如何变得强大而坚韧
How to Be Strong and Resilient
刘立军 供稿
QUESTIONS
Listen to the talk and choose the best answer to each question you hear.
1. What is the main reason people give up on their projects according to the text?
A. The projects are too hard.
B. They are not prepared for the difficulty of the tasks.
C. They have bad ideas about what their tasks should demand of them.
D. They don’t care about their projects.
2. How can we make people stronger according to the text?
A. By enchanting them with life full of opportunities.
B. By educating them for a nonexistent world.
C. By avoiding any suffering in life.
D. By being honest about how things tend to go.
3. What would be included in every school curriculum in a wiser society?
A. A class titled “Hell, Your Future.”
B. A class about love complexities.
C. A class about time management.
D. A class about entrepreneurship.
4. What do wise people expect according to the text?
A. They expect less humiliation.
B. They expect life to be easy.
C. They expect more things to go wrong.
D. They expect to avoid all defeats.
5. Based on the text, what is the author’s attitude towards suffering in life?
A. Suffering should be avoided at all costs.
B. Suffering is a necessary part of any worthwhile life.
C. Suffering is unnecessary and can be completely eliminated.
D. Suffering is a punishment for past mistakes.
TRANSCRIPT
Much of the reason why we give up far too soon, fall into despair and abandon our projects is not just because they are hard per se, but because they are harder ― far harder ― than we’d ever expected them to be.
per se adv. 本身，就其本身而言
It isn’t necessarily difficulty that sinks us; it’s bad ideas about what a noble task should legitimately demand of us. We operate with dangerously inadequate views of what it takes for anything good to happen: of what it might take, for example, to have a moderately good relationship, to run a more or less viable business, to have a circle of friends, to be healthy, to build a home or to achieve a balanced mind. So we lose our tempers, cry and scream ― because we perceive injustices where there are in fact only encounters with entirely reasonable and predictable degrees of pain.
viable adj. 可行的，可实施的
A wiser society than our own would include in every school curriculum a weekly class titled “Hell, Your Future,” which would systematically induct young people into the necessary degrees of suffering required by any worthwhile life.
induct v. 引导
We would realize that we make people strong not by enchanting them with descriptions of a life full of opportunities, but by being honest about how things tend actually to go. It isn’t cute to educate young people for a world that doesn’t exist. Thrice-married couples would address the young on the complexities of love; cancer survivors would deliver lessons on the preciousness of time; artists and entrepreneurs would testify to the huge yet vital sacrifices required to produce results that look easy.
enchanting adj. 迷人的，令人陶醉的
thrice n. 三次
testify v. 作证，证明
No young person should be left under the slightest illusion that fulfilling moments demand anything other than torment ― and they would, as a result, be in a far better place to attain good things one day.
torment n. 折磨，痛苦
Wise people keep going not because they are braver, but because they’ve learnt to be a lot better prepared. They know that defeats and humiliation are unavoidable events, not freakish punishments. They wonder, at the close of every quiet day, why not more has gone wrong. They succeed on the basis of fully expecting everything to be just about as hard as it probably really will be.
humiliation n. 耻辱，羞辱
freakish adj. 反常的，异乎寻常的
KEY
1. What is the main reason people give up on their projects according to the text?
A. The projects are too hard.
B. They are not prepared for the difficulty of the tasks.
C. They have bad ideas about what their tasks should demand of them.
D. They don’t care about their projects.
【答案】B
【解析】细节题。命题出处为第一段的主旨句。根据文本，人们放弃项目的主要原因不仅仅是它们太难，而是它们比我们预期的要难得多。所以选项B最符合。
2. How can we make people stronger according to the text?
A. By enchanting them with life full of opportunities.
B. By educating them for a nonexistent world.
C. By avoiding any suffering in life.
D. By being honest about how things tend to go.
【答案】D
【解析】细节题。命题出处为第四段的主旨句。根据文本，我们通过实事求是地描述事情的发展趋势来使人变得更强大，所以选项D最符合。
3. What would be included in every school curriculum in a wiser society?
A. A class titled “Hell, Your Future.”
B. A class about love complexities.
C. A class about time management.
D. A class about entrepreneurship.
【答案】A
【解析】细节题。命题出处为第三段的主旨句。根据文本，在一个更明智的社会里，每个学校课程中会包括一个名为“Hell, Your Future”的课程，所以选项A最符合。
4. What do wise people expect according to the text?
A. They expect less humiliation.
B. They expect life to be easy.
C. They expect more things to go wrong.
D. They expect to avoid all defeats.
【答案】C
【解析】细节题。命题出处为最后一段的主旨句。根据文本，明智的人会预期到更多的事情会出错，所以选项C最符合。
5. Based on the text, what is the author’s attitude towards suffering in life?
A. Suffering should be avoided at all costs.
B. Suffering is a necessary part of any worthwhile life.
C. Suffering is unnecessary and can be completely eliminated.
D. Suffering is a punishment for past mistakes.
【答案】B
【解析】推理题。命题出处为全文的主题思想。全文中作者都在阐述遭受苦难对于生活的重要性，他认为只有通过磨炼和挫折，人们才能更好地应对生活，所以选项B最符合。
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