocoon.

It has become harder and harder for a teenager to stand up against the popularity wave and to go his or her own way. Industry has firmly developed a market for teenagers. These days every teenager can learn from the advertisements what a teenager should have and be. This is a great roadblock for the teenager who wants to find his or her own path.

But the roadblock is worth climbing over. The path is worth following. You may want to listen to classical music instead of going to a party. You may want to collect rocks when everyone else is collecting records. You may have some thoughts that you don't care to share at once with your classmates. Well, go to it. Find yourself. Be yourself. Popularity will come—with the people who respect you for who you are. That's the only kind of popularity that is really important.

63. The author's purpose in writing this passage is to tell______.

   A. readers how to be popular with people around

   B. teenagers how to learn to make a decision for themselves

C. parents how to control and guide their children

D. people how to understand and respect each other

64. According to the author, many teenagers think they are brave enough to act on their own, but in fact most of them______.

   A. have much difficulty understanding each other

   B. lack confidence

   C. dare not deal with any problems alone

D. are very much afraid of getting lost

65. The author thinks of advertisements as ______to teenagers.

   A. instructive      B. attractive    C. beneficial       D. influential 

66. The main idea of the last paragraph is that a teenager should______.

   A. differ from others in as many ways as possible

   B. become popular with others

   C. find his real self

D. rebel against his parents and the popularity wave         

After my brother died in an accident, my mother was in deep sadness. I was only a four-year-old girl at the time, but I still understood the sudden shift in my mom’s attitude towards safety. Suddenly everything around us was potentially dangerous. Overnight, the world had gone from a playground to a dangerous zone. I grew up with a lot of limits and rules. I couldn’t walk home from school by myself, even though everyone I knew already did. I couldn’t go to summer camp because what if something happened to me?
As I got older, the list of things of fear got longer. My whole life was divided into “things you should avoid”, and “things you needed to do in order to have a good, long life.” I became a natural worrier. I worry about things like getting cancer, losing my wallet, car accidents, earthquakes, and losing my job — disasters big and small, real and imagined.
The funny part is that you’d never know it by looking at my life. In fact, I’ve developed a rule for myself: If it scares me, then I have to do it at least once. I’ve done lots of things that my mom would have worried about: I’ve ridden a motorcycle; I’ve traveled —a lot. I’ve performed stand-up comedy, and I’m planning my second wedding.
There’s something else I don’t usually talk about, but it’s a cornerstone in my belief: When I was 14, my mother died suddenly in a car accident. At my mom’s funeral I remember making a choice. I could either live out the rest of my life trying to be “safe” or I could be brave enough to live out a fulfilling, exciting and, yes, sometimes dangerous life.
I worry that I may have betrayed(背叛) my mother by writing her in this light, but she has been a driving force in my life and, in the end I think she would have been proud of me. Courage isn’t a natural character of human beings. I believe that using courage is like developing a muscle. The more often I do things that scare me or that make me uncomfortable, the more I realize that I can do a lot more than I originally thought I could do.
Even though I inherited (继承) my mother’s cautious nature. I’ve also come to believe that fear can be a good thing, if we face it. Believing that has made my world a less scary place.
【小题1】In the writer’s childhood, the limits and rules were used to ______.

A．improve her behavior	B．develop her independence
C．be in memory of her dead brother	D．protect her from possible danger

【小题2】 How does the writer deal with the things that frighten her?

A．She just ignores them.	B．She faces up to them.
C．She turns to her mother for help.	D．She does them with her friends.

【小题3】From the passage, we can learn that ______.

A．the writer failed in her first marriage

B．nothing can make the writer afraid now

C．frightening things made the writer lose her self-confidence

D．the writer’s mother felt annoyed with her

【小题4】What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．Mothers influence their children much.

B．Fear is in fact not a bad thing.

C．Facing fear bravely produces courage.

D．The world is not as scary as people expect.