To err is human. To blame（責備） the other guy is even more human.
Common sense is not all that common.
Why tell the truth when you can come up with a good excuse?
These three popular misquotes（戲謔的引語）are meant to be jokes, and yet they tell us a lot about human nature. To err, or to make mistakes, is indeed a part of being human, but it seems that most people don’t want to accept the responsibility for the problem. Perhaps it is the natural thing to do. The original quote about human nature went like this: “To err is human, to forgive, divine（神圣的）.” This saying mirrors an ideal: People should be forgiving of others’ mistakes. Instead, we tend to do the opposite – find someone else to pass the blame on to. However, taking responsibility for something that went wrong is a mark of great maturity（成熟）.
Common sense is what we call clear thought. Having common sense means having a good general plan that will make things work well, and it also means staying with the plan. Common sense tells you that you take an umbrella out into a rainstorm, but you leave the umbrella home when you hear a weather forecast for sunshine. Common sense does not seem to be common for large companies, because there are so many things going on that one person cannot be in charge of everything. People say that in a large company, “the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.”
And what is wrong with a society that thinks that making up a good excuse is like creating a work of art? One of the common problems with making excuses is that people, especially young people, get the idea that it’s okay not to be totally honest all the time. There is a corollary（直接推論）to that: if a good excuse is “good” even if it isn’t honest, then where is the place of the truth?
【小題1】Which of the following is NOT based on common sense?

To err is human. To blame（責備） the other guy is even more human.

Common sense is not all that common.

Why tell the truth when you can come up with a good excuse?

These three popular misquotes（戲謔的引語）are meant to be jokes, and yet they tell us a lot about human nature. To err, or to make mistakes, is indeed a part of being human, but it seems that most people don’t want to accept the responsibility for the problem. Perhaps it is the natural thing to do. The original quote about human nature went like this: “To err is human, to forgive, divine（神圣的）.” This saying mirrors an ideal: People should be forgiving of others’ mistakes. Instead, we tend to do the opposite – find someone else to pass the blame on to. However, taking responsibility for something that went wrong is a mark of great maturity（成熟）.

Common sense is what we call clear thought. Having common sense means having a good general plan that will make things work well, and it also means staying with the plan. Common sense tells you that you take an umbrella out into a rainstorm, but you leave the umbrella home when you hear a weather forecast for sunshine. Common sense does not seem to be common for large companies, because there are so many things going on that one person cannot be in charge of everything. People say that in a large company, “the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.”

And what is wrong with a society that thinks that making up a good excuse is like creating a work of art? One of the common problems with making excuses is that people, especially young people, get the idea that it’s okay not to be totally honest all the time. There is a corollary（直接推論）to that: if a good excuse is “good” even if it isn’t honest, then where is the place of the truth?

1.Which of the following is NOT based on common sense?

2.What can we infer from the last paragraph according to the writer?

3.What would be the best title for this passage?

Nearly all our food comes from the soil（土地）. Some of us eat meat, of course, but animals live on plants. If there were no plants, we would have no animals and no meat. So the soil is very necessary for life. The top of the ground is usually covered with grass or other plants. There may be dead leaves and dead plants on the grass. The waste matter（糞）from animals also falls on it.

All soil needs food. If we do not give it any, the plants will be weak. Farmers found that animals’ waste is the best food for the soil, but chemical fertilizers（化肥）are also very useful. The same crop（莊稼）should not be grown in the same place every year, it’s better to have a different crop. A change of crop and the use of a good fertilizer will keep the land good.

1.Which of the following is true?

2.What does the writer tell us in the first paragraph?

3.Which is the best food for soil in the field?

4.Why do we often grow a different crop in the same place every year?