A person may have an idea about himself that will prevent him from doing good work..
He may have the idea that he is not capable of it. It is easy to get such an idea even though there is no justification for it. A child may think he is stupid because he does not understand how to take the most of his mental faculties, or he may accept another person s mistaken estimate of his ability. Older people may be handicapped by the mistaken belief that they are incapable of learning anything new because of their age.
A person who believes that he is incapable will not make a real effort, because he feels that it would be useless. He won’t go at a job with the confidence necessary for success, and he won’t work hardest, even though he may think he is doing so. He is therefore likely to fail, and the failure will strengthen his belief in his incompetence.
Alfred Adler, a famous psychiatrist（精神病医生）, had an experience which illustrates this. When he was a small boy he got off to a poor start in arithmetic. His teacher got the idea that he had no ability in arithmetic, and told his parents what she thought in order that they would not expect too much of him. In this way, they too developed the idea, "Isn’t it too bad that Alfred can’t do arithmetic?" He accepted their mistaken estimate of his ability, felt that it was useless to try, and was very poor at arithmetic, just as they expected.
One day he became very angry at the teacher and other students because they laughed when he said he saw how to do a problem which none of the other students had been able to solve.
Adler succeeded in solving a problem. This gave him confidence. He rejected the idea that he couldn’t do arithmetic and was determined to show them that he could. His anger and his new found confidence stimulated him to be at arithmetic problems with a new spirit. He now worked with interest, determination, and purpose, and he soon became extraordinarily good at arithmetic. He not only proved that he could do arithmetic, but he learned early in life from his own experience that , if a person goes at a job with determination and purpose, he may astonish himself as well as others by his ability.
This experience made him realize that many people have more ability than they think they have. And that lack of success is as often the result of lack of knowledge of how to apply one’s ability, lack of confidence, and lack of determination as it is the result of lack of ability.
小题1:The underlined word “justification” most probably means ________.
A．reason
B．rightness
C．need
D．demand小题2:What is the main idea of this passage?
A．The basic principles in doing math problems.
B．Our idea about ourselves may have a negative influence on our work.
C．Our ideas do not always have and influence on us.
D．All actions are caused by impulse.小题3:What does Alfred Adler’s story tell us?
A．Many people have more ability than they think they have.
B．Anybody can become a mathematician, if he has determination.
C．Arithmetic is actually very easy.
D．Most teachers are wrong when they evaluator their students.小题4:Why did he become angry one day?
A．Because the teacher and other students laughed at him.
B．Because they challenged him to do a difficult arithmetic problem.
C．Because he couldn’t solve the arithmetic problem.
D．Because he was very poor at arithmetic.小题5:What idea did Alfred’s teacher have?
A．He was slow in arithmetic.
B．He should work harder.
C．He should be transferred to a special school.
D．He should not tell his parents that he was slow.
