托福阅读练习：自由交流如何犯错.docxVIP

Word文档下载后（可任意编辑） 第 第 PAGE 1 页 共 NUMPAGES 1 页 托福阅读练习：自由交流如何犯错 托福阅读素材：托福阅读练习：自由交流如何犯错 托福备考精品课程辅导  Free exchange  How to be wrong  To err is human. Society is suffering from an inability to acknowledge as much  自由交流  如何犯错  人孰无过，但我们的社会却因为不能认识到这一点而受损  A NEWSPAPER cannot publish for 174 years without some mistakes. This one has made its share. We thought Britain was safe in the European exchange-rate mechanism just weeks before it crashed out; we opined, in 1997, that Indonesia was well placed to avoid financial crisis; we noted in 1999 that oil, at $10 per barrel, might well reach $5, almost perfectly timing the bottom of the market; and in 2003 we supported the invasion of Iraq. For individuals, like publications, errors are painful—particularly now, when the digital evidence of failure is both accessible and indelible. But they are also inevitable. The trick, then, is to err well: to recognise mistakes and learn from them. Worryingly, humanity may be getting worse at owning up to its goofs.  没有哪份报纸能发行174年而从不出错，《经济学人》也不例外。我们曾认为英国在欧洲汇率机制中是安全的，结果没过几周它就遭遇惨败，黯然退出该机制;1997年我们认为印度尼西亚有足够能力避免金融危机;1999年石油每桶10美元时，我们写到油价很可能会跌到每桶5美元，但在几乎同一时间，油价触底;2003年我们还曾支持入侵伊拉克。和出版物一样，个人犯错也很痛苦，特别是现在，错误都会留下数字证据，既无从掩藏又无法抹除。但错误也是不可避免的，所以关键在于要“会”犯错：认识到错误并从中吸取经验。令人担忧的是，人类可能会越来越不会承认错误。  Few enjoy the feeling of being caught out in an error. But real trouble starts when the desire to avoid a reckoning leads to a refusal to grapple with contrary evidence. economists often assume that people are rational. Faced with a new fact, rational actors should update their view of the world in order to take better decisions in future. Yet years of economic research illuminate the ways in which human cognition veers from rationality. Studies confirm what is obvious from experience: people frequently disregard information that conflicts with their view of the world.  很少有人喜欢犯错被抓现行的感觉。但是，如果一心想要避免惩罚，以致于拒绝去面对相反的事实，真正的麻烦就来了。经济学家通常都假定人是理性的，面对新的事实，理性的人应该更新自己的世界观，好在今后做出更好的