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(湖北省“四地七校考试联盟”2020届高三联考)A star athlete at the college where I work recently stopped by my office.After committing a few unforced errors during a weekend match, she suffered severely by selfcriticism.
This student, like many I teach, strongly believes she should be able to control the outcomes of her life by virtue of her hard work. In her mind，“Nothing can stop me but myself.” So when these students fall short of what they imagine they should accomplish, they are filled with selfblame，reasoning, “If my accomplishments are mine to control, my failures must be entirely my fault，too，” which makes it extremely difficult for them to move on.
We often attribute young adults' struggling with failure to their parents' overprotection. But there is another factor at play: a message transmitted by indulgent (纵容的) parents who have falsely promised them that they can achieve anything if they are willing to work for it. However, the cruel reality of life is that you can do everything in your power—and still fail. Then what should be done to help?
Psychologists Luthar and Kumar urge parents and teachers to spend time helping students find purposes, or goals they genuinely love to pursue and that make an impact on the world, which may help them gain greater life satisfaction and become more psychologically mature. Besides, instead of allowing our kids to beat themselves up when things don't go their way, we might all question a culture where one is considered lazy without full devotion. The point is to remind them that life has a way of sucker punching (出其不意地击打) us when we least expect it. It's often the people who learn to say “stuff happens” that get up the fastest.
【语篇解读】 本文是一篇议论文，许多年轻人会因为自己的失败而自责，认为自己既然可以通过付出实现一些成就，那么失败相应地也全部是自己的责任。针对这一心理现象，心理学家给出了解释和建议。
1．What does the underlined phrase “by virtue of” in Paragraph 2 mean?
A．In addition to. B．In spite of.
C．By means of. D．For fear of.
C [词义猜测题。根据画线短语后的“Nothing can stop me but myself.”和常识可推知，此处应指，这名学生深信她应该能够通过努力来控制结果。故画线词应与by means of意思相近，意为“凭借；以……方式”。in addition to意为“除此之外”；in spite of意为“尽管”；for fear of意为“以免；唯恐”。]
2．The author believes that young adults find it hard to struggle with failure because ________.
A．they are not taught how to deal with difficulties
B．they are short of the ability to handle failure
C．they are under the protection of their parents
D．they are misled by their parents' false message
D [细节理解题。根据第三段第一、二句可知，年轻人在失败中挣扎有两个原因，一是家长们的过度保护，二是父母们传达给他们的错误信息，即他们可以通过主观努力成功做到他们想做的任何事情，故选D项。]
3．What did psychologists Luthar and Kumar urge parents and teachers to do?
A．To teach students how to avoid faults.
B．To lead students to set their truly loved goals.
C．To help students to discover a path to success.
D．To allow kids to blame themselves.
B [细节理解题。根据第四段第一句可知，心理学家敦促父母和老师花一些时间帮助学生找到他们真正想追求的目标，故选B项。]
4．What can be inferred from the passage?
A．Students don't care about failure at all.
B．Students are sure to succeed if they try their best.
C．Students should bear all the failures on their own.
D．Students with positive attitudes can move on more easily.
D [推理判断题。通读全文，尤其根据最后一段最后两句可知，生活中总有一些出其不意的事情发生，只有那些在事情发生时能积极面对的人才会从挫折中奋起得最快。故选D项(具有积极态度的学生更容易进步)。]
