So there are four of them in this car heading north from Coleman in the heart of Texas to the town of Abilene (阿比林), some 53 miles away. It is a hot day, and the drive is dusty and boring. Someone has had the bright idea to interrupt a nice family game of dominoes (多米諾) to go on a four-hour round-trip to eat at a really not very good restaurant.
When they are back home again, one family member admits that she hasn’t enjoyed herself all that much. One by one they all confess that they would rather have stayed at home. “I only went along with it because I thought the rest of you wanted to go,” says everyone. No one wanted to go to Abilene. It had just happened.
This story was first told by Professor Jerry Harvey in an article published in 1974 called The Abilene Paradox (悖論) and other meditations on management. It offers a wonderful insight into the way that decisions can sometimes just emerge, without ever being consciously “made”.
Whether they mean to or not, groups exert a pressure to conform (順從). A senior management team can find itself a long way down the track to a bad decision without realizing that the idea has very little support around the table.
Close-knit (組織嚴(yán)密的) teams are easily influenced by the pull of groupthink. The late Professor Janis suggested several ways in which teams can avoid it. Two key steps are to invite experts from outside into meetings, and to appoint at least one person to the role of “devil’s advocate” — a role that should be played by different people in different meetings.
【小題1】The four family members have decided to go on a four-hour round-trip to the town of Abilene because _______.

Passage two (Vicious and Dangerous Sports Should be Banned by Law)
When you think of the tremendous technological progress we have made, it’s amazing how little we have developed in other respects. We may speak contemptuously of the poor old Romans because they relished the orgies of slaughter that went on in their arenas. We may despise them because they mistook these goings on for entertainment. We may forgive them condescendingly because they lived 2000 years ago and obviously knew no better. But are our feelings of superiority really justified? Are we any less blood-thirsty? Why do boxing matches, for instance, attract such universal interest? Don’t the spectators who attend them hope they will see some violence? Human beings remains as bloodthirsty as ever they were. The only difference between ourselves and the Romans is that while they were honest enough to admit that they enjoyed watching hungey lions tearing people apart and eating them alive, we find all sorts of sophisticated arguments to defend sports which should have been banned long age; sports which are quite as barbarous as, say, public hangings or bearbaiting.
It really is incredible that in this day and age we should still allow hunting or bull-fighting, that we should be prepared to sit back and watch two men batter each other to pulp in a boxing ring, that we should be relatively unmoved by the sight of one or a number of racing cars crashing and bursting into flames. Let us not deceive ourselves. Any talk of ‘the sporting spirit’ is sheer hypocrisy. People take part in violent sports because of the high rewards they bring. Spectators are willing to pay vast sums of money to see violence. A world heavyweight championship match, for instance, is front page news. Millions of people are disappointed if a big fight is over in two rounds instead of fifteen. They feel disappointment because they have been deprived of the exquisite pleasure of witnessing prolonged torture and violence.
Why should we ban violent sports if people enjoy them so much? You may well ask. The answer is simple: they are uncivilized. For centuries man has been trying to improve himself spiritually and emotionally – admittedly with little success. But at least we no longer tolerate the sight madmen cooped up in cages, or public floggings of any of the countless other barbaric practices which were common in the past. Prisons are no longer the grim forbidding places they used to be. Social welfare systems are in operation in many parts of the world. Big efforts are being made to distribute wealth fairly. These changes have come about not because human beings have suddenly and unaccountably improved, but because positive steps were taken to change the law. The law is the biggest instrument of social change that we have and it may exert great civilizing influence. If we banned dangerous and violent sports, we would be moving one step further to improving mankind. We would recognize that violence is degrading and unworthy of human beings.
1.It can be inferred from the passage that the author’s opinion of nowadays’ human beings is
A.  not very high.    B.  high.      C.  contemptuous.     D.  critical.
2.The main idea of this passage is
A.  vicious and dangerous sports should be banned by law.
B.  people are willing to pay vast sums money to see violence.
C.  to compare two different attitudes towards dangerous sports.
D.  people are bloodthirsty in sports.
3.That the author mentions the old Romans is
A.  To compare the old Romans with today’s people.
B.  to give an example.
C.  to show human beings in the past know nothing better.
D.  to indicate human beings are used to bloodthirsty.
4.How many dangerous sports does the author mention in this passage?
A.  Three.       B.  Five.         C.  Six.       D.  Seven.
5.The purpose of the author in writing this passage is
A.  that, by banning the violent sports, we human beings can improve our selves.
B.  that, by banning the dangerous sports, we can improve the law.
C.  that we must take positive steps to improve social welfare system.
D.  to show law is the main instrument of social change.

High-quality customer service is preached(宣揚(yáng)) by many ,but actually keeping customers happy is easier said than done. Shoppers seldom complain to the manager or owner of a store, but instead will alert their friends, relatives, co-workers, strangers-and anyone who will listen. Store managers are often the last to hear complaints, and often find out only when their regular customers decide frequent their competitors, according to a study jointly conducted by Verde group and Wharton school.
“Storytelling hurts the boss and entertains consumers,” said Paula Courtney, President of the Verde group.” the store loses the customer, but the shopper must also find a replacement.” On average, every unhappy customer will complain to at least four other, and will no longer visit the specific store for every dissatisfied customer, a store will lose up to three more due to negative reviews. The resulting “snowball effect” can be bad to bosses.
According to the research, shoppers who bought clothing met the most problems. ranked second and third were grocery and electronics customers. The most common complaints include filled parking lots, cluttered (塞滿了的) shelves, overloaded racks, out-of-stock items, long check-out lines, and rude salespeople. During peak shopping hours, some retailers solved the parking problems by getting moonlighting local police to work as parking attendants. Some hired flag wavers to direct customers to empty parking spaces. This guidance eliminated the need for customers to circle the parking lot endlessly, and avoided fight between those eyeing the same parking space.
Bosses can relieve the headaches by redesigning store layouts, pre-stocking sales items, hiring speedy and experienced cashiers, and having sales representatives on hand to answer questions.
Most importantly, salespeople should be diplomatic and polite with angry customers. “Retailers who’re responsive and friendly are more likely to smooth over issues than those who aren’t so friendly.” said Professor Stephen Hoch. “Maybe something as simple as a greeter at the store entrance would help.” Customers can also improve future shopping experiences by filling complaints to the boss, instead of complaining to the rest of the world. Bosses are hard-pressed to improve when they have no idea what is wrong.
1. Why are store managers often the last to hear complaints?
A. Most customers won’t bother to complain even if they have had unhappy experiences.
B. Customers would rather relate their unhappy experiences to people around them.
C. Few customers believe the service will be improved.
D. Customers have no easy access to store managers.
2. What does Paula Courtney imply by saying “ … the shopper must also find a replacement” (Line 2, Para. 4)?
A. New customers are sure to replace old ones.
B. It is not likely the shopper can find the same products in other stores.
C. Most stores provide the same
D. Not complaining to the manager causes the shopper some trouble too.
3. Shop owners often hire moonlighting police as parking attendants so that shoppers_____
A. can stay longer walking in the store  B. won’t have trouble parking their cars
C. won’t have any worries about safety  D. can find their cars easily after shopping
4. What contributes most to smoothing over issues with customers?
A .Manners of the salespeople   B. Hiring of efficient employees
C. Huge supply of goods for sale   D. Design of the store layout.
5. To achieve better shopping experiences, customers are advised to _________.
A exert pressure on stores to improve their service
B. settle their problem with stores in a diplomatic（外交）way
C. voice their dissatisfaction to store managers directly
D. shop around and make comparisons between stores

Over the past decades, China _______ significantly under the correct leadership of the CPC, he said. The CPC's 18th National Congress will exert great influences on China's future and Africa highly expects of China's further growth.

A. changed           B. is changing       C. had changed       D. has changed

The earth is not the only body that travels around the sun. With it are eight other planets, fellow members of the sun’s family.

Two of them, Mercury (水星) and Venus, are nearer while the other six, namely Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, also in their given order from the sun, are farther from the sun than the earth is. The farther they are, the longer trips they make around the sun. People noticed long ago that these traveling bodies moved around in the sky in definite paths. It is a force called gravity that holds them in their paths.

We know that every little bit of matter in the universe pulls upon every other bit of matter. The pull between two bodies is proportional (成比例的) to the product of their masses. Because the sun is so large the pull between the sun and the planets are thus great. If it were not for this pull, the planets would fly off into space. In the same way there exists a pull between the earth and the moon, which keeps the moon traveling in its orbit around our planet, the earth. Gravity holds you to its surface, and pulls back to it the ball which you throw into the air. Of course the ball also pulls on the larger earth but the earth is so much larger that the pull is not noticed.

Now remember that large bodies exert a greater pull than smaller ones which contain less material. But each object in the universe, no matter how small, pulls on all other objects to some degree.

1.There are ________ that travel around the sun in the sun’s family.

A．nine planets                           B．eight planets

C．one star and ten planets                  D．the earth and the sun

2.Which two planets make the longest trips around the sun among all the planets in the solar system?

A．Mercury and Venus.                     B．Neptune and Pluto.

C．Saturn and Uranus.                      D．Mars and Jupiter.

3.From the passage we can see__________

A．a(chǎn)ll the objects, big or small, must exert the same pull on one another

B．large objects exert the same pull on anybody as small objects

C．small objects exert the same on large ones

D．each object in the universe exerts a pull on all other objects

4.From the sentence “The pull between two bodies is proportional to the product of their masses.” We can infer that the pull between__________

A．the sun and the moon is greater than between the sun and the earth

B．the earth and the moon is greater than that between the sun and the earth

C．the sun and the earth is greater than that between the earth and the moon

D．the sun and the earth is the same as that between the earth and the moon