Question

The view you hold for yourself greatly affects the way you lead your life. It can decide whether you become the person you want to be and whether you achieve the things you value. How does this happen? How can a simple belief have the power to change your psychology(心理) and, as a result, your life?

Believing that your qualities are carved(刻) in stone — the fixed mindset — creates a great need to prove yourself over and over. Some of us are trained in this mindset from an early age. Even as a child, I was focused on being smart, but the fixed mindset was really stamped in by Mrs. Wilson, my sixth-grade teacher. She believed that people’s IQ scores told the whole story of who they were. We were seated around the room in IQ order, and only the highest-IQ students could be trusted to collect homework, or take a note to the principal. She was creating a mindset in which everyone in the class had one important goal-look smart, don’t look stupid.

I’ve seen so many people with this one important goal of proving themselves — in the classroom, in their careers, and in their relationships. Every situation calls for a confirmation of their IQ, personality, or character. Every situation is evaluated(評(píng)價(jià)): Will I succeed or fail? Will I look smart or stupid? Will I feel like a winner or a loser?

But doesn’t our society value IQ, personality, and character? Isn’t it normal to want these qualities? Yes, but ...

There’s another mindset, the growth mindset, which is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can develop through your efforts. Although people may differ in every which way — in their inborn talents, interests, or characters, everyone can change and grow through efforts and experience. Did you know that Darwin and Tolstoy were considered ordinary children? That the photographer Cindy Sherman, who has been on almost every list of the most important artists of the twentieth century, failed her first photography course? That Geraldine Page, one of our greatest actresses, was advised to give it up for lack of talent?

You can see how the belief that valuable qualities can be developed creates a passion(熱情) for learning. Why waste time proving how great you are, when you could be getting better? Why hide weaknesses instead of overcoming them? And why seek out the tried and true, instead of experiences that will better you? The passion for improving yourself and sticking to it, even when it’s not going well, is the feature(特征) of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to achieve success during some of the most challenging times in their lives.

1.According to Paragraph 5, the example of Darwin and Tolstoy shows that _________

A.success has nothing to do with natural gifts.

B.it’s difficult to predict one’s future success.

C.achievements can be made through hard work.

D.the valuable qualities can encourage people to learn.

2.The author strongly believes that we should _________

A.carry out an honest evaluation of our qualities.

B.see success as the only way to prove IQ or talent.

C.focus on self-development rather than self-proving.

D.believe good things will happen during difficult times.

3.The main purpose of the passage is to _________

A.lead people to take the right mindset.

B.advise people to evaluate their mindset.

C.get people to know the influence of mindset.

D.explain the differences between two mindsets.

Answer 1