We all fail，all the time. We might miss a call with a client because of an emergency work meeting，or miss that meeting because another project has suddenly become urgent. And then we (or our families) get sick，and we have to shift priorities around again.

   These unsystematic failures are benign，though. They reflect that all of us have limited resources. There simply is not enough time，energy，or money，to do everything you want to do all the time. Part of being a responsible adult is learning to make tradeoffs：balancing your conflicting goals and trying to get as much done as you can in the time you have.

   The thing you really need to watch out for is the systematic failure. The systematic failure happens when there's a particular goal you want to achieve，but never get to. The causes of systematic failures usually boil down to some combination of these three factors：

   Short－term pressures versus long－term goals. Most of us prefer to achieve pressing short－term goals rather than put time into long－term projects. Lots of research suggests that our brains are wired to prefer tasks that pay off in the short term rather than those whose benefit is long－term. The people who do manage to accomplish their long－term goals create regular space to make progress on them.

   ________ Without even realizing it，we often do what is easiest to accomplish rather than what we say is most important. Email is a great example. If you are like most people，you keep your email program open at work all day. Consequently，each new message is an invitation to drop what you are working on to check it. It feels like work and it's much easier than finishing that 100－slide presentation. Simply shutting off email for a few hours a day can remove this source of distraction(分心的事物) from the environment.

   Working for too long. Many workplaces create pressure to stay at the office for more and note hours，which (paradoxically) creates opportunities for systematic failures. Work is not an ton man competition where the last person there wins. Most people have an optimal(最佳的) umber of hours they can work each day. For example，I can be productive at work for about 8－9 hours a day. If I spend any more time at work than that，then at some point，I start doing "fake work."

   The next time you run into trouble，assess whether it's an unsystematic failure or a systematic one. When you notice a systematic failure in your life，you need to make a change in your behavior. If you don't make a change，you will continue to fail.

   Finally，if you experience a lot of unsystematic failures，it might be worth rethinking the number of tasks you are taking on. Perhaps you need to offload some responsibilities onto someone else，before you start experiencing more systematic failures.

(1) The underlined word "benign" in Paragraph 2 means " ________".
A. not dangerous B. not useful C. relevant D. troublesome
(2) Who was most probably affected by the first factor？
A. Andy who put his keep－fit plan aside due to a lack of free time. B. Sarah who worked overtime to finish her work ahead of time. C. Philip who missed an important appointment for his illness. D. Emily who kept her social networking platform on ally day.
(3) Which of the following could fill in the blank as a subtitle？
A. The truth about important goals. B. Environments that are bad for our goals. C. The easiest goals that often bring us little. D. Ways to remove the source of distraction.
(4) What is mainly talked about in the last two paragraphs？
A. How to tell systematic failures and unsystematic failures apart. B. When you should worry about unsystematic failures. C. What to do to save yourself from systematic failures. D. Why assessing failures that you have experienced is important.