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.
单选题第1题What does the word “stigmatizing” underlined in Paragraph 1 mean?
A.Smearing.
B.Shocking.
C.Shaking.
D.Scaring.
参考答案：A
答案解析：语义题。本题中stigmatizing意为“将某事或某物视为可耻的”，A与其语义最接近，故为正确答案。
单选题第2题“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
参考答案：C
答案解析：推断题。第2段用警察和政客举例后，指出他们这些举动都是为了避免承认错误而采取的心理对策。故选C (人们努力隐瞒错误)。
单选题第3题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
参考答案：B
答案解析：细节题。第3段第4句指出最终油箱空了，机毁人亡。故飞行坠毁的原因应为B(燃料不够的情况下继续飞行)。留意干扰选项，C起落架被卡和D颠簸着陆，均不是飞机坠毁的直接原因。
单选题第4题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
参考答案：C
答案解析：推断题。第4段最后一句，根据一项针对医院急症护理的研宄，每十位患者中就有一位“由于医疗事故或制度缺陷身亡或受伤”。故选C。干扰项D是对第4句“医疗行业对于小错误尤其难以容忍”的过度解读。
单选题第5题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
参考答案：A
答案解析：推断题。第4段萨伊德举了三个例子都在暗示“态度决定了结果”，如投资者怕丢面子不及时抛售亏损股票，银行家因注重细节而忽略大局，医生因怕失误反而造成更多事故。故选A。
单选题第6题What does the word “novel” underlined in Paragraph 5 mean?
A.Reliable.
B.Strange.
C.Random.
D.Original.
参考答案：B
答案解析：语义题。novel在文中作形容词表示“新奇的，新颖的”，故选B。
单选题第7题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.
参考答案：A
答案解析：推断题。第5段最后一句提到，除了“第一资本”(信用卡公司)使用RCT之夕卜，詹姆斯戴森(技术企业家)和谷歌(搜索引擎公司)也都推崇这种超理性管理学派。由此可以判定RCT被运用于不同领域，故选A。
单选题第8题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.
参考答案：B
答案解析：语义题。第7段第2句用具体案例(通过在汽车税单上加印激发人性的信息，英国政府的“行为研宄小组”极大促进了器官捐赠)，证明这种不成比例的收益是指“付出极小收获极大”，故选B (小小的行动将带来巨大的回报)。注意D (有些刚发起的行动得到推进)易误选，这只是例证巨大回报的具体表征。
单选题第9题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.
参考答案：D
答案解析：推断题。最后一段第5句提到医院可以让医生接受“随机对照试验”，识别容易出错的地方，然后帮助他们改进。故选D (医生可以通过使用RCT获益)。A选项中帮助公务员理性面对失败的是RCT，而非BIT。B、C选项在文内均无直接依据，故排除。
单选题第10题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
参考答案：C
答案解析：主旨题。梳理全文可知，作者从人们对错误的态度入手，从反面例证了害怕承认错误和恐惧失败可能造成的后果，提出应该审视错误、吸取教训，最后抛出解决方案，并用RCT的案例证明人们可以认识失败，改进方法，进而获得回报。由此可以判断作者的意图是要鼓励人们从失败中吸取教训，这样才可事半功倍，故选C。选项A、B和D都只是文章中涉及的部分内容，不是主旨。故排除。
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