A star athlete at the college where I work recently stopped by my office. After committing a few unforced errors during a weekend match, she suffered severely by self-criticism.
This student, like many I teach, strongly believes she should be able to control the outcomes of her life by virtue of her hard work. In her mind, “Nothing can stop me but myself”. So when these students fall short of what they imagine they should accomplish, they are filled with self-blame, reasoning, “If my accomplishments are mine to control, my failures must be entirely my faults, too”, which makes it extremely difficult for them to move on.
We often owe young adults struggling with failure to their parents’ overprotection of them from discomfort. But there is another factor at play: a message transmitted by indulging (纵容的) parents who have falsely promised them that they can achieve anything if they are willing to work for it. However, the cruel reality of life is that you can do everything in your power — and still fail. Then what should be done to help?
Psychologists Luthar and Kumar urge parents and teachers to spend time helping students find purpose, or goals they genuinely love to pursue and that make an impact on the world, which may help them gain greater life satisfaction and become more psychologically mature. Besides, instead of allowing our kids to beat themselves up when things don’t go their way, we might all question a culture where one is considered lazy without full devotion. The point is to remind them that life has a way of sucker-punching (出其不意) us when we least expect it. It’s often the people who learn to say “stuff happens” who get up the fastest.
28. What does the underlined phrase “by virtue of” in paragraph 2 mean?
A. in addition to B. in spite of C. by means of D. for fear of
29. The author believes that young adults find it hard to struggle with failure because __________.
A. they are not taught how to deal with difficulties
B. they are short of the ability to handle failure
C. they are under the protection of their parents
D. they are misled by their parents’ false message
30. What did psychologists Luthar and Kumar urge parents and teachers to do?
A. To teach students how to avoid faults.
B. To lead students to set their truly loved goals.
C. To help students to discover a path to success.
D. To allow kids to blame themselves.
31. What can be inferred from the passage?
A. Students don’t care about failure at all.
B. Students are sure to succeed if they try their best.
C. Students should bear all the failures on their own.
D. Students with positive attitudes can move on more easily.
28. C 29. D 30. B 31. D
