单选题
To understand why someone becomes an optimist or a pessimist, it helps to understand what distinguishes them. Say you crash your car. Do you expect good things to happen after the accident ― an easy recuperation(挽回损失), a fat check from your insurer? Or do you worry that your neck will hurt forever?
"Optimistic people tend to feel that bad things won''t last long and won''t affect other parts of life," Seligman says. Pessimists tend to believe one negative incident will last and undermine every- thing else in their lives.
Also important, researchers say, is the story you construct about why things happen -- your explanatory style. Optimists believe that bad events have temporary causes ― "The boss is in a bad mood." Pessimists believe the cause is permanent ― "The boss is a jerk."
This sense of control distinguishes one type from the other. Positive thinkers feel powerful. Negative thinkers, Seligman says, feel helpless because they have learned to believe they''re doomed, no matter what. A young wife who''s told she''s incapable of handling household finances might later become a divorce woman who can''t balance a checkbook.
Such learned helplessness causes much harm on health. Studies show that optimists are better at coping with the distress associated with everything from sore throat to heart surgery. Furthermore, scientists at U. C. L. A. discovered that optimists have more disease fighting T cells.
Pessimists also don''t believe in preventive care. Visit a doctor and you might find out you''re sick! My father was rushed to the emergency room for medical conditions that would have been easily treatable if he''d seen a doctor sooner.
单选题
The word "undermine" ( Para. 2 ) most probably means________.