If you have failed in the past to try to make big changes in life, try again now, one tiny step at a time.
Every year it's the same. As December comes to an end, you think about the new year and all the ways you want to improve your life. But as you start to write down your hopes for the new year, you think about the last year. You excitedly write down all the changes you are going to make, but by the end of January those ideas get lost in your busy life.
Here's a suggestion: Forget the too big, hard-to-achieve goals and just think about the small ones. “We often think that we have to do everything in big steps, even though it's so hard for us to reach it.” said Robert Maurer, who recently wrote the book One Small Step Can Change Your Life. “What we try to do is to begin with such a small step that we can’t find any excuse not to do it.”
“Kaizen”, a Japanese word, is used to mean to change behavior and attitudes (态度). During World War II, American factory managers were able to increase productivity by trying small, continuous improvements instead of sudden changes. After the war, the idea was brought to a rebuilding (重建) Japan. It made Japan develop fast. The Japanese called it “kaizen”, which means “improvement”.
Maurer studied the idea and did some experiments with it. “Kaizen” could possibly help people succeed in doing everything.
小题1:At the end of December, people usually ___________ .
A．plan for the last year
B．fail to make big changes
C．try to lose their ideas
D．think about the new year小题2:Robert Maurer wrote a book to tell us ___________ .
A．we should do everything in big steps
B．how to find a small step without any excuse
C．we should try a lot of sudden changes
D．how to change one’s life with one small step小题3: The underlined part “increase productivity” in the passage means “___________ “.
A．增加成本
B．提高待遇
C．提高生产率
D．增加出口量小题4: The writer of the passage suggests we should ___________ .
A．take a tiny step to achieve big goals
B．make changes at the end of the year
C．do few experiments with “kaizen”
D．do things with hard-to-achieve goals小题5: Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A．You can't find any excuse not to reach a big goal.
B．You can achieve your goals if you are not too busy.
C．”Kaizen” was brought to Japan during World WarⅡ.
D．Robert Maurer studied “kaizen” and found it helpful.
