Passage Two
“3M” comes from “Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing,” but those three M's might better stand for Mistake=Magic=Money. Throughout its 101-ycar history, many of 3M's breakthrough products have followed a similar arc: A3M customer identifies a problem, and a 3M engineer expresses confidence in being able to solve it. He bangs his head against the wall for years, facing repeated setbacks, until management finally tells him to stop wasting time and money. Undeterred, the engineer stumbles onto a solution and tunas a dead end into a ringing success.
Although William McKnight, the man responsible for 3M's entrepreneurial culture, was not, in fact, a company founder, he does deserve the credit for what made 3M successful during his 59 years at the company and beyond. Says Noa Staryk, chair of the McKnight Foundation, which McKnight founded in 1953: “There are two values that resonate from my great-grandfather: innovation and risk taking.”
His tenure started一naturally一with a mistake. Just as the company showed a profit, with sales at about $22,000 a month, angry clients suddenly began returning 3M sandpaper. It turned out that several casks of olive oil had spilled onto a shipment of 3M abrasives in transit, and the oil-tainted “sand” failed to retain its adhesion to the backing paper. And no one had noticed the problem. After that debacle McKnight established a research lab to test materials at every stage of production.
McKnight's move to center the business on research ended up having the dual effect of not only testing ideas but also generating them. He set the tone with his philosophy of “Listen to anybody with an idea.” When he received a letter in 1920 from an ink manufacturer requesting bulk mineral samples (not one of 3M's businesses), McKnight wanted to know what the correspondent would do with the minerals. A Philadelphia inventor named Francis Okie had sent the note, and he wanted to develop his invention of waterproof sandpaper. McKnight realized that Okie's idea would rapidly be accepted because it produced less friction than dry sandpaper and didn't generate hazardous dust when used wet. He bought the rights to the idea and hired Okie, and by 1921, 3M had released Wetordry sandpaper, its first breakthrough product. As Richard Carlton, 3M's director of manufacturing and author of its first testing manual, wrote, “Every idea should have a chance to prove its worth, and this is true for two reasons: (1) If it is good, we want it; (2) If it is not good, we will have purchased peace of mind when we have proved it impractical.”
What can many of 3M's breakthroughs be best contributed to?
文章第一段第二句提出 “Throughout its 101-year history， many of 3M's breakthrough products have followed a similar arc: A3M customer identifies a problem.” 3M 在其 101年的历史中，许多突破性产品都遵循了类似的 轨迹：3M 的客户发现了一个问题。由此可知，3M的突破最应该归因于“错误”。故选A。
Which of the following words means “debacle” as used in paragraph 3?
文章倒数第二段最后一句提出 “ After that debacle Me Knight established a research lab to test materials at every stage of production.” 在那次彻底失败之后，麦克奈特建立了一个研究实验室，在生产的每个阶段对材料进 行测试。前文是“And no one had noticed the problem. ”没有人注意到这个问题。由此可知，划线单词表示 “事变”。Incident事件；事变。Trial试验；审讯。故选C。
The author uses the example of the Wetordry sandpaper to show that________.
文章最后一段最后一句提出“ Every idea should have a chance to prove its worth”每个创意都应该有机会证明其价值，由此可知，作者举这个例子是为了证明所有新的创意都应该得到公平重视。故选C。
What do Richard Carlton's words in the last paragraph imply?
文章最后一段最后一句提出“Every idea should have a chance to prove its worth”每个创意都应该有机会证明其价值，由此可知最后一段其实是在暗示任何新的想法都对企业都很重要。故选D。
It can be inferred from the text that________.
文章第一段第一句话提出 “ ‘3M’ comes from “Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing，”but those three M's might better stand for Mistake=Magic=Money. ” 3M 来自于“明尼苏达矿业和制造业”，但这三个M 最好代表错误 = 魔力= 金钱。其后作者举了多例证明偶然性事故和新的想法对公司都很重要。由此可知，突破性产品 可能源于问题。故选A。