泽熙美文Reading Comprehension
Anyone who doubts if children are born with a healthy amount of ambition need spend only a few minutes with a baby eagerly learning to walk. No matter how many times the little ones stumble in their first efforts, most keep on trying, determined to master their amazing new skill. It is only several years later, many psychologists and teachers agree, that a good number of kids seem to lose their natural drive to succeed. For the parents of such kids, whose own ambition is often tied to their children’s success, it can be a bewildering, painful experience. So it is no wonder some parents find themselves hoping that ambition can be taught like any other subject at school.
Figuring out why the fire went out is the first step. Assuming that a kid doesn’t suffer from a learning disability, or isn’t involved in some family crisis at home, many educators attribute a sudden lack of motivation to a fear of failure or classmate pressure. “Everything is within the kids’ control; their intelligence is changeable,” says Lisa Blackwell, a research scientist at Columbia University. More than any teacher or workshop, Blackwell says, parents can play a key role in conveying this message to their children by praising their effort and progress rather than emphasizing their “smartness” or praising high performance alone. Most of all, parents should let their kids know that mistakes are a part of learning.
Some experts say our education system, with its strong emphasis on testing and separation of students into different levels of ability, also bears blame for the disappearance of drive in some kids. “These programs shut down the motivation of all kids who aren’t considered gifted and talented. They destroy their confidence,” says Jeff Howard, a social psychologist. Howard and other educators say it’s important to expose kids to a world beyond homework and tests, through volunteer work, sports, hobbies and other extra-curricular activities.
“The problem of the issue is that many students experience education as irrelevant to their life goals and ambition,” says Michael Nakkual, a Harvard education professor who runs a Boston-area mentoring program called Project IF (Inventing the Future). The key to getting kids to aim higher at school is to free them of the idea that class work is irrelevant, and to show them how doing well at school can actually help them fulfill their dreams beyond it. They need to understand that you have to learn to walk before you can run.
1. The word “bewildering” underlined in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to ______.
A.puzzling
B.unbelievable
C.unpleasant
D.awkward
正确答案：A
[解析] 题目问和bewildering意思相近的词。bewildering意为“令人不知所措的，使人困惑的”，A项puzzling“令人迷惑不解的”符合。
干扰项排除：B项unbelievable意为“难以置信的”；C项unpleasant意为“不愉快的”；D项awkward意为“尴尬的”，均可排除。
[参考译文]
如果想知道孩子出生时是否心怀抱负、心态健康，只需要与一个急切想学走路的宝宝呆上几分钟便可一清二楚。无论小家伙们第一次学走路时绊倒了多少次，他们大多数都会继续努力，下定决心掌握这一惊人的新技能。许多心理学家和老师都认为，在此几年后，很多孩子似乎失去了想要成功的本能欲望。对于这些孩子的父母来说，他们自己的抱负往往与孩子的成功联系在一起，因此这是一种令人困惑的，痛苦的经历。难怪一些家长希望学校也能开设一些课程，培养孩子的抱负和志向。
首先要弄清楚志向之火为什么会熄灭。假设一个孩子没惠学习障碍，也没遭遇家庭危机，那么许多教育工作者就会把这种突然丧失动力的表现归因于担心失败或无法承受来自同学的压力。哥伦比亚大学科学家丽莎·布莱克威尔(Lisa Blackwell)说：“一切都在孩子的控制之中，他们的智力无时无刻不在变化”，在向孩子们传递这一信息时，家长比任何老师或讲习班都更重要，他们可以表扬孩子们的努力和进步，而不是仅仅强调他们的聪明才智，也不是仅在孩子表现良好时才予以表扬。最重要的是，父母应该让孩子知道错误是学习的一部分。
一些专家表示，我们的教育体系非常注重测试，并且会按能力水平的差异将学生分层。这也是导致一些孩子动力缺失的原因。“这些教学程序抹杀了那些被认为没有天赋的孩子的学习动力，摧毁了他们的信心”，社会心理学家杰夫·霍华德(Jeff Howard)说。霍华德和其他教育工作者表示，通过志愿者活动，体育，爱好和其他课外活动，让孩子们接触到一个家庭作业和考试以外的世界，这是很重要的。
哈佛大学教育学教授迈克尔·纳库尔(Michael Nakkual)在波士顿地区开办了一个名为“创造未来”(Project IF)的辅导项目，他说：“问题是，许多学生认为教育与他们的人生目标和志向无关”。让孩子们在学校追求更高目标的关键是让他们摆脱“功课无关紧要”的观念，并告诉他们在学校表现出色实际上可以帮助他们实现梦想。他们需要明白，先学会走才能跑。
2. The passage is mainly about ______.
A.when in one’s life ambition is most needed
B.what to do to reform the education system
C.why parents of underachievers are ambitious
D.how to help school children develop their ambition
正确答案：D
[解析] 题目问文章的主旨。通读全文，可知本文为总分结构，第一段总述“孩子失去了想要成功的本能欲望”的现象，以及父母的期望。第2至4段分析了现象出现的原因并提供了解决方法。由此可知本文讲述的是“如何帮助孩子培养抱负”，D项正确。
干扰项排除：A项“一个人在人生哪个时候最需要抱负”强调“抱负，雄心”的重要性，B项“如何改革教育制度”强调教育体系，C项“为什么表现不好的孩子的家长很有抱负”则强调家长有抱负的原因，均与文章主题有出人，故都排除。
3. Paragraph 1 mentions some parents who would see their kids’ failure as ______.
A.natural
B.trivial
C.intolerable
D.understandable
正确答案：C
[解析] 题目问一些父母对于孩子的失败的看法。第1段第4句提到，一些家长把自己的抱负与孩子的成功紧密结合在一起，孩子的失败是令他们困惑和痛苦的，所以C项intolerable“无法忍受的，难耐的”符合题意。
干扰项排除：既然父母感到困惑，那就不是A项“自然的”和D项“可以理解的”。第1段最后一句提到这些父母希望学校开课培养孩子的抱负，可见父母是重视的，B项“不重要的，琐碎的”不符文意。
4. The underlined part “the fire went out” probably means ______.
A.the motivation was suddenly lost
B.the fear of failure was suddenly gone
C.the learning disability was suddenly lost
D.the fire was suddenly gone
正确答案：A
[解析] 题目问“火熄灭”是什么意思。第2段第1句Figuring out why the fire went out is the first step中，fire指代第1段第3句提到的natural drive to succeed“想要成功的本能欲望”，第1段提到，几年之后很多孩子似乎失去了想要成功的本能欲望，第2段紧承上文对这一现象进行分析，因此the fire went out指“(想要成功的)动力突然消失了”，故答案为A项。
干扰项排除：B项“对失败的恐惧突然消失了”和C项“学习障碍突然消失了”均与语境不符。D项“火突然熄灭了”仅仅理解了字面意思，也排除。
5. According to the passage, most educators believe that many kids ______.
A.show a lack of academic ambition at birth
B.amaze their parents by acting like adults
C.become less ambitious as they grow up
D.get increasingly afraid of failing in school
正确答案：C
[解析] 题目问大多数教育工作者的看法。根据题干educators定位至第1段第3句。该句中的psychologists and teachers对应题干中的educators。该句说，许多心理学家和老师认为，几年之后，很多孩子似乎失去了想要成功的本能欲望。这说明随着年龄的增长，许多孩子变得没有那么雄心勃勃了，故答案为C项。
干扰项排除：文章没有提到孩子小时候学术方面的抱负如何，只有第1段提到孩子小时候有“学好走路”的抱负，因此A项“出生时就表现出缺乏学术抱负”可排除。B项“模仿大人的行为，使父母吃惊”，文章未提及相关信息，故排除。D项“越来越害怕在学业中失败”利用第2段第2句的fear of failure作干扰．这里没有体现出D项的increasingly，因此D项说法不确切。
6. According to the passage, the parents of kids with no ambition ______.
A.don’t do a very good job on teaching them to walk
B.are to blame if the kids do poorly in school
C.feel pain because their own ambition is connected to their kids’ success
D.should take part in extra-cun-icular activities with kids
正确答案：C
[解析] 题目问孩子没有抱负，父母对此的看法。第1段第4句提到，一些父母
