We often talk about ourselves as if we have permanent genetic defects （缺陷） that can never be changed. “I’m impatient.” “I’m always behind.” “I always put things   36  !” You’ve surely heard them. Maybe you’ve used them to describe  37  .
These comments may come from stories about us that have been  38  for years—often from  39  childhood. These stories may have no  40   in fact. But they can set low expectations for us. As a child, my mother said to me, “Marshall, you have no mechanical （操作机械的） skills, and you will never have any mechanical skills for the rest of your life.” How did these expectations  41  my development? I was never  42  to work on cars or be around  43  . When I was 18, I took the US Army’s Mechanical Aptitude Test. My scores were in the bottom for the entire nation!
Six years later,    44  , I was at California University, working on my doctor’s degree. One of my professors, Dr. Bob Tannbaum, asked me to write down things I did well and things I couldn’t do. On the positive side, I 45  down, “research, writing, analysis, and speaking.”  On the  46  side, I wrote, “I have no mechanical skills.”
Bob asked me how I knew I had no mechanical skills. I explained my life  47   and told him about my 48  performance on the Army test. Bob then asked, “  49  is it that you can solve  50  mathematical problems, but you can’t solve simple mechanical problems?”
Suddenly I realized that I didn’t  51  from some sort of genetic defect. I was just living out expectations that I had chosen to  52  . At that point, it wasn’t just my family and friends who had been  53   my belief that I was mechanically hopeless. And it wasn’t just the Army test, either. I was the one who kept telling myself, “You can’t do this!” I realized that as long as I kept saying that, it was going to remain true.  54  , if we don’t treat ourselves as if we have incurable genetic defects, we can do well in almost  55  we choose.

A．away B．down C．up D．off

A．yourself B．myself C．them D．others

A．said B．repeated C．spread D．spoken

A．as long as B．as much as C．as well as D．as far back as

A．cause B．plot C．basis D．meaning

A．affect B．improve C．lead D．change

A．means B．hammers C．facilities D．tools

A．therefore B．however C．instead D．somehow

A．took B．turned C．settled D．got

A．negative B．active D．subjective

A．roads B．trips D．paths

A．unexpected B．average C．excellent D．poor

A．When B．Why C．How D．What

A．common B．advanced C．complex D．primary

A．suffer B．separate C．arise D．come

A．adopt B．suspect C．believe D．receive

A．weakening B．accepting C．abandoning D．strengthening

A．As a result B．On the contrary C．In addition D．At the same time

A．nothing B．something C．anything D．all