Question

【題目】The back-to-school season is upon us, and once again, parents across the country have loaded their kids’ backpacks up with snack packs and school supplies. It’s a good moment to reflect on what else we should be giving our kids as they head off to school.

American parents are feeling particularly anxious about that question this year. The educational process feels more than ever like a race, one that starts in pre-school and doesn’t end until your child is admitted to the perfect college. Most parents are more worried than they need to be about their children’s grades, test scores and IQ. And what we don’t think about enough is how to help our children build their character—how to help them develop skills like perseverance, optimism, responsibility, and self-control, which together do more to determine success than S.A.T. scores or I.Q.

There is growing evidence that our anxiety about our children’s school performance may actually be holding them back from learning some of these valuable skills. If you’re concerned only with a child’s G.P.A., then you will likely choose to minimize the challenges the child faces in school. With real challenge comes the risk of real failure. And in a competitive academic environment, the idea of failure can be very scary, to students and parents alike.

But experiencing failure is a critical part of building character. Recent research by a team of psychologists found that adults who had experienced little or no failure growing up were actually less happy and confident than those who had experienced a few significant setbacks in childhood. “Overcoming those obstacles,” the researchers assumed, “could teach effective coping skills, help engage social support networks, create a sense of mastery over past adversity, and foster beliefs in the ability to cope successfully in the future.”

By contrast, when we protect our children from every possible failure—when we call their teachers to get an extension on a paper; when we urge them to choose only those subjects they’re good at—we are denying them those same character-building experiences. As the psychologists Madeline Levine and Dan Kindlon have written, that can lead to difficulties in adolescence and young adulthood, when overprotected young people finally confront real problems on their own and don’t know how to overcome them.

In the classroom and outside of it, American parents need to encourage children to take chances, to challenge themselves, to risk failure. In the meantime, giving our kids room to fail may be one of the best ways we can help them succeed.

Back to School: Why Perseverance Is More Important than Good Grades?
Common phenomena	Parents throughout America【1】 their kids’ backpacks up with snacks and school supplies.
	Many American parents don’t【2】 enough importance to their kids’ character building.
The writer’s【3】	Parents should pay more attention to their kids’ character building.
Evidence and 【4】 findings	Parents’ anxiety about their kids’ performance may【5】 them from learning some valuable skills.
	Parents concerned only with a kid’s G.P.A. have a【6】 to minimize the challenges the child faces.
	Adults who have experienced a few significant setbacks in childhood are 【7】 and more confident than those who haven’t.
	Denying kids character-building experiences can【8】 in difficulties in adolescence and young adulthood.
The writer’s suggestions	【9】 kids to be risk-takers.
	Give kids room to experience【10】 .

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】load

【2】attach

【3】view/opinion

【4】research

【5】prevent/stop/keep/discourage

【6】tendency

【7】happier

【8】result

【9】Encourage

【10】failure(s)

【解析】

試題分析：此類題型主要考察考生對信息的概括理解能力。本文講述了美國家長對孩子性格的塑造不夠重視，過度保護孩子，不讓孩子經(jīng)歷失敗、挫折，這些都是不利于孩子們發(fā)展的。應(yīng)該多給孩子機會再困難中塑造堅韌的品格。

【1】第一段第一句可以得知，父母在孩子們返校的時候，總會在書包里裝些零食和學(xué)習(xí)用品。故填load.

【2】第二段“And what we don’t think about enough is how to help our children build their character”我們對怎樣幫助孩子塑造性格思考的并不多。可知父母對此并不是很重視，attach importance to sth 重視某物。故此處填attach.

【3】題中“Parents should pay more attention to their kids’ character building.”父母應(yīng)該更關(guān)注孩子們的性格塑造。這是針對前文父母對此的忽視而提出作者的觀點，故此填入view/opinion均可。

【4】第三段講到evidence, 第四段“Recent research by a team of psychologists found that …”可知，后文講到的就是這些心理學(xué)家們展開的研究結(jié)果，故此處填research.

【5】第三段第一句中的hold back意為“抑制；阻礙”，句意：我們對孩子們在學(xué)校表現(xiàn)的擔(dān)心事實上阻礙了他們學(xué)習(xí)真正有價值的技能。此處要填入hold back的同義詞，故prevent/stop/keep/discourage等表示相同意思的詞均可。

【6】第三段“If you’re concerned only with a child’s G.P.A., then you will likely choose to minimize the challenges the child faces in school. ”中的likely意為“有可能地；有…的趨勢”，相當于have a tendency to do sth. 故填tendency.

【7】第四段“…found that adults who had experienced little or no failure growing up were actually less happy and confident than…”發(fā)現(xiàn)成長過程中經(jīng)歷很少的甚至沒有經(jīng)歷失敗的成年人會缺少快樂和自信。則此處有這樣經(jīng)歷的人就會更加快樂和自信，故填入happier.

【8】第五段“that can lead to difficulties in adolescence and young adulthood, …”家長對孩子過度保護，會使孩子成年后生活更加困難。按題目要求，此處要填入與介詞in搭配的lead to同義詞，故填入result in “導(dǎo)致；致使”。

【9】最后一段“American parents need to encourage children to take chances, to challenge themselves, to risk failure.”父母們要鼓勵孩子抓住機會挑戰(zhàn)自己，冒險失敗。故填Encourage.

【10】最后一段一句話“giving our kids room to fail may be one of the best ways we can help them succeed.”給孩子們機會去失敗可能就是我們幫助他們成功的最好的方式之一。experience sth.經(jīng)歷某事，此處要填一個名詞，故fail的名詞為failure或其復(fù)數(shù)形式。