In March 1987, I started a new magazine called Creating Excellence. It was a very proud moment for me. I’d worked hard for over a year to create it, and the premiere issue (首次发刊) was a real success.
Shortly after we mailed 25,000 copies, I received one in the mail. But this one wasn’t as beautiful as the ones we’d sent out. It was marked in red ink correcting the grammatical errors (语法错误) in it. A talented editor had read the issue carefully and found more errors than I could have imagined.
I felt abashed. A magazine called Creating Excellence should be perfect in its content (内容). The stories were good, but the errors this woman had found showed that we were far from being excellent.
At first, I was upset with my editor for not having caught more mistakes, and also upset with the woman who seemed to have taken pleasure in pointing them out. Later, I was upset with myself for not having employed a better editor.
Then I realized that I had to face up to my mistakes. I called the woman who had shown me that we were not so excellent. I thanked her for taking the time to read our magazine so carefully. As painful as it was, I accepted responsibility for it.
Then I offered her the job of editing our publication. The result was a great improvement in it; we could now be very proud of our magazine.
From this I learnt that an upsetting moment could be an opportunity to see the truth, and accepting responsibility could help to prevent one making the same mistakes for a second time, and to make "excellence" a reality.
小题1:From the first paragraph we learn that _____.
A．the author put little effort into his first magazine
B．the author’s job was selling magazines
C．the author was very satisfied with his work
D．the author experienced a total failure小题2:What does the underlined word "abashed" mean?
A．excited.
B．embarrassed.
C．interested.
D．exhausted.小题3:What do we learn about the woman who had found the errors in the magazine?
A．She was causing trouble on purpose.
B．She liked pointing out the errors of others.
C．She contributed a lot to the success of the premiere issue.
D．She ended up joining the magazine.小题4:What do we learn from this passage?
A．Pride is the biggest enemy of success.
B．Success is behind many failures.
C．Picking holes in something can help you find a job.
D．Accepting responsibility for one’s errors can lead to real excellence.
小题1:C
小题2:B
小题3:D
小题4:D
题目分析：本文叙述了作者办了名叫Creating Excellence的杂志，首次发刊获得了很大成功，可是作者后来却收到了一位女士寄来的一本指出杂志错误的邮件，作者感到很尴尬，于是她决定聘请这位女士来他的杂志社工作，结果使他的杂志办的更好，这件事告诉我们，要虚心接受别人指出的错误，这样才会取得更大的成就。
小题1:细节理解题。根据It was a very proud moment for me. I’d worked hard for over a year to create it, and the premiere issue (首次发刊) was a real success. 首次发刊就非常成功，故选C。
小题2:细节理解题。Excited兴奋的； embarrassed尴尬的； interested感兴趣的； exhausted疲惫的。
根据A magazine called Creating Excellence should be perfect in its content (内容). 杂志应该内容时最好的，却出现了错误，故选B。
小题3:细节理解题。根据Then I offered her the job of editing our publication. The result was a great improvement in it故选D。
小题4:细节理解题。根据accepting responsibility could help to prevent one making the same mistakes for a second time, and to make "excellence" a reality.接受别人指出的错误以免同样的错误，就能做到最好，故选D。
点评：细节理解题可以分为集中型细节理解题和分散型细节理解题。集中型：就文章的单个细节提问，答案在原文中出现的位置一般也位于单句话或几句话中。因为具体细节不同，出题形式千变万化，因题而异。分散型：题目涉及到文章某一段或几段，甚至贯穿全文的各个位置，需要考生寻找文章中的多个细节。请注意，分散型细节理解题并不意味着题目的正确答案出现在文章的不同位置，正确答案往往也是关于文章的某一个句子或细节。只是说文章的干扰选项是关于不同的细节，需要我们在定位的时候阅读某一个区域。
