泽熙美文Reading Comprehension
Anyone who doubts that children are born with a healthy amount of ambition need spend only a few minutes with a baby eagerly learning to walk or a headstrong toddler starting to talk. No matter how many times the little ones stumble in their initial efforts, most keep on trying, determined to master their amazing new skill. It is only several years later, around the start of middle or junior high school, many psychologists and teachers agree, that a good number of kids seem to lose their natural drive to succeed and end up joining the ranks of underachievers. For the parents of such kids, whose own ambition is often inseparately 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.
It’s not quite that simple. “Kids can be given the opportunities, but they can’t be forced,” says Jacquelynne Eccles, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan who led a study examining what motivated first- and seventh-graders in three school districts. Even so, a growing number of educators and psychologists do believe it is possible to unearth ambition in students who don’t seem to have much. They say that by instilling confidence, encouraging some risk taking, being accepting of failure and expanding the areas in which children may be successful, both parents and teachers can reignite that innate desire to achieve.
Dubbed Brainology, the unorthodox approach uses basic neuroscience to teach kids how the brain works and how it can continue to develop throughout life. The message is that everything is within the kids’ control, that their intelligence is malleable.
Some experts say our education system, with its strong emphasis on testing and rigid separation of students into different levels of ability, also bears blame for the disappearance of drive in some kids. Some educators say it’s important to expose kids to a world beyond homework and tests, through volunteer work, sports, hobbies and other extracurricular activities. “The crux of the issue is that many students experience education as irrelevant to their life goals and ambitions,” says Michael Nakkula, a Harvard education professor who runs a Boston-area mentoring program called Project IF (Inventing the Future), which works to get low-income underachievers in touch with their aspirations. The key to getting kids to aim higher at school is to tell them the notion that classwork is irrelevant is not true, to show them how doing well at school can actually help them fulfill their dreams beyond it. Like any ambitious toddler, they need to understand that they have to learn to walk before they 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] 根据文中第一段的内容“it can be a bewildering，painful experience”可知，这是一次令人费解的，痛苦的经历。选项中的A项为“令人迷惑的”符合文意。B项“难以置信的”，C项“不愉快的”，D项“尴尬的”，这三项均不符合题意。
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] 根据文中第一段的内容“So it is no wonder some parents find themselves hoping that ambition can be taught like any other subject at school.”可知，很多家长希望学校能教授培养孩子有抱负的课程。所以D项“怎样去帮助学校里的孩子开发他们的雄心”是本文的主要内容。A项“在人的一生中，雄心是最必需的”，B项“做什么去改革教育体系”，C项“为什么后进生的家长是有雄心的”，这三项不符合题意，不是本文主要阐述的内容。
3. The word “unearth” underlined in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to ______.
A.discover
B.seek
C.pursuit
D.analyze
正确答案：A
[解析] 根据文中第二段的内容“it is possible to unearth ambition in students who don’t seem to have much”可知，发现学生自己还没有意识到的雄心壮志。选项中的A项为“发现”符合文意。B项“探寻”，C项“追求，追逐”，D项“分析”，这三项均不符合题意。
4. 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] 根据文中第一段的内容“It is only several years later, around the start of middle or junior high school, many psychologists and teachers agree, that a good number of kids seem to lose their natural drive to succeed and end up ioining the ranks of underachievers.”可知，许多心理学家和教师认为，只是几年以后，在初中开始的阶段，许多孩子好像失去了成功的自然动力，并加入到后进生的行列中。所有C项“随着年龄的增长，很多孩子变得雄心越来越少”符合题意。A项“出生时就显示出缺少学业雄心”，B项“做事像成人，父母很吃惊”，D项“变得越来越害怕在学校中失败”，这三项和第一段内容不符合。
5. The word “reignite” underlined in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to ______.
A.rekindle
B.confirm
C.find out
D.strike
正确答案：A
[解析] 根据文中第二段的内容“both parents and teachers can reignite that innate desire to achieve”可知，家长和老师能重新燃起天生想达到目的的欲望。选项中的A项为“重新点燃”符合文意。B项“确认，确定”，C项“发现，找到”，D项“点火，罢工”，这三项均不符合题意。
6. 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] 根据文中第一段的内容“For the parents of such kids, whose own ambition is often inseparately tied to their children’s success, it can be a bewildering，painful experience.”可知，对于那些将自己的抱负与孩子的成功紧密结合的家长来说，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。A项“自然的，天然的”，B项“琐碎的，不重要的”，D项“可理解的，能够懂的”，这三个词语和文中表达的父母的感想不符合。
7. The word “malleable” in Paragraph 3 most probably means ______.
A.justifiable
B.flexible
C.uncountable
D.desirable
正确答案：B
[解析] malleable的意思为“有延展性的，可锻的”，四个选项中只有flexible“柔韧性，柔软的，能变形的，可通融的”和malleable意思最相近。其他选项的意思为：justifiable有道理的，有理由的；uncountable不可数的；desirable值得要的，合意的。据此可知，应选择B。
8. Some experts suggest that many kids lose ambition in school because they are ______.
A.cut off from the outside world
B.exposed to school work only
C.kept away from class competition
D.labeled as inferior to others
正确答案：D
[解析] 根据文中第一段的内容“Some experts say our education system, with its strong emphasis on testing and rigid separation of students into different levels of ability, also bears blame for the disappearance of drive in some kids.”可知，我们的教育制度强调考试，并把学生分成不同能力水平的等级，导致孩子们缺少动力。所以D项“他们被贴上了比其他人差的标签”符合题意。A项“与外面的世界隔离”，B项“只接受学校作业”，C项“远离班级竞争”，这三项都不是很多学生在学校里丧失雄心的主要原因。
