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  3. If you have ever bought something because it had the most positive reviews, or joined in with a standing ovation simply because

If you have ever bought something because it had the most positive reviews, or joined in with a standing ovation simply because

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问题     If you have ever bought something because it had the most positive reviews, or joined in with a standing ovation simply because you didn’t want to be the only one left sitting, then you are at least as smart as a honeybee and as steadfast as a bird in a flock.
    Peter Miller argues that there is a lot we can learn from group behaviour in other animals. In The Smart Swarm he has extracted a few vital rules from research on the decision-making skills of birds, insects and fish, that can improve the way we approach even the most complex of our problems. How is it that honeybees can employ debate and democracy to decide where to relocate, when across the world boardroom meetings adjourn, week after week, without agreement? Do animals know something that we have either forgotten along the way or have yet to learn?
    Miller’s book advocates a new kind of problem-solving: one that offers a kind of collective resilience and flexibility that we simply cannot achieve as individuals. Collective solutions have already been adapted to solve some tricky human problems. The way termites maintain a constant temperature inside their mounds has inspired climate control features in skyscrapers, and the navigation techniques of ants have been used to optimise the routes of delivery trucks. Miller also describes how one CEO got more accurate sales forecasts using the average of the best guesses of a large number of entry-level employees than from his small team of finance experts.
    The Smart Swarm blends zoology, entertaining anecdotes and conceptual discussion in an approachable and insightful way. While not all the examples are equally interesting, and some belabour the point, one cannot help but be inspired by the ideas. What would life be like if we sought to excel as a group rather than as individuals?
    The book is more than a philosophical exercise. Humans have the swarm sensibility built-in; we simply haven’t fully applied it. That may be because we haven’t had the opportunity, until now. The collaborative possibilities opened up by the internet are bringing smart swarming to the fore. As an example, Miller cites Intellipedia—a Wikipedia-style collaborative site developed by US intelligence services, with information available at various levels of security clearance. Wiki sites have been around for a while, but now that contributors can be drawn from all parts of the globe and their numbers are climbing rapidly, we may finally be able to exploit what the birds and the bees have been up to all along.
    Of course, Miller cautions, swarm behaviour in humans can have a downside, especially when it manifests as groupthink or peer pressure.
According to Paragraph 3, which of the following is correct?
选项 A、The collective wisdom of ordinary people is better than experts.
B、Collectivism rather than individualism makes problem solving easier.
C、Group decisions are often a balance among the preferences of participants.
D、An entry-level employee can offer a solution better than an expert.
答案A
解析 第三段末句本文作者借用书作作者例子“入门级财务人员的推测比专家推测更准确”指出：群体智慧高于精英智慧，[A]选项符合文意。
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