研究生英语精课程 unit1 课文和练习.docxVIP

You Are What You Think And if you change your mind—from pessimism to optimism—you can change your life Claipe Safran [ 1 ] Do you see the glass as half full rather than half empty? Do you keep your eye upon the doughnut, not upon the hole? Suddenly these clichés are scientific questions, as researchers scrutinize the power of positive thinking. [ 2 ] A fast-growing body of research—104 studies so far, involving some 15 000 people—is proving that optimism can help you to be happier, healthier and more successful. Pessimism leads, by contrast, to hopelessness, sickness and failure, and is linked to depression﹡, loneliness and painful shyness. If we could teach people to think more positively, says psychologist Craig A. Anderson of Rice University in Houston， [ 3 ] Your abilities count, explains psychologist Michael F. Scheier of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, but the belief that you can succeed affects whether or not you will. In part , thats because optimists and pessimists deal with the same challenges and disappointments in very different ways. [ 4 ] Take, for example, your job. In a major study, psychologist Martin E. P. Seligman of the University of [ 5 ] Impressed, the company hired 100 people who had failed the standard industry test but had scored high on optimism. These people, who might never have been hired, sold 10 percent more insurance than did the average representative. [ 6 ] How did they do it? The secret to an optimists success, according to Seligman, is in his explanatory style. When things go wrong the pessimist tends to blame himself. Im no good at this, he says, I always fail. The optimist looks for loopholes. He blames the weather, the phone connection, even the other person. That customer was in a bad mood, he thinks. When things go right, the optimist takes credit while the pessimist sees success as a fluke. [ 7 ] Craig Anderson had a group of students phone strangers and ask them to donate blood to the Red Cro