大学英语四六级考试阅读提高的练习（3）

　　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 , a fat check from your insurer? Or do you worry that your neck will hurt forever?

　　Optimistic people tend to feel that bad things wont last long and wont affect other parts of life, .Seligman says. Pessimists tend to believe one negative incident will last and undermine everything 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 theyre doomed, no matter what. A young wife whos told shes incapable of handling household finances might later become a divorce

　　woman who cant 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 dont believe in preventive care. Visit a doctor and you might find out youre sick! My father was rushed to the emergency room for medical conditions that would have been easily treatable if hed seen a doctor sooner.

　　21. The word undermine most probably means

　　A. go below B. weaken

　　C. affect D. destroy 2-2. The boss is a jerk. These words are used here to show______.

　　A. how some bosses act displeasingly

　　B. how optimists explain some bad events

　　C. how pessimists think about the unhappy things around them

　　D. how the writer suggests people should do when facing something unpleasant

　　23. The example given about a young wife shows that______.

　　A. the dividing line between optimists and pessimists

　　B. young women today suffer a lot in doing housework

　　C. most of young wives are pessimists

　　D. the pessimists are used to thinking of everything negatively

　　24. Which of the following statements is TRUE of my father ?

　　A. My father was an optimist.

　　B. My father didnt like to take any preventive measures.

　　C. My father often visited doctors.

　　D. My father was wise enough to mind his own health.

　　25. It can be inferred from the passage that Seliman should be______.

　　A. an optimist B. a pessimist

　　C. a psychologist D. the writer of this passage