Question

【题目】The back-to-school season is upon us, and once again, parents across the country have loaded their kids’ backpacks up with snack packs and school supplies. It’s a good moment to reflect on what else we should be giving our kids as they head off to school.

American parents are feeling particularly anxious about that question this year. The educational process feels more than ever like a race, one that starts in pre-school and doesn’t end until your child is admitted to the perfect college. Most parents are more worried than they need to be about their children’s grades, test scores and IQ. And what we don’t think about enough is how to help our children build their character—how to help them develop skills like perseverance, optimism, responsibility, and self-control, which together do more to determine success than S.A.T. scores or I.Q.

There is growing evidence that our anxiety about our children’s school performance may actually be holding them back from learning some of these valuable skills. If you’re concerned only with a child’s G.P.A., then you will likely choose to minimize the challenges the child faces in school. With real challenge comes the risk of real failure. And in a competitive academic environment, the idea of failure can be very scary, to students and parents alike.

But experiencing failure is a critical part of building character. Recent research by a team of psychologists found that adults who had experienced little or no failure growing up were actually less happy and confident than those who had experienced a few significant setbacks in childhood. “Overcoming those obstacles,” the researchers assumed, “could teach effective coping skills, help engage social support networks, create a sense of mastery over past adversity, and foster beliefs in the ability to cope successfully in the future.”

By contrast, when we protect our children from every possible failure—when we call their teachers to get an extension on a paper; when we urge them to choose only those subjects they’re good at—we are denying them those same character-building experiences. As the psychologists Madeline Levine and Dan Kindlon have written, that can lead to difficulties in adolescence and young adulthood, when overprotected young people finally confront real problems on their own and don’t know how to overcome them.

In the classroom and outside of it, American parents need to encourage children to take chances, to challenge themselves, to risk failure. In the meantime, giving our kids room to fail may be one of the best ways we can help them succeed.

Back to School: Why Perseverance Is More Important than Good Grades?
Common phenomena	Parents throughout America【1】 their kids’ backpacks up with snacks and school supplies.
	Many American parents don’t【2】 enough importance to their kids’ character building.
The writer’s【3】	Parents should pay more attention to their kids’ character building.
Evidence and 【4】 findings	Parents’ anxiety about their kids’ performance may【5】 them from learning some valuable skills.
	Parents concerned only with a kid’s G.P.A. have a【6】 to minimize the challenges the child faces.
	Adults who have experienced a few significant setbacks in childhood are 【7】 and more confident than those who haven’t.
	Denying kids character-building experiences can【8】 in difficulties in adolescence and young adulthood.
The writer’s suggestions	【9】 kids to be risk-takers.
	Give kids room to experience【10】 .

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】load

【2】attach

【3】view/opinion

【4】research

【5】prevent/stop/keep/discourage

【6】tendency

【7】happier

【8】result

【9】Encourage

【10】failure(s)

【解析】

试题分析：此类题型主要考察考生对信息的概括理解能力。本文讲述了美国家长对孩子性格的塑造不够重视，过度保护孩子，不让孩子经历失败、挫折，这些都是不利于孩子们发展的。应该多给孩子机会再困难中塑造坚韧的品格。

【1】第一段第一句可以得知，父母在孩子们返校的时候，总会在书包里装些零食和学习用品。故填load.

【2】第二段“And what we don’t think about enough is how to help our children build their character”我们对怎样帮助孩子塑造性格思考的并不多。可知父母对此并不是很重视，attach importance to sth 重视某物。故此处填attach.

【3】题中“Parents should pay more attention to their kids’ character building.”父母应该更关注孩子们的性格塑造。这是针对前文父母对此的忽视而提出作者的观点，故此填入view/opinion均可。

【4】第三段讲到evidence, 第四段“Recent research by a team of psychologists found that …”可知，后文讲到的就是这些心理学家们展开的研究结果，故此处填research.

【5】第三段第一句中的hold back意为“抑制；阻碍”，句意：我们对孩子们在学校表现的担心事实上阻碍了他们学习真正有价值的技能。此处要填入hold back的同义词，故prevent/stop/keep/discourage等表示相同意思的词均可。

【6】第三段“If you’re concerned only with a child’s G.P.A., then you will likely choose to minimize the challenges the child faces in school. ”中的likely意为“有可能地；有…的趋势”，相当于have a tendency to do sth. 故填tendency.

【7】第四段“…found that adults who had experienced little or no failure growing up were actually less happy and confident than…”发现成长过程中经历很少的甚至没有经历失败的成年人会缺少快乐和自信。则此处有这样经历的人就会更加快乐和自信，故填入happier.

【8】第五段“that can lead to difficulties in adolescence and young adulthood, …”家长对孩子过度保护，会使孩子成年后生活更加困难。按题目要求，此处要填入与介词in搭配的lead to同义词，故填入result in “导致；致使”。

【9】最后一段“American parents need to encourage children to take chances, to challenge themselves, to risk failure.”父母们要鼓励孩子抓住机会挑战自己，冒险失败。故填Encourage.

【10】最后一段一句话“giving our kids room to fail may be one of the best ways we can help them succeed.”给孩子们机会去失败可能就是我们帮助他们成功的最好的方式之一。experience sth.经历某事，此处要填一个名词，故fail的名词为failure或其复数形式。