1 . Those with closed minds refused to consider any contradictory facts, and they proceed with their planned course of action, full speed ahead, with their “minds made up” and tightly shut. As an illustration, consider the situation in 1986, prior to the space shuttle Challenger’s disatrous launch that killed all seven astronauts aboard, there was a heated telephone debate between two engineers from the company that produced the shuttle booster rockets and the top officials of NASA (the federal government’s space agency). The engineers insisted that the flight was too risky because of freezing temperature at the Florida launch site. They explained that some of the seals on the fuel tanks were not designed to withstand such low temperatures and might leak under pressure, thus endangering the craft and crew.
Despite the pleas to stop the flight, officials at NASA overruled the engineers, who were best qualified to make judgments about the complex technical problems of space flight. What caused the officials to ignore the engineers? Several flights had already been postponed, and it would not look good to postpone another. It would be bad public relations to disappoint the crowds of people and news reporters waiting for the launch. Top government officials were ready to appear on the national television and take the credit for another safe flight. As a result, with their minds absolutely closed to the facts presented by the engineers, NASA officials ordered the Challenger to take off. Seventy-three seconds later, the spacecraft was enveloped in flame.
Incredibly, seventeen years later, the lesson of the Challenger disaster was repeated. In 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke apart while re-entering the earth’s atmosphere, killing another crew of seven. During the shuttle’s liftoff, a piece of foam insulation(泡沫隔热材料) had broken off, hitting the shuttle's wing at five hundred miles per hour. Lower-level engineers at NASA begged for photographs of the Columbia in orbit, which might have shown the extent of the damage, but their closed-minded superiors ignored their requests. It was the damage caused by the 1.7 pound chunk of insulation that doomed the Columbia.
There is no virtue in ignoring contradictory facts and “sticking to your guns” when the course taken shows all the signs of being the wrong one. Closed minds are especially noticeable in political campaigns and debates. Many people line up to support one candidate or another and won’t listen to any facts presented by the opposing candidate.
All those with an open mind say is this: “I don’t know everything, so I’d better keep my mind, eyes, and ears open to any new facts that may come along.” The world would be a much better and safer place if everyone had this attitude.
1. Which of the following brought about the disastrous launch of the Challenger?
| A．Its crew | B．The engineers |
| C．The fuel tanks’ seals | D．The size of its rocket |
2. When the engineers appealed to stop the launch of the Challenger, the government officials ___________.
| A．postponed the flight at once. |
| B．made judgments about the complex technical problems. |
| C．announced the news on national television. |
| D．ordered to launch the Challenger as scheduled. |
3. What could be inferred from Paragraph 3?
| A．The Columbia disaster was impossible to foresee. |
| B．Engineers were to blame for the Columbia’s explosion. |
| C．The Columbia disaster could have been avoided. |
| D．The Columbia was deliberately damaged. |
4. What does the underlined phrase “sticking to your guns” in Paragraph 4 mean?
| A．Holding firm to your own opinion. |
| B．Remaining and firing your gun at enemies. |
| C．Strengthening your status. |
| D．Keeping an open mind. |
5. What is the main purpose of the passage?
| A．To inform readers about what an open mind is. |
| B．To entertain readers with two stories of tragedies in space. |
| C．To persuade readers to keep an open mind. |
| D．To criticize what NASA officials had done in aerospace history. |
6. How does the author support the argument of the passage?
| A．By stating arguments. | B．By giving examples. |
| C．By explaining statistical data. | D．By providing research result. |
