Question

Picture this situation. It is late afternoon and you are    36   . You have an important dinner engagement that evening so you    37    to take an hour nap. Instead of setting your alarm you ask a friend who is visiting to wake you in an hour. He   38    .

Two hours later, your friend wakes you. You ask, “Why didn’t you wake me after one hour?” He    39    that he thought you asked him to wake you in two hours and that is what he said. You then have to run around and get ready    40  , muttering to yourself about how you    41   have set the alarm rather than asking your friend to wake you. Had you done that, you would not have been so    42    to get ready.

Your conclusion is correct. Your    43   of what happened looked at the system you used. Your friend’s   44   to wake you resulted from a miscommunication.   45   he didn’t hear you correctly or you misspoke.

    46   at the situation from the point of view of being personally responsible is always better than blaming yourself or another. So how do you best be “responsible” in this situation? The answer is   47   in systems thinking.

Dr. W. Edward Deming is the American statistician who is credited with   48   the quality practices to Japan.   49   his arrival in that country in 1950, the label “made in Japan” was synonymous with inferior(劣等的) quality. Now the same “made in Japan” label is synonymous(等同) with   50   quality.

So what did Dr. Deming teach the Japanese that made such a  51   to the quality of their products? The answer is quite simple, yet profound.   52   on years of statistical analysis, Deming was able to validate(证明) that 94 % of all failures are not because people don’t want to do a good job. The fact is that   53   people want to do a good job.

What, then, is the   54   if it’s not the people?

It’s the system. The system failed in 94% of the    55   , not the people.

36. A. relaxed           B. puzzled             C. concerned           D. tired

37. A. try               B. decide              C. promise             D. expect

38. A. agrees        B. admits                C. accepts             D. adopts

39. A. wonders         B. doubts              C. replies              D. requests

40. A. carelessly          B. quickly             C. angrily             D. suddenly

41. A. should           B. could               C. might              D. would

42. A. slow            B. rushed               C. uncertain            D. satisfied

43. A. understanding B. presentation        C. description           D. analysis

44. A. forgetfulness B. unwillingness       C. failure              D. fault

45. A. Either        B. Neither               C. Both                 D. Whether

46. A. Glaring         B. Staring             C. Glancing            D. Looking

47. A. left               B. found              C. received            D. completed

48. A. bringing         B. turning             C. fetching             D. leading

49. A. Until           B. After               C. Before              D. Since

50. A. different     B. poor             C. best                D. high

51. A. difference    B. destruction       C. decoration        D. distinction

52. A. Based        B. Relied                 C. Focused             D. Counted

53. A. few             B. fewer              C. more               D. most

54. A. reason       B. cause                  C. effect               D. result

55. A. incidents     B. accidents               C. cases                D. actions

Answer 1

36-40 DBACB      41-45 ABDCA      46-50DBACD  51-55 AADBC