阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。

    If the crust (外壳) of the earth were not pretty solid (坚固的), it would be shaking about and moving up and down frequently. However, there are places in the rocks of the earth's crust where it isn't strongly held together—where faults exist. Along the faults, one rock might push against another with great force. The energy is changed to vibration in the rocks, so they begin to shake and we have an earthquake!

    The most famous one in North America was the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Seven hundred people died and property (财产) damage amounted to about $425,000,000.The greatest destruction came from the fires that followed the quake.

    One of the most famous earthquakes in Europe took place in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1755. The city was destroyed and at least thirty thousand people were killed. In 1908, in Calabria and Sicily, a quake killed about seventy­five thousand people. In 1915, in central Italy, hundreds of towns and villages were damaged and thirty thousand people were killed.

    Two great earthquakes that caused great damage in Asia took place in Tokyo, Japan, and in Gansu Province in China. The Tokyo quake of 1923 killed more than one hundred thousand people and destroyed the city and the city of Yokohama, too. The Chinese quake in 1920 covered more than three hundred square miles and killed about two hundred thousand people.

    My children are perfect. All four of them. Perfect and beautiful and clever. I bet yours are, too. Except, of course, they are not. In reality, my children and yours are likely to be reasonably average in terms of looks, behavior, intelligence and charm. That's why it is called average. Your belief in your child being special is more probably a biological thing than a fact.

    A loved one, particularly a loved child, is edited as we observe them. Other people's children are spoiled; ours are spirited. Theirs are naughty; ours are confident.

    This is all natural and even touching when not taken too far. However, it is one thing feeding this idea to ourselves but feeding it to our children may be a little less desirable. We have the idea that — unlike my parents' generation — we should build our children's self-respect as high as we can. Therefore, their random scribble (胡写乱画) is up there with Picasso, their C-minus is an unfortunate oversight on the part of the teacher, and the fact that no one wants to be friends with them is because they are particularly clever or sensitive.

    Children see through this kind of thing very quickly and ignore their parents' praises as a matter of course. As they grow up, they sense that the wider world judges them differently. This leads to a – hopefully gentle – cynicism (猜忌) about anything their parents tell them about their achievements. Perhaps that is OK — but I'm not sure if it is good for them to have the parental praise so overlooked.

    If parents were a little harsher sometimes, this could have two positive effects — first, when praise came, it would be more likely to be believed and, second, it would fit in rather more accurately with the picture of reality that the child is forming in their heads.

    A lot of pressure is put on children who are told they are beautiful, special and perfect. Because then, where is there to go? Only downwards. They become too much aware of their status in your eyes, and a danger must be that they fear failing you. To be over-praised by your parents is the counter side of being criticized all the time. Both can have negative consequences.

    It is important to give your children the freedom to be flawed (缺点) — to know that it's OK to be imperfect, and that, in fact, we often love people for their flaws — perfect people (whom we can only imagine, as they do not exist) are easy to respect, but hard to love.

    Now I am nearly 60, my main insight is that I am much less special than I once believed. This knowledge has actually been helpful in leading a more well-balanced life.

    I certainly wouldn't like to go back to attitudes that my parents, particularly my father, held, that to praise the child was to "spoil them" or make them bigheaded. However, the history of families is like the history of everything else — the story of overreactions. We praise our children to the skies, partly because we think it makes them feel good, but also because it makes us feel good. And perhaps it is more the latter than the former.

    Too much love can be as big a burden as a shortage of it. My advice is to limit your praise. Then every piece of praise will count, rather than being just ignored.

    No one likes to make mistakes. But a new study says organizations learn more from their failures than from their successes, and keep that knowledge longer.

    One of the researchers was Vinit Desai, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Denver Business School. He worked with Peter Madsen from the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University in Utah.

    They did not find much long-term "organizational learning" from success. It is possible, they say. But Professor Desai says they found that knowledge gained from failure lasts for years. He says organizations should treat failures as a learning opportunity and not try to ignore them.

    The study looked at companies and organizations that launch satellites and other space vehicles. Professor Desai compared two shuttle flights. In two thousand two, a piece of insulating (隔热的) material broke off during launch and damaged a rocket on the Atlantis. Still the flight was considered a success. Then in early two thousand three, a piece of insulation struck the Columbia during launch. This time, the shuttle broke apart on re-entry and the seven crew members died. NASA officials suspended all flights and an investigation led to suggested changes.

    Professor Desai says the search for solutions after a failure can make leaders more open-minded. He points to air-lines as an example of an industry that has learned from failures in the past. He advises organizations to look for useful information in small failures and failures they avoided. He also urges leaders to encourage the open sharing of information. The study appeared in the Academy of management Journal.

    The mistakes we learn from do not have to be our own. We recently asked people on our Facebook page to tell us a time they had done something really silly. Fabricio Cmino wrote: Not long ago I wanted to watch TV, but it wouldn't turn on, so I did everything I could to start it. Thirty minutes later my mum showed up and, passing by, said to me "Did you try plugging it?" "I'm just dusting, Mum!" So she wouldn't notice how dumb I am sometimes!

    Bruno Kanieski da Silva told about a time he looked everywhere for his key. It was in his pocket. He wrote: I always promise I will never do it again, but after a few weeks, where is my wallet? For sure it will be in a very logical place.

    This story happened when I was in Saint Lucia with my family. My sister, Diana, who also happens to be my best friend and one of the funniest and kindest people I know, went blind in one eye about 9 years ago. Diana sometimes feels concerned about the way her eye looks now. The pupil(瞳孔) is no longer black; it's sort of "glows" in photos. Diana recently purchased a special contact lens (隐形镜片) that makes her eye look like it did before it changed color, but she doesn't wear this lens often because it becomes quite painful after about an hour.

    One night during our holiday, a hotel photographer was taking pictures of the guests as they entered the area set up for dinner. Diana casually said if she had known there was going to be pictures taken to capture this special memory, she would have worn her contact lens so her eye wouldn't be so shiny in the picture.

    The next day, I was sitting with Diana and her husband Ted. While we were talking, the photographer who had been at the dinner the night before, handed her a photo, leaned in and quietly said, "I matched the color of your eyes in the picture."

    As he walked away, my sister happily said to me and Ted, "Look! He fixed my eye!" The photographer stopped. He turned around and walked back to our table. He put his hand on Diana's shoulder, leaned in again and gently said, "Just to be clear: I didn't fix your eye. There isn't anything wrong with your eye. I simply matched the color. "

    Her eyes filled up with tears. It was very healing for her heart to hear these beautiful words. It didn't take much time and made so much difference. It helped her change the way she feels about herself.

    I have always loved the quote: "The world is full of good people. If you can't find one, be one!" Your acts of kindness can impact the world in profound ways!

    Britain's first zero-carbon homes are being built—and they look like something from a science-fiction movie.

    There are 25 eco-friendly homes currently being built in Southmoor, near Abingdon, Oxon. Buyers are able to have the final say on floor layouts，kitchens and bathrooms. One three-bedroom home is on the market for￡801 ,000,with a custom build available to suit your own specification. These eco-friendly houses are powered entirely by electricity from solar panels around the houses. They also have advanced ventilation (通风) systems, making sure that temperatures inside the building don't go beyond 25℃ for more than 10% of hours annually, as well as mini heat pumps to generate (产生) the heating and hot water on-site. Part of the cooling design includes avoiding east-or west-facing windows, and window shading.

    And they're in high demand. Ian Pritchett, of Ssassy Property, thinks the Government should do more to promote the construction of this type of housing. "Unfortunately, the Government relaxed the proposed 2016 zero-carbon targets after being lobbied(游说)by house builders," Ian explained. "At present, the main house-building corporations control the land and only build at the rate they are sure will sell, keeping the UK's housing shortage so that the normal rules of 'supply and demand' don't apply. When there is a shortage of housing, buyers have to purchase what is available rather than what they might want."

    In any sensible society, we would expect the planning system to actively encourage zero-carbon houses, and he tough on anyone failing to deliver the necessary standard. Instead, we have a planning system that focuses on other aspects such as numbers of bedrooms, garden sizes, and parking places. These are important aspects, but they pale into insignificance compared to the catastrophic consequences of climate change.

If you're a teen artist, this is the perfect challenge for you. We've seen just how talented you can be; but this month, we're putting your skills to the test. This contest requires your art to be made out of a wide variety of colors. You should use different colors even for your outlines and shading. Think you're up for the challenge? 

Deadline:June 1

Rules:

You must be a teen (aged 13-19) to enter. 

No inappropriate content. 

Submissions must relate to the topic (only colors, no black-and-white drawings). 

Guidelines and Details:

Your entry must be a character created by yourself. 

There is no limit to the number of characters you can submit. 

How to Submit:

Submit entries through our website. All entries submitted to Teen Ink are automatically considered for the contest. There is no cost to submit or be published. See our submission guidelines for more information. 

Submit your work to the appropriate art category on Teen Ink. Include "only colors" as one of your submission's tags. You can do this by using the "additional tags" field in your submission form. 

Prizes:

Winners and honorable mentions will have their works published in Teen Ink magazine. 

The overall winner will receive a $25 gift card.