Decision-Thinking: Multiple Choice Grammar Test
Decision-thinking is not unlike poker - it often (1) _______ not only what you think, but also what others think you think and what you think they think you think. Interestingly poker, that most subjective of games, (2) _______ of considerable interest to people who are, by (3) _______ standards, good thinkers.
The great mathematician John von Neumann was, among his (4) _______ accomplishments, one of the originators of games theory. In particular, he showed that all games fall into one of two classes: there are (5) _______ he called 'games of perfect information', games like chess which (6) _______ to involve no element of concealment, bluff or luck - games where the players can, in principle, (7) _______ the best move by the application of pure logic to the available (8) _______ . Then there are 'games of imperfect information', like poker, in which it is impossible to know, in advance, that one course of action is better than (9) _______ .
One of the most dangerous (10) _______ about business (or, indeed, any activity involving human beings and human institutions) is that it can (11) _______ as a game of perfect information. Quite the reverse. Business, politics, life itself are games which we must normally play with very imperfect information. Many a business (12) _______ involves odds that would make a professional poker player (13) _______ , for the number and extent of the unknown and unknowable factors are (14) _______ often incalculable. But, as I have wished to point out, (15) _______ organizations find it comfortable or congenial to admit that they are gambling, and many still prefer to delude themselves that they are playing a sober, responsible game of chess and (16) _______, as is often the case, in a fling at the poker table.
The Professional Decision-Thinker by Ben Heirs with Peter Farrell (BrE)
A | B | C | D | |
1 | matters | matter | mattered | is mattering |
2 | being | has often been | have often been | had often been |
3 | other | either | any | some |
4 | more | many more | many another | many other |
5 | why | which | that | what |
6 | are meant | are meaning | meant | meaning |
7 | be discovering | discover | to discover | be discovered |
8 | datas | datum | data | datums |
9 | the other | others | another | other |
10 | illusion | illusions | Illusion’s | Illusions’ |
11 | be treating | treating | treat | be treated |
12 | decide | deciding | decision | decisions |
13 | shudder | to shudder | shuddering | would shudder |
14 | themselves | themself | themselves’ | themselve’s |
15 | few | a few | little | a little |
16 | engaging | are not engaged | engaged | is not engaged |
1.a; 2.b; 3.c; 4.d; 5.d; 6.a; 7.b; 8.c; 9.c; 10.b; 11.d; 12.c; 13.a; 14.a; 15.a; 16.b