如何克服错误

How to Overcome Your Mistakes

常速| 考研偏易 | 652词 | 4min25s

刘立军供稿

Part I. QUESTIONS

Listen to the passage and choose the best answer to each question you hear.

Q1. What was the unique aspect of the rune study mentioned in the text?

A. The subjects were asked to create their own language.

B. The subjects’ answers determined the meanings of the runes in the next round.

C. The subjects were experts in language studies.

D. The game was played in multiple languages.

Q2. Why might failure hinder the learning process according to the text?

A. It makes people feel overwhelmed and demoralized.

B. It often leads to a boost in self-confidence.

C. It provides clear feedback on what to improve.

D. It reinforces a person’s mastery over a subject.

Q3. According to the survey following the rune study, how did participants who failed initially feel afterward?

A. They felt more competent than before.

B. They experienced an increase in determination.

C. They indicated much lower levels of self-confidence.

D. They requested to repeat the experiment.

Q4. What preference difference between beginner and advanced French students does the text describe?

A. Beginner students preferred negative reinforcement, whereas advanced students liked positive feedback.

B. Advanced students liked to be praised, but beginners sought constructive criticism.

C. Both beginner and advanced students preferred to learn without any feedback.

D. Beginner students favored positive reinforcement, while advanced students preferred critical feedback.

Q5. What is the main idea presented in the text about learning from successes and failures?

A. We can only learn effectively through recognizing and repeating our successful actions.

B. Learning from success is generally more straightforward than learning from failure.

C. Failure is the most effective teacher and should be the focus of the learning process.

D. Success is not valuable in the learning process as it doesn’t provide room for improvement.

Part II. TRANSCRIPT

How to Overcome Your Mistakes

In a 2019 study, over 400 participants were enlisted to learn a mysterious, invented language. Individuals were asked about three pairs of runes — for example, which of these two characters represents an animal? Then, after a brief break, they were asked about the same rune pairs with questions flipped, as in, which of these two runes represents a non-living object? (Q1) But this game had a secret — the subjects’ answers in round one determined the runes’ meanings in round two. In the first round, participants either had all their answers marked as correct no matter what, or they were forced to fail every question. This meant that at the break, every participant had the same amount of information, and in round two, they were playing for real. But despite this even playing field, the successful participants from round one rose to the top of the ranks, while those cast as failures kept, well, failing.

enlist v. 请求，谋求

rune n. 如尼字母（古代北欧人使用的一种字母）

flip v. （使）快速翻转，迅速翻动

People often describe failure as a teachable moment — a necessary stumble on our way to improvement. (Q2) But learning from our mistakes isn’t always easy, especially when those failures are demoralizing, overwhelming, or just downright confusing. So what exactly prevents us from turning our mistakes into mastery?

stumble n. 绊倒，失误

Perhaps the most obvious hurdle to learning from failure is how painful it can be. People generally want to think of themselves as capable and competent, and experiencing failure threatens that self-image. (Q3) In a survey following a replication of the rune study, participants in the failure group indicated much lower levels of self-confidence after participating. It’s tempting to dismiss this pain as a temporary setback. But some studies have found that when people feel demoralized or incompetent, their brains often stop processing new information. This suggests that if a threat to your self-esteem is large enough, it can undermine your ability to learn.

hurdle n. 难关；障碍

tempting adj. 吸引人的；诱人的；有吸引力的

However, your tolerance for failure also depends on your relationship with the task at hand. In a study from 2011, researchers surveyed a group of American students enrolled in introductory and advanced French courses. These students completed a questionnaire asking what kind of teacher they preferred — one who emphasized their strengths and successes, or one who highlighted their mistakes and corrected their weaknesses. (Q4) In general, responses showed that while beginner students sought positive reinforcement, advanced students were more eager for critical feedback. Researchers have theorized a handful of explanations for these results. Having just started out, beginners are still determining if they enjoy learning French and if they want to continue studying, so they might crave praise as a way to stay motivated. On the other hand, the advanced students are already invested, so they may want to improve their skills as efficiently as possible. The process of gaining expertise also comes with its fair share of failure, so the advanced students may have built a higher tolerance for making mistakes.

crave v. 渴望；热望

(Q5) But whether you’re an expert or a novice, it’s usually much more straightforward to learn from your successes than your failures. For example, imagine getting your grade back on an exam. If you aced it, you could reasonably assume you made good choices around when, what, and how much to study, and you can replicate those decisions for the next test. But if you failed, it could be for any number of reasons. Maybe you didn’t study enough, maybe you studied the wrong information, or maybe you did everything right and the test covered things you shouldn’t have been expected to know. In cases like this, it’s unclear exactly what went wrong, making it difficult to learn how to improve.

ace v. 在…中获得成功

Wanting to learn from our failures is completely natural, and there’s a lot to gain by being resilient and cultivating a growth mindset. But fixating on your failures can make it easy to forget all your successes. And building on what you’re doing right can be more effective than focusing on what you did wrong.

mindset n. 观念模式；思维倾向

Part III. KEY

1. B。细节题。文本提到：“...the subjects’ answers in round one determined the runes’ meanings in round two.”意为：“在第一轮中，参与者的回答决定了第二轮字母的意义。”这表明实验的独特之处在于参与者的答案影响了下一轮的游戏规则。因此答案为B。

2. A。推理题。文本提到：“But learning from our mistakes isn’t always easy, especially when those failures are demoralizing, overwhelming, or just downright confusing.”意为：“从我们的错误中学习并不总是容易的，特别是当那些失败的经历令人沮丧、让人窒息或者使人十分困惑时。”这表明失败可能会因为让人感觉到沮丧和不堪重负，而妨碍人们从中汲取经验教训。因此答案为A。

3. C。细节题。文本指出：“In a survey following a replication of the rune study, participants in the failure group indicated much lower levels of self-confidence after participating.”意为：“在对字母研究进行复刻之后，一项调查中，失败组中的参与者表示，参与后他们的自信水平大大降低。”因此，最初经历了失败的参与者之后的感受是自信心显著下降。因此答案为C。

4. D。细节题。文本提到：“In general, responses showed that while beginner students sought positive reinforcement, advanced students were more eager for critical feedback.”意为：“总的来说，反馈显示，初学者寻求积极的强化，但高级别地学生更渴望得到批判性的反馈。”因此答案为D。

5. B。主旨题。文本指出：“But whether you’re an expert or a novice, it’s usually much more straightforward to learn from your successes than your failures.”意为：“但无论你是专家还是新手，通常从成功中学习比从失败中学习要直接得多。”文章主要讲述了从成功和失败中学习的不同，并提出通常从成功中学习比从失败中学习更直接明了。因此答案为B。

（封面图片来自摄图网，版权归摄图网所有）