首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Some Suggestions for Pessimists [A] Obesity and smoking may be the most conspicuous causes of illness in this country, but physi
Some Suggestions for Pessimists [A] Obesity and smoking may be the most conspicuous causes of illness in this country, but physi
admin
2013-09-07
20
问题
Some Suggestions for Pessimists
[A] Obesity and smoking may be the most conspicuous causes of illness in this country, but physical factors don’t account for everything. Your psychology—namely, your personality and outlook on life—can be just as important to your well-being as exercising and eating right. And especially these days, with the world’s economy tumbling toward a depression, it’s a good time to prevent yourself from slipping into one too.
[B] An entire science has grown up around the risks of negative thinking(as well as the power of positive psychology), and the latest findings confirm that a pessimistic outlook not only fuels anxiety, which can put people at risk for chronic mental illnesses like depression, but may also cause early death and set people up for a number of minor physical illnesses, ranging from the common cold to heart disease and immune disorders.
[C] Optimism, meanwhile, is associated with a happier and longer life. Over the course of a recent eight-year study, University of Pittsburgh researchers found that optimistic women lived longer than pessimistic ones. Which may be good news for the active people out there, but what about the rest of us who aren’t always so cheerful? Are we destined for sickness and failure? Or is it possible to master the principles of positivity the same way we might learn a new hobby or follow a recipe?
[D] The answer from the experts seems to be yes. But it does take effort. Seeing the sunny side doesn’t come easily.
Be an "Optimalist"
[E] Most people would define optimism as being eternally hopeful, endlessly happy, with a glass that’s perpetually half full. But that’s exactly the kind of false cheerfulness that positive psychologists wouldn’t recommend. "Healthy optimism means being in touch with reality," says Tal Ben-Shahar, a Harvard professor who taught the university’s most popular course, Positive Psychology, from 2002 to 2008. "It certainly doesn’t mean thinking everything is great and wonderful."
[F] Ben-Shahar, who is the author of Happier and The Pursuit of Perfect, describes realistic optimists as "optimalists"—not those who believe everything happens for the best, but those who make the best of things that happen.
[G] In his own life, Ben-Shahar uses three optimalist exercises, which he calls PRP. When he feels down-say, after giving a bad lecture—he grants himself permission(P)to be human. He reminds himself that not every lecture can be a Nobel winner; some will be less effective than others. Next is reconstruction(R). He analyses the weak lecture, learning lessons for the future about what works and what doesn’t. Finally, there’s perspective(P), which involves acknowledging that in the grand scheme of life, one lecture really doesn’t matter.
[H] Studies suggest that people who are able to focus on the positive aspects of a negative event—basically, cope with failure- can protect themselves from the physical toll of stress and anxiety. In a recent study at the University of California, San Francisco(UCSF), scientists asked a group of women to give a speech in front of a stone-faced audience of strangers. On the first day, all the participants said they felt threatened, and they showed fear hormones(荷尔蒙). On subsequent days, however, those women who had reported rebounding from a major life crisis in the past no longer felt the same subjective threat over speaking in public. They had learned that this negative event, too, would pass and they would survive. "It’s a back door to the same positive state because people are able to tolerate and accept the negative," says Elissa Epel, one of the psychologists involved in the study.
Accept Pain and Sadness
[I] Being optimistic doesn’t mean shutting out sad or painful emotions. As a clinical psychologist, Martin Seligman, who runs the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, says he used to feel proud whenever he helped depressed patients rid themselves of sadness, anxiety or anger. "I thought I would get a happy person," he says. "But I never did. What I got was an empty person." That’s what prompted him to launch the field of positive psychology, with a groundbreaking address to the American Psychological Association in 1998. Instead of focusing only on righting wrongs and lifting misery, he argued, psychologists need to help patients foster good mental health through constructive skills, like Ben-Shahar’s PRP. The idea is to teach patients to strengthen their strengths rather than simply improve their weaknesses. "It’s not enough to clear away the weeds," Seligman says. "If you want roses, you have to plant a rose."
[J] When a loved one dies or you lose your job, for example, it’s normal and healthy to mourn. You’re supposed to feel sad and even depressed. But you can’t put yourself in sadness for too long. A study by UCSF researchers of HIV-positive men whose partners had died found that the men who allowed themselves to grieve while also seeking to accept the death were better able to bounce back from the tragedy. Men who focused only on the loss as opposed to, say, viewing the death as a relief of their partner’s suffering, tended to grieve longer, presumably because they couldn’t find a way out of their sadness.
Smile in Your Profile Picture
[K] If all else fails, try "catching" happiness from your friends. We are social beings, of course, and our outlook is influenced to no small degree by that of our friends and family.
[L] Christakis and his colleague James Fowler at the University of California, San Diego, are now studying happiness infection in perhaps the largest social network of all, Facebook. They noticed that people who smiled in their Facebook profile pictures tended to have other friends who smiled. This might simply be peer pressure at work, with members feeling obliged to flash a smile to fit in with the rest of the group, but Christakis and Fowler are investigating whether there isn’t a more infectious phenomenon at work.
[M] If you still aren’t convinced that your negative ways can ever be changed, consider this: only about 25% of a person’s optimism cannot be changed in his genes, according to some studies. That’s in contrast to the 40% to 60% heritability(遗传可能性)of most other personality traits, like agreeableness and conscientiousness. Science suggests that the greater part of an optimistic outlook can be acquired with the right instruction—a theory borne out in a study of college freshmen by Seligman. Pessimistic students who took a 12-week optimism-training course devised by Seligman—which included exercises like writing a letter of gratitude then reading it aloud to someone—were less likely to visit the student health center for illnesses during the next four years than their similarly pessimistic peers who weren’t tutored in positive thinking. And a larger study of more than 3,000 middle-school students who are being taught recovery techniques is under way in England. "It’s the largest-scale validation(确认)that optimism can be taught," says Seligman, who developed the techniques used in the study.
[N] The thing about being optimistic, though, is that it takes hard work—and that’s a drag. It’s an active process, say psychologists, through which you force yourself to see your life a certain way. Indeed, the leading optimism and happiness experts consider themselves born pessimists. But if they have learned over time and with lots of practice to become more hopeful, take heart. So can you.
The latest studies found that pessimistic outlook may increase the risk of suffering mental diseases.
选项
答案
B
解析
根据latest,pessimistic outlook和mental diseases定位到B段。该段提到最近一项研究表明,悲观不仪增加焦虑感,同时还增加患上慢性精神疾病的风险。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/Xq97777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
A、It’snowtaughtwiththeaidofcomputers.B、Itisn’tconsideredasimportanttodayasitwasinthepast.C、Childrentodayle
A、Planningatrip.B、Reading.C、Sleeping.D、Doingresearch.C
A、Jackhasmadeotherswaitbefore.B、JackhasoftenhadtowaitforShelly.C、Jackenjoysplayingtrickswithothers.D、Jackdo
AutomationThetermautomationwascoinedaround1946bytheautomobileindustrytodescribetheincreaseduseofautomatic
A、Itcanbeusedtofightpains.B、Itcanbeusedtoreducehighbodytemperature.C、Itcanbeusedtohelpbloodpassthroughb
Racket,dinclamor,noise.Whateveryouwanttocallit,unwantedsoundisAmerica’smostwidespreadnuisance.Butnoiseismore
A、Tolearntorecognizeplantsandanimals.B、Tosetupatentandlearnhowtocookbyyourself.C、Togettoknowmoreaboutyo
Ingeneral,oursocietyisbecomingoneofgiantenterprisesdirectedbyabureaucraticmanagementinwhichmanbecomesasmall
没有哪个国家比中国对汽车更痴狂了(bonkers),这里新到达中产阶层(middle—class)的人们的梦想就是一辆闪闪发光的新汽车。但仅仅有汽车对这些渴望超越中产阶层的人们是不够的,牌照号(licenseplate)就成为与汽车一样能够象征身份和地位
中国正在收紧对房屋抵押贷款的限制,希望能够给房地产市场降温。中国房地产市场使得房价超出了大多数中国人的承受能力。政府表示,第一次买房需要支付的首付从20%提高到30%。购买第二套住房需支付的首付从40%上升到50%。政府禁止对购买第三套住房的人发放贷款。这
随机试题
祭祀祖宗在封建制度中占有非常重要的地位,其中皇帝祭祀祖先的宗庙称为()。
关于WAV文件,不正确的描述是()
C5神经根受累的表现不包括
A.平台杖B.腋杖C.肱三头肌支持型腋杖D.步行器E.前臂杖肘关节屈曲挛缩,不能伸直时选用
(2005年)三种平面应力状态如图所示(图中用n和s分别表示正应力和剪应力),它们之间的关系是()。
会计工作交接时,接替人员在交接时因疏忽没有发现所接会计资料在真实性、完整性方面的问题,如事后发现,则该问题应由()负责。
建立文职人员制度的标志是()。
下列对第三次科技革命推动了国际经济格局调整的叙述,不正确的是()。
《大清新刑律》废除的法律或者制度是()。
如图4—1,半圆ADB以C为圆心,半径为1,且CD⊥AB,分别延长BD和AD至E和F,使得圆弧AE和BF分别以B和A为圆心,则图中阴影部分的面积为().
最新回复
(
0
)