单选题 Anyone who doubts that children are born with a healthy amount of ambition need spend only a few minutes with a baby eagerly learning to walk or a headstrong toddler starting to talk. No matter how many times the little ones stumble in their initial efforts, most keep on trying, determined to master their amazing new skill. It is only several years later, around the start of middle or junior high school, many psychologists and teachers agree, that a good number of kids seem to lose their natural drive to succeed and end up joining the ranks of underachievers.
It’s not quite that simple. “Kids can be given the opportunities to become passionate about a subject or activity, but they can’t be forced, ” says Jacquelynne Eccles, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, who led a landmark, 25-year study examining what motivated first grade students in three school districts. Even so, a growing number of educators and psychologists do believe it is possible to unearth ambition in students who don’t seem to have much. They say that by instilling confidence, encouraging some risk taking, being accepting of failure and expanding the areas in which children may be successful, both parents and teachers can reignite that innate desire to achieve.
Figuring out why the fire went out is the first step. Assuming that a kid doesn’t suffer from an emotional or learning disability, or isn’t involved in some family crisis at home, many educators attribute a sudden lack of motivation to a fear of failure or peer pressure that conveys the message that doing well academically some how isn’t cool. “Kids get so caught up in the moment-to-moment issue of will they look smart or dumb, and it blocks them from thinking about the long term,” says Carol Dweck, a psychology professor at Stanford. “You have to teach them that they are in charge of their intellectual growth and that their intelligence is malleable. ”
Howard (a social psychologist and president of the Efficacy Institute, an organization that works with teachers and parents to help improve children’s academic performance) and other educators say it’s important to expose kids to a world beyond homework and tests, through volunteer work, sports, hobbies and other extracurricular activities. “The crux of the issue is that many students experience education as irrelevant to their life goals and ambitions, ” says Michael Nakkual, a Harvard education professor who runs a Boston-area mentoring program which works to get low-income underachievers in touch with their aspirations. The key to getting kids to aim higher at school is to disabuse them of the notion that classwork is irrelevant, to show them how doing well at school can actually help them fulfill their dreams beyond it. Like any ambitious toddler, they need to understand that you have to learn to walk before you can run.

单选题 What’s the main idea of the first paragraph?
[A] Children are born with plenty of ambition.
[B] A baby learns to walk and talk ambitiously.
[C] Ambition can be taught like other subjects at school.
[D] Some teenage children lose their drive to succeed.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[设题点] 首段首句
[解析] 主旨大意题。本题考查第一段的主要内容。一般来讲，段落的首句为本段的中心观点。文章首句就提到，“孩子天生就有很多抱负”，接下来又举例证明这一观点。很明显，[A]是对原文内容的重述。[B]是对首句的错误理解，属于望文生义。[C]不是首段的内容。[D]所述内容在文中只是用来衬托本段主题，而非主要表达的内容。所以，本题答案为[A]。
单选题 The students’ ambition to succeed may be hindered by
[A] stimulating them to build up self-confidence.
[B] cultivating the attitude of risk taking.
[C] enlarging the areas for children to succeed.
[D] making them understand their family crisis.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[设题点] 段尾复杂句
[解析] 事实细节题。本章中并没有直接提到阻碍学生成功的因素，而在第二段段尾提到了促使学生成功的一些方法：instilling confidence，encouraging some risk taking, expanding the areas in which children may be successful等正好与前三个选项对应，只有[D]没有提到。而第三段在分析孩子缺乏上进心的原因时提到，假如没有卷入家庭危机中…。综合来看，[D]是阻碍学生成功的因素。所以，本题答案为[D]。
单选题 What is the message that peer pressure conveys to children?
[A] A sudden lack of motivation is attributed to the student’s failure.
[B] Book knowledgeis not as important as practical experience.
[C] Looking smart is more important for young people at school.
[D] To achieve academic excellence should not be treated as the top priority.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[设题点] 定语从句处
[解析] 事实细节题。根据题干信息词peer pressure将答案定位在第三段第二句。that引导的定语从句对peer pressure进行了具体说明。doing well academically somehow isn’t cool意为“学习好并不是什么值得骄傲的事”，也就是同龄人都认为，学习不是他们应该首要追求的事。因此，[D]与文意相符。[A]表述的是专家的观点，不是学生传达的信息。[B]中的 practical experience没有在文中与book knowledge相比较，也不是同龄人传达的信息。[C]虽是原文内容，但不是对同龄人所传达的信息的准确表达。所以，[D]项为本题答案。
单选题 What does the expression “to disabuse them of the notion” (Line 7, Para. 4) mean?
[A] To free them of the idea.
[B] To help them understand the idea.
[C] To imbue them with the notion.
[D] To inform them of the concept.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[设题点] 观点总结处
[解析] 语义理解题。文章最后一段提到迈克尔的观点“问题的关键在于，许多孩子接受的教育与他们的人生目标和抱负无关”，也就是说，要解决问题，就要让学生们打消这个观点。所以，disabuse them of the notion就是“使他们打消…的观点”。[A]“让他们摆脱这种观点”正是原文的同义转述。所以，本题选[A]。
单选题 According to the text, which of the following is correct?
[A] Howard’s Istitute aims to help the students in Boston.
[B] Most of the students feel their classwork irrelevant to their ambitions.
[C] The students have to do some volunteer work as their homework.
[D] Michael is the president as well as a professor of the Efficacy institute.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[设题点] 尾段
[解析] 事实细节题。观察四个选项。[A]属于张冠李戴，辅导项目是Michael Nakkual的，不是Howard的。[B]所述内容与Michael Nakkual表达的内容相同，为本题答案。[C]项把volunteer work与homework的关系弄混淆了，志愿者工作并不是家庭作业的一部分。 [D]项属于张冠李戴，Michael是a Harvard education professor，Howard才是Efficacy Institute的president。所以，本题答案为[B]。