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  3. The holiday season poses a psychological conundrum. Its defining sentiment, of course, is joy — yet the effort to be joyous seem

The holiday season poses a psychological conundrum. Its defining sentiment, of course, is joy — yet the effort to be joyous seem

admin2014-06-25  31
问题     The holiday season poses a psychological conundrum. Its defining sentiment, of course, is joy — yet the effort to be joyous seems to make many of us miserable. It’s hard to be happy in overcrowded airport lounges or while you’re trying to stay civil for days on end with relatives who stretch your patience.
    So to cope with the holidays, magazines and others are advising us to "think positive" — the same advice that Norman Vincent Peale, author of The Power of Positive Thinking, was dispensing six decades ago. Variations of Peale’s positive philosophy run deep in American culture, not just in how we handle holidays and other social situations but in business, politics and beyond. Yet studies suggest that affirmations designed to lift the user’s mood through repetition and visualizing future success often achieve the opposite of their intended effect.
    Fortunately, both ancient philosophy and contemporary psychology point to an alternative: a counterintuitive approach that might be termed "the negative path to happiness. " One pioneer of the "negative path" was psychotherapist Albert Ellis. He rediscovered a key insight of the Stoic philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome: that sometimes the best way to address an uncertain future is to focus not on the best-case scenario but on the worst.
    Just thinking in sober detail about worst-case scenarios can help to sap the future of its anxiety-producing power. The psychologist Julie Norem terms this strategy "defensive pessimism. " Positive thinking, by contrast, is the effort to convince yourself that things will turn out fine, which can reinforce the belief that it would be absolutely terrible if they didn’t.
    In American corporations, perhaps the most widely accepted doctrine of the "cult of positivity" is the importance of setting big goals for an organization. Behind our fixation on goals is a deep unease with feelings of uncertainty. Research by Saras Sarasvathy, an associate professor of business administration suggests that learning to accommodate feelings of uncertainty is not just the key to a more balanced life but often leads to prosperity as well. For one project, she interviewed 45 successful entrepreneurs. Almost none embraced the idea of writing comprehensive business plans or conducting extensive market research. They practiced instead "effectuation. " Rather than choosing a goal and then making a plan to a-chieve it, they took stock of the means and materials at their disposal, then imagined the possible ends. Effectuation also includes the "affordable loss principle. " Instead of focusing on the possibility of spectacular rewards from a venture, ask how great the loss would be if it failed. If the potential loss seems tolerable, take the next step.
    The ultimate value of the "negative path" may not be its role in facilitating upbeat emotions or even success. It is simply realism. The future really is uncertain, after all, and things really do go wrong as well as right. We are too often motivated by a craving to put an end to the inevitable surprises in our lives.
By talking about troubles of the holiday season, the author intends to_____.
选项 A、exemplify the psychological dilemmas in daily life
B、illustrate the profound influence of Peale’s work
C、introduce the prevailing thinking mode of Amercians
D、show the necessity of advocating positive thinking
答案C
解析 第一段提出了“节假日心理难题”：节假日以快乐情绪为主，但为实现这种快乐所付出的努力却令人痛苦。第二段紧承上文指出，面对这一难题，媒体往往建议人们进行“积极思考”，这一思维模式在美国文化中根深蒂固，但却存在不足。后文则提出与此相反的另一种思维模式“消极思考”并对其详细介绍。可见，第一、二段为全文铺垫，由节假日心态问题引出“积极思考”这一通常的思维模式，再反向提出“消极思考”这一话题，[C]选项符合文意。
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