湖北省黄冈市2013届高三4月份模拟考试英语试题及答案(5)

　　A．economy B．geography

　　C．trust in public institutions D．pollution

　　53．From the passage， we know ．

　　A．the Economist Intelligence Unit is a company

　　B．the Economist attempted to measure the best place to live

　　C．the Scandinavian countries are hardly at the top of the list

　　D．half of the top 10 countries are from the eurozone

　　54．The purpose of the text is to show people ．

　　A．the best place to be born in 2013

　　B．a new study made by the EIU

　　C．the worst country to be born in 2013

　　D．the factors of measuring the best place to be born

　　B

　　Last week， my granddaughter started kindergarten， and I wished her every success．But part of me didn’t ．I actually wanted her to fail in some ways becauseI believe that failure can be good for our learning process．Success is proving that you can do something that you already know you can do， or doing something correctly the first time， which can often be a problematic victory．First-time success is usually a fluke（侥幸）．First-time failure， by contrast， is expected to be the natural order of things．Failure is how we learn．

　　In Africa they describe a good cook as “She who has broken many pots．”If you’ve spent enough time in the kitchen to have broken a lot of pots， probably you know a fair amount about cooking．I once had dinner with a group of cooks， and they spent time comparing knife wounds and burn scars．They knew how much credibility their failures gave them．

　　I earn my living by writing a daily newspaper column．Each week I am aware that one column ．I write will be my worst ．I don‘t set out to write it; I try my best every day．I have learned to cherish that column．A successful column usually means that I am discussing my familiar topic， writing in a style I am used to or saying the same things as anyone else but in a fancy way．

　　My younger daughter is a trapeze artist．She spent three years putting together a show， and she did it successfully for years．There was no reason for her to change it but she did anyway．She said she was no longer learning anything new and she was bored．And if she was bored， there was no point in subjecting her body to all that stress．She risked failure and profound public embarrassment in order to feed her soul．

　　My granddaughter is a perfectionis．She will feel her failures， and I will want to comfort her．But I will also， I hope， remind her of what she learned， and how she can do better next time．I hope I can tell her， though， that it’s not the end of the world．Indeed， with luck， it is the beginning．

　　55．Why did the author want his granddaughter to fail？

　　A．Success is boring though beneficial．

　　B．She would learn more from failure．

　　C．It’s impossible to do everything successfully．